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Two Worcester taxi licences revoked as enforcement checks report uncover repeated breaches
- Perry Richardson
- 2 hours ago
- 2 min read
Two taxi and private hire driver licences have been revoked in Worcester during 2026 following separate reports involving domestic violence and drug or alcohol misuse.
Worcestershire Regulatory Services (WRS), which administers and enforces taxi licensing on behalf of Worcester City Council, used delegated powers to revoke both dual hackney carriage and private hire driver licences.
A compliance report prepared for the council’s Licensing and Environmental Health Committee said one revocation followed “a formal report from West Mercia Police of an incident of domestic violence”. The second was attributed to “drug/alcohol misuse”.
Three further drivers were suspended by the Licensing Sub-Committee after failing to submit Disclosure and Barring Service checks within the required period. The action was taken in line with the council’s taxi licensing policy.
Officers have also conducted daytime rank inspections and checks across several weekends during 2026. The report said recurring behaviour continued to be recorded around Foregate Street, despite weekend activity in the city being relatively quiet over the summer.
Warning letters and emails were issued over drivers failing to wear badges, parking or driving in prohibited areas, over-ranking and defective vehicle lights. During one operation, officers also found an unlicensed public service vehicle operating as a taxi.
Penalty points were issued on four occasions. The cases covered two incidents of over-ranking and two breaches of licensing conditions, with one of the drivers found displaying a rear licence plate inside the vehicle’s back window.
WRS officers have undertaken joint operations with West Mercia Police and City of Wolverhampton Council. Wolverhampton licensing officers have also carried out independent checks in Worcester following requests from taxi drivers, reflecting the presence of vehicles licensed outside the city.
The report shows Worcester had 220 licensed hackney carriage vehicles in 2025/26, compared with 245 in 2023/24 and 263 in 2017/18. That represents a fall of around 16% across the period covered by the figures.
Private hire vehicle numbers stood at 59, down from 68 in 2023/24 and 63 in 2017/18. The number of dual hackney carriage and private hire drivers fell from 370 in 2017/18 to 313 in 2025/26.
By contrast, the number of private hire operators increased to 19, up from 15 in 2023/24 and almost double the 10 recorded in 2017/18. Worcester also had 18 private hire-only drivers, unchanged from 2023/24.
The Licensing and Environmental Health Committee is being asked to note the compliance and enforcement report at its meeting on 7 September 2026.
