Taxis

Mr. Harper
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what assessment he has made of the effects on other aspects of the transport system of the provision of accessible taxis.

Paul Clark
The Impact Assessment in the recently published consultation ‘Improving Access to Taxis' assesses costs and issues in relation to accessible taxis, as well as the taxi trade, customers and local authorities. The impacts on the wider transport system have not been assessed.

Mr. Harper
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what progress has been made on (a) guidance on and (b) regulations for local authority licensing of accessible taxis.

Paul Clark
The Department for Transport is currently consulting on this issue. The consultation document ‘Improving Access to Taxis' was published on 2 February 2009 and explores the ways of improving access to taxis by disabled people.