Milton Keynes City Council became a White Ribbon Council in November 2022. This status shows our commitment to the White Ribbon campaign to protect and support women and girls from abusive and violent behaviour.
This Council notes that:
- Milton Keynes City Council became a White Ribbon Council in November 2022. This status shows our commitment to the White Ribbon campaign to protect and support women and girls from abusive and violent behaviour by men and boys. In gaining this accreditation we, the Council, sought to spread the support to all departments and sections of our Council and beyond, into our community.
- Milton Keynes City Council currently licenses approximately 1,500 drivers to provide Private Hire and Hackney Carriage services. Once a license is acquired, a driver may operate anywhere in England, provided they are licensed with an operator in a corresponding local authority area.
- A large proportion of drivers operating within the city boundaries are licensed by other Councils, as a result Milton Keynes City Council operates a more proactive stance regarding compliance and safety auditing, which is funded by higher licence fees.
- At present all MKCC drivers are fit and proper persons, (meeting the required local standards as set out within our policy), and undertake safeguarding training to ensure they have a better understanding of the abuse suffered by children and vulnerable adults prior to obtaining their licence. Whilst remaining within the statutory licensing procedures, at present this training does not address the issues raised by White Ribbon.
- MKCC receives a high proportion of complaints from women in regard to inappropriate behaviour or language by taxi drivers towards female passengers.
- That other councils such as Newcastle are already promoting White Ribbon to taxi operators, door security, bar staff and other licenced facilities.
This Council resolves to:
- Ensure that all new applicants and license holders understand that verbal, physical and emotional abuse is not tolerated;
- Encourage all those experiencing abuse to report this to the Council;
- Ask officers to make appropriate arrangements (in consultation with relevant Portfolio holder and Regulatory committee chair) to revise the Council’s Taxi Licensing Policy to include education about domestic abuse into existing mandatory safeguarding and equality training for drivers, completion of which is recorded.
- Invite all those Private Hire and Hackney Carriage drivers licenced by Milton Keynes City Council to become White Ribbon ambassadors and display the White Ribbon;
- Encourage Operators to promote White Ribbon with their drivers, regardless of the origin of their licence; and
- Ask the Portfolio holder and Regulatory Committee Chair to write to TFL and local authorities whose vehicles operate in Milton Keynes, to ask that they consider taking a similar approach.