How safe are you in a local taxi?

During the high profile trial last year of an organised ring of taxi drivers who exploited vulnerable girls and used them for sex over several years, Rochdale Online submitted a Freedom of Information request to Rochdale Borough Council asking how many licensed taxi drivers have convictions for serious violence, the Council refused to divulge the information.

In a written response to the FOI request a spokesman said: "I can confirm that we do hold the information which you have requested (i.e. the number of licensed taxi drivers with convictions for serious violence), however, please be advised that to supply the information that you have requested, it is unfortunately estimated to exceed the statutory time limit of 18 hours to respond to your request for information. It is estimated to take more than 18 hours to determine, locate, retrieve and extract the information. This request is therefore refused under Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000."

Rochdale Online questioned how long it would take, given a database search would not take anything like 18 hours, astonishingly the Council revealed the records are not held on computer... the Council said: "The details of convictions held by licensed drivers are held on hard copy records."

Having given the council nine months, during which time it is reasonable to expect the Council would computerise the records given the conviction of the ring of paedophile taxi drivers and the need to be able to quickly and easily access information regarding licensed taxi drivers, we recently asked the question again and the response from the Council was: "I can confirm that the position is still the same as expressed below in March 2012."

"The details of convictions held by licensed drivers are held on hard copy records."