The Secretary of State for Transport, The Rt Hon Mark Harper MP, has written to licensing authorities to confirm the creation of the National Register for Revocations, Refusals and Suspensions (NR3S) expanding the scope of NR3 hosted by the National Anti-Fraud Network.

In his letter, dated 28 February 2023, Mr Harper wrote:

"On 31 March 2022, the Taxis and Private Hire Vehicles (Safeguarding and Road Safety) Act 2022 received Royal Assent. The Act places duties on licensing authorities to improve information-sharing regarding taxi and private hire vehicle drivers. Some of the duties came into force on 31 May 2022. My department has been working to bring the remaining duties which require licensing authorities to use a licensing information database to record refusals, suspensions and revocations of taxi and private hire vehicle driver licences into force. The Act enables me to either provide the database or to designate a person to do so. 

"I am pleased to announce that my department has reached an agreement to designate the National Anti-Fraud Network as the database provider under Section 4(1)(a) of the Act. The National Anti-Fraud Network’s database, the National Register for Revocations, Refusals and Suspensions (NR3S), has been in use successfully for several years and use of it is recommended in the Statutory Taxi and Private Hire Vehicle Standards which licensing authorities must have regard to. As a result, the vast majority of licensing authorities, including your own, already have access to the NR3S."

Remaining provisions to commence on 27 April 2023

Mr Harper also confirmed that he intends to commence the remaining provisions of the Act on 27 April 2023.

He said the delay is "..to give those final few authorities who do not currently have access to the NR3S time to put the appropriate processes in place. When the remaining duties on licensing authorities come into force, all licensing authorities will be required to use the NR3S to record taxi and private hire vehicle driver licences that have been refused, suspended or revoked for safeguarding or road safety reasons. The statutory guidance issued to licensing authorities in May 2022 to support them in complying with the Act will be updated to reflect these new duties."

NB: Currently applicable to England only.