The Department for Transport has written to licensing authorities setting a definitive deadline for implementation of the statutory guidance.

In the letter, Baroness Vere of Norbiton, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Transport wrote:

"I would like to thank you and your teams for completing the survey issued by my Department in January to assess the progress in considering and implementing measures set out in the Statutory Taxi and Private Hire Vehicle Standards published in July 2020.

"Authorities have overall made significant progress despite the challenges we have all faced in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic...based on the responses from other authorities our view is that the review should be completed before 31 December 2021, so that any changes to policies can be in place as soon as possible in 2022."

She concluded by saying that if any licensing authority is unable to meet the timeline, officials from the Department can provide support.