Recommendation SP5: Taxi company and school safeguarding arrangements
From The Southport Inquiry Report: Phase 1, published 13 April 2026.
Recommendation
The Department for Transport should ensure that local authorities establish effective arrangements between licensed taxi companies and schools. These should enable school safeguarding teams to access taxi booking information where relevant to a legitimate safeguarding or risk concern relating to a child who should be at school.
In brief (written by this site)
In July 2026, HM Government stated that the Department for Transport partially accepted the recommendation and expected to complete significant elements by mid-2027 (Home Office response, Jul 2026). It stated that the department would work with other bodies to develop guidance on sharing booking data by mid-2027 and bring forward a draft bill for pre-legislative scrutiny, though full delivery remains subject to future primary legislation when parliamentary time allows (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 significant elements of this recommendation by mid-2027, while the draft bill is subject to parliamentary timings. Progress and next steps:
- DfT will work with Department for Education (DfE) and the Information Commissioner's Office to develop guidance on sharing of booking data between schools and private hire vehicle operators, which we expect to publish by mid-2027.
- The draft Taxi and Private Hire Vehicle Bill will be brought forward for pre-legislative scrutiny during this Parliamentary session.
- The draft Bill provides an opportunity to consider the full delivery of this recommendation through future primary legislation when parliamentary time allows.
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