FOI release

Licensed Private Hire Vehicles and Hackney Carriages

Case reference FOI2026/01505

Received 11 September 2026

Published 5 October 2026

Last amended 5 October 2026

Request

Freedom of Information Request - Licensed Private Hire Vehicles and Hackney Carriages

I am writing to make an official request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. I would like to request details of all private hire vehicles and hackney carriages currently licensed by your council.

Specifically, I request that the following information be provided in an Excel spreadsheet:

· Licence number

· Vehicle registration number

· Vehicle Identification Number (VIN), if available

· Vehicle make

· Vehicle model

· Licence type

· Licence start date

· Licence end date

· Colour

Response

Our Taxi and Private Hire Public Register documents can be accessed here TWBC website. Licence numbers can be taken from these documents and searched for on the Public Access.

Following guidance from the Information Commissioners Office, vehicle registration numbers are now deemed to be sensitive information. Therefore, this information has been removed from our Public Registers and will not be provided under Freedom of Information requests. Section 40(2) of the FOIA states that information is exempt from disclosure if it constitutes the personal data of a third party and its disclosure would breach any of the data protection principles under the Data Protection Act 2018.

We consider that disclosure of the vehicle registration numbers would contravene the first data principle that 'personal data shall be processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner in relation to the data subjects'. As such, we believe that releasing this information would risk identifying the individuals concerned and would therefore be unlawful.

Section40(2) is an absolute exemption, meaning it is not subject to the public interest test. Accordingly, we are withholding the information.

Documents

There are no documents for this release.

This is Tunbridge Wells Borough Council's response to a freedom of information (FOI) or environmental information regulations (EIR) request.