DfT's national minimum standards: what is changing for private hire operators in 2026

For years the answer to "what does a private hire licence require?" in England has been "it depends which council you ask". That is about to change, but less has changed so far than the headlines suggest. This is a plain reading of where things stand, with the sources linked so you can check them yourself. It is not legal advice.

What is now law

The English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act 2026 received Royal Assent on 29 April 2026. Part 3, Chapter 6 of the Act deals with the licensing of taxis and private hire vehicles, in sections 70 to 86. The taxi provisions were not in the original Bill; the government announced them as an amendment on 27 November 2025, after the Bill had been debated in Parliament two days earlier.

The chapter does three things. Sections 70 to 75 give the Secretary of State the power to set national standards for what the Act calls a "regulated licence": standards for granting a licence, for suspending or revoking one, and for renewing one, plus a duty on authorities to report concerns about drivers licensed elsewhere. Sections 76 to 82 create a power to suspend a licence temporarily and provide for enforcement officers, with sections on notices, appeals and compensation. Sections 83 to 86 cover guidance, how the new rules sit with existing licensing legislation, and regulations.

The word that matters is power. The Act lets the Secretary of State make standards. It does not itself say what a DBS check, a medical or a vehicle inspection must look like. The government said in November 2025 that the standards would be "primarily focused on passenger safety and accessibility" and that all drivers, vehicles and operators would become subject to checks and requirements on those two themes. The detail is to come through consultation and then regulations.

What is still consultation

Two separate things are in play, and they get muddled together.

The first is the content of the standards themselves. On 4 December 2025 the Secretary of State confirmed that the government would press ahead with national minimum standards, subject to consultation. As of the date on this post, that consultation has not been published. Until it is, any list you read of exactly what the standards will require is a prediction.

The second is who issues licences. On 8 January 2026 the Department for Transport opened a consultation on moving taxi and private hire licensing to local transport authorities, which would cut the number of licensing bodies in England from 263 to 70. Greater Manchester, for example, would go from ten licensing authorities to one. The stated aim is to reduce out-of-area working, where a driver licensed by one council works mainly in another. London is excluded because Transport for London already licenses the whole city. The consultation closed on 1 April 2026 and the page still says a summary of responses and next steps will follow "in due course". The accompanying announcement gave no implementation date.

So the honest position in late August 2026 is: the legal framework exists, the standards are not yet written, and the reorganisation of licensing authorities is proposed but not decided.

Why this matters more for chauffeur work than for taxis

Chauffeur operators are the ones most exposed to the cross-border side of this. A pre-booked executive fleet routinely does airport runs, event work and multi-day hires across several council areas, and often across the country. Under the current system that is lawful for a private hire operator who takes the booking in their licensing area, but it is exactly the pattern the out-of-area proposals are aimed at.

Section 75 of the Act, the duty to report concerns about drivers licensed in other areas, and the new temporary suspension power in section 76 both assume that authorities can see who is working on their patch. That places a premium on being able to show, for any job, which licensed driver drove it, in which licensed vehicle, on which operator's booking. If your records only hold a driver's first name and a vehicle class, that evidence is hard to produce.

A short checklist for now

1. Record the licence number, issuing authority and expiry date for every driver and every vehicle, not just the ones on the office wall.
2. Make sure each completed job carries the driver and the registration that actually did it, including subcontracted work.
3. Read your current licensing authority's policy on out-of-area working and keep a copy dated. The proposals compare the future against it.
4. Watch for the DfT consultation on the standards themselves. Operators can respond; the trade bodies will, and the small operator's voice is usually the one missing.
5. Diary the licensing-authority consultation response. If Greater Manchester or your equivalent becomes one authority, your renewal process will change.

Kairo keeps the driver, vehicle and booking on one job record, so the evidence in point two exists as a by-product of dispatch rather than as a separate compliance file. The security page covers how that data is held. Operators moving from an older system can see what an import carries across on the switching page, or read how that compares with Dever and Limo Anywhere.

If you want your records straightened out before the standards land, the founding pilot is the route to a written migration scope. If you would rather look first, open a free trial and see what the job record holds.