Recommendation SP4: Taxi driver duty to report criminal activity
From The Southport Inquiry Report: Phase 1, published 13 April 2026.
Recommendation
The Department for Transport should require local authorities to ensure that all licensed taxi drivers have a clear duty promptly to report any significant criminal activity they witness while working. This duty should form part of mandatory training, and a failure to report such activity, subject to individual circumstances, should place the driver’s licence at risk. Local authorities should implement practical measures to ensure that drivers have read, understood and acknowledged this requirement.
In brief (written by this site)
In July 2026, HM Government stated that the Department for Transport expected to complete implementation by late 2027 through National Standards introduced by secondary legislation (Home Office response, Jul 2026). It reported that this legislation is expected to be laid in 2027 subject to public consultation, followed by familiarisation and adoption periods (Home Office response, Jul 2026). The record holds no update since the government's response of July 2026 (Home Office response, Jul 2026).
Sources
AI-generated summary of the record on this page, checked by a second model and automatic checks, 26 Sep 2026. The record below is the sources' own words.
Government response
The Department for Transport (DfT) is the lead department and expects to complete implementation of this recommendation by late 2027. Progress and next steps:
- National Standards will be introduced through secondary legislation.
- Secondary legislation setting the National Standards is expected to be laid in 2027, subject to public consultation.
- Implementation is likely to include familiarisation and adoption periods.
Blanket government agreement does not establish acceptance or delivery by each addressee. Some response passages cover groups of recommendations.
Scope of the government response
The government's response to Phase 1 (CP 1623, 2 July 2026) agreed with all 67 recommendations in one sentence, and names only 39 of them individually. Where a recommendation is not named, the response shown is the passage the response gives for the group it belongs to (the recommendations for organisations outside central government, or the recommendations to policing bodies), which is not a response to that recommendation alone; the response does not list the members of any group. The 10 recommendations for Phase 2 of the Inquiry to consider show no response: the response introduces them (paragraph 20) but answers none of them. The government accepts the recommendations that are for central government to deliver. Where a recommendation is for an organisation outside central government, the government's agreement is not that organisation's acceptance.
Delivery
No statement on delivery from Department for Transport has been found in the sources searched (last checked 2 July 2026). This is separate from the response above.
Responsible bodies
Themes and tags
Who has spoken
- Department for Transport
Response