All applicants must ensure that they have read the Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Licensing Policy before submitting an application.
How to apply for a driver licence
What you need to include in your application
Fill out the above driver licence application form and provide the following documents:
- a recent colour passport photo
- copy of a full UK DVLA driving licence: must have been held for at least 3 years before the date of application
If your driving licence was originally issued outside the UK and you’ve exchanged it for a UK DVLA licence, you’ll need to provide written confirmation of the date your UK licence was first issued, especially if the issue date is less than 3 years ago (for example, if you’ve had a duplicate issued).
Without this confirmation, your application will be rejected.
- DVLA share code: we will consider penalty points and driving offences
Do not push the "Print or Save a driving summary", instead please take a screenshot to submit with your application.
- Advanced driving standards test: must be no older than 12 months since the date of application This can be completed with any of the below providers. If you have undertaken a course with another provider, please contact us to confirm if the course meets our requirements:
- Safeguarding and disability awareness training: must be no older than 12 months since the date of application. Blue Lamp Trust offer approved training for safeguarding and this must be the “virtual classroom course” plus you must take the separate disability awareness course. The e-learning course is not accepted. STC Safeguarding offer an approved virtual classroom course which combines safeguarding and disability awareness.
- From 26th October 2026, Safe4Transport have been contracted to provide the Competency Test for drivers. All new applicants for a Private Hire or Hackney Carriage Driver Licence are required to submit a valid Competency Certificate issued by Safe4Transport with their application. Safe4Transport have produced a training course which is classroom based and covers Safeguarding, Disability Awareness, Equality and Diversity, and Driver Rules, Regulations, and Bylaws. all applicants will complete their Competency Test at the end of the training day.
Whilst you may still obtain an approved Safeguarding and/or disability awareness course from another approved provider listed on our website, you will still have to complete the Safe4Transport course and competency test to be issued a licence. In addition, applicants who have applied for a driver licence before 26th October 2026 and have attended and failed the Council-run competency test will be able to resit the same test with Safe4Transport. We will email you directly and provide a link to book your resit. - 2 forms of proof of address, such as:
- Credit card, bank, or benefit statement (less than 3 months old)
- Utility bill (not mobile phone bill) (less than 3 months old)
- Council tax or Mortgage statement (less than 12 months old)
- P60 or P45 statement (less than 12 months old)
- an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) certificate. You can apply for a DBS, using ENHAP34383 as the application reference.
- confirmation of subscription to the DBS Update Service
- if you have lived outside of the UK for 3 months or longer in the last 5 years you will be required to submit an overseas record check. This must be authenticated by the embassy of each country of residence involved and must be translated into English
- evidence of right to work and remain in the United Kingdom, such as a UK or Irish Passport or Birth Certificate, otherwise a right to work check code can be provided
- evidence of medical fitness to drive. A Group 2 medical assessment and medical form [PDF, 10MB] which must be completed by a registered medical practitioner who has access to the applicant’s full medical records (for example, own GP) and licensed to practice in the UK. The medical assessment must be no older than 3 months at the time you submit your application.
If you cannot provide all the required documentation, your application will not be accepted.
About your enhanced DBS certificate
To apply, you must be subscribed to the DBS Update Service.
You have 30 days from the date on your DBS certificate to register it.
You must keep your subscription active for the entire duration of your licence.
If you don’t subscribe or let it expire, your application will be rejected, or your licence will be suspended.
We are aware that a very small minority of applicants are unable to subscribe to the Update Service. In this case, before submitting an application, please contact us, and explain why you are unable to subscribe, together with written confirmation from the Disclosure and Barring Service.
Important changes to the Disclosure and Barring Service Process
An enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) certificate must be provided. This certificate must be for "Taxi Driver – Other Workforce".
You can apply for a DBS using ENHAP34383 as the application reference with our new provider, TaxiPlus. TaxiPlus will also guide you to applying for your DBS Update Service subscription. We need evidence of both your certificate and update service subscription with your application, otherwise your application will be rejected.
Fees
- Apply for a new Hackney Carriage/ Private Hire Driver Licence - an application for the Grant of a New Driver Licence will not require immediate payment of the application fee. On receipt of your application, once this has been deemed valid, you will receive a payment link to submit the application fee. The application fee of £290 must be paid within 48 hours or your application will be rejected.
- Replacement badge - £22
- Enhanced DBS Check - £38
- Competency Re-take - £45
Next steps
Once your application has been received, we will be in contact with you within 28 working days.
Once your application has been validated, you will be invited to attend SCDC to undertake a competency test, and to bring all the required documents to validate your identity.
If, without reasonable excuse, you do not attend the test, or fail to cancel at least 24 hours before the test date, then this will count as a Fail.
You should aim to have passed the Competency Test within 2 months of your application being validated'. Your first Competency Test is included in the application fee, however if you fail this, the 2 subsequent attempts will be charged at £45 per test.
Once the test has been passed, and all documents validated, your licence will be granted, the licence will be issued via email, and we will let you know when your badge is ready to collect from our offices. This can take up to 5 working days.