WHY ARE SOME PRIVATE HIRE DRIVERS EXEMPT FROM DBS (CRB)

This cannot be allowed to continue.

Asylum Seekers and Refugees looking to become Minicab drivers are exempt from the usual DBS checks.

On Transport for London's Private Hire application form, asylum seekers and refugees are not obliged to have their Criminal Records checked.

Someone living here for six months, may only have a DBS check for that period.

Tfl state, with regard to overseas criminal records checks, no such checks will be made in respect of those applicants who declare that they are in possession of or who have applied for refugee or asylum status.

Why? Because it might put the applicant at risk, if they are sent home.

I can understand that.

But surely that means the applicant cannot fulfill the criteria needed to become a Private Hire driver.

While the authorities are looking after the safety of the Asylum Seeker or Refugee, they are not looking after our wives and daughters.

MP Nick de Bois said: "They should not be offering licences to those they can't check on.
They could be putting vulnerable members of the public in the hands of thieves, murderers and rapists. It beggars belief."

The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks the applicant's background.

If the DBS cannot prove that the applicant is a fit and proper person, then that person should not be awarded a Private Hire License.

Lawrence Webb, UKIP candidate, said: "No one should be issued with a minicab license unless they have first undergone a criminal records check.
If that prevents foreign nationals from driving a cab, so be it."

Let us not forget, Minicab drivers were involved in the Rotherham Child Sex Scandal, ferrying victims around to be abused.

The onus should be upon the applicant to prove their fitness.

If the applicant cannot prove a criminal free history for at least five years, they should not be given a Private Hire License until they can prove that they are crime free for that period.

This is the standard time people with minor criminal records are expected to stay 'clean', until they can apply for a license.

Asylum Seekers are banned from working until their claim for asylum has been approved.

So why are TfL offering them a license to work?

Let us not forget that a Minicab driver will, at some point, be alone with a child, a vulnerable person, or and inebriated person, during the course of their working day.

Of the two, which is the worst scenario?

a) Someone may not become a Minicab driver for five years.

b) A girl is raped in a Minicab on her way home.