2026 taxi and PHV statistics: what licensing officers need to know on accessibility and safeguarding

The Department for Transport (DfT) has published its annual taxi and private hire vehicle (PHV) statistics for England, and this article looks at what the release means for taxi and PHV accessibility and safeguarding, the two areas of most direct relevance to licensing officers. Compiled from survey returns submitted by licensing authorities across England as at 1 April 2026, the release also sets out figures on licensed vehicles, driver licences and PHV operators, covered in IoL’s initial notice of the release.

As at 1 April 2026, England had 52,300 licensed taxis, a decrease of 7% since 2024, and 290,000 licensed PHVs, an increase of 13%. Driver licences reached 417,300, up 9% on 2024, while the number of wheelchair accessible licensed taxis and PHVs fell by 4% to 34,500. PHV operator licences rose by 17% to 19,000.

For licensing officers, two areas of the release stand out.

Accessibility. Overall, 10% of all licensed taxis and PHVs were wheelchair accessible, made up of 54% of taxis but only 2% of PHVs. Seven licensing authorities had no wheelchair accessible taxis or PHVs at all, while Worcester recorded the highest proportion, at 71.3%. The proportion of authorities requiring disability awareness training rose to 76% for taxi drivers and 74% for PHV drivers, up from 67% and 65% respectively in 2024. Under section 167 of the Equality Act 2010, licensing authorities must maintain and publish lists of wheelchair accessible vehicles; 98% did so for taxis and 94% for PHVs.

Safeguarding. Some 97% of taxi licensing authorities and 97% of PHV licensing authorities required drivers to complete child sexual abuse or child sexual exploitation awareness training, and 78% required additional county lines training on top of this. All licensing authorities in England required an enhanced DBS check, including the barred list check, for taxi and PHV drivers. CCTV requirements remain far less common than training or DBS checks: 9% of licensing authorities required CCTV to be fitted in licensed taxis, up from 8% in 2024, and 9% required it in PHVs, up from 7%. Some 99% of authorities without a mandatory requirement still permit CCTV to be fitted voluntarily, and only one authority prohibits it in either vehicle type. Use of the National Register of Refusals, Revocations and Suspensions, mandatory in England since 27 April 2023, recorded 245,200 searches and 12,200 entries between 1 April 2025 and 31 March 2026. DfT classifies these NR3S figures as management information rather than official statistics, and has proposed ceasing publication of the underlying data table in future releases, inviting feedback from users at localtransport.statistics@dft.gov.uk before any decision is made. Licensing authorities that rely on this data may wish to respond directly.

DfT also repeated its established caution that licensed vehicle numbers reflect where a vehicle is licensed rather than where it operates, given the continued practice of out of area working, and advised care when comparing licensing rates between authorities. The scale of this effect is illustrated by Wolverhampton, which licensed 135.4 vehicles per 1,000 population as at 1 April 2026, more than four times the next highest authority, Knowsley, at 31.5. Wolverhampton’s total is driven almost entirely by around 38,000 licensed PHVs against roughly 100 taxis, meaning the authority alone accounted for 13.1% of all PHVs licensed in England. This regional concentration reflects a wider pattern: PHV numbers outside London rose by 20% to 196,600 in 2026, while London’s PHV total grew by just 1% to 93,300, and London’s taxi fleet fell by 7% to 13,700, in line with the national trend.

The full release, including data tables for individual licensing authorities and figures for Wales, is available from the Department for Transport. The next taxi and PHV statistics release is due in summer 2027.

IoL’s initial notice of this release, covering the national headline figures, is available on the network news page.