From 1 October, councils follow a new Home Office guide when they check whether a person can hold a taxi or private hire licence. The ban on licensing someone with no right to do the work is already law. It has applied since 1 December 2016. This guide replaces the edition of 6 August 2025. Home Office guidance
Who is checked
The check is on an individual applicant for a taxi or private hire driver licence, or for an operator licence. In Scotland the operator licence is a booking office licence. It covers every licensing authority in the UK, including London and Northern Ireland.
It does not apply where the applicant is a limited company or a limited liability partnership in its own name. It does not replace the fit and proper test, or any vehicle test.
A person is disqualified if they need permission to be in the UK and do not have it, if that permission has ended or been cancelled, or if a condition stops them doing this work.
What you have to show
The council must finish the check before it issues, renews or extends the licence. It must not insist on one method where another permitted method is available. The three methods are a manual document check, a Home Office online check, or a check through a registered Right to Work digital verification provider. If a digital provider is used, it now has to be on that register.
If you have an eVisa, the council must use the online service. You generate a share code from Prove your right to work. The code has nine characters and must start with W. Codes starting with R or S are for other services and will not be accepted. A code lasts 90 days. The council also needs your date of birth.
A biometric residence permit is not acceptable, whether or not the card has expired. The Home Office stopped issuing those cards on 31 October 2024. Use a share code instead.
A letter that only shows you have applied, appealed or asked for a review does not, by itself, prove you can hold the licence.
How long the licence lasts
If your permission is time-limited, the licence must not run past the end of that permission.
If you have a continuous right to work, and the council has kept the evidence, it does not have to repeat the immigration check when you renew, unless it has reason to think your status has changed.
If you applied to extend your permission before it expired, that permission and its work conditions can continue while the Home Office decides. The same can apply during an appeal or review you are entitled to. A licence granted on that basis, or after the Home Office Status Verification service confirms a pending case, must be limited to six months. Another check is required before the next licence.
If your permission then expires, or is cut short, revoked or cancelled, the licence lapses. You can be required to return the licence and badge. Failing to return them can be a criminal offence. The council does not have to keep checking during the licence just to see whether a time limit has run out.
Who the conditions still block
A skilled worker may do supplementary work only where the immigration rules allow it, for no more than 20 hours a week, outside the sponsored job. The Home Office says taxi or private hire driving or operating will not normally meet those conditions. The council must not issue the licence where the conditions prohibit the work. A skilled worker’s dependant can be in a different position, and has to be checked on their own status.
Students are not allowed to be self-employed, unless they have an outstanding in-time application for the Innovator Founder route. The council reads the conditions on the online check.
An asylum seeker must not be licensed on a card that only allows shortage-occupation work. The guidance says those jobs do not include this trade. A person recognised as a refugee has no restriction on the right to work, and may be licensed while that permission lasts.
The other check
This council check is separate from the right-to-work duty that started on 1 October for some operators and platforms. A council badge does not prove that check has been done. TaxiFeed has already covered that duty: Some operators must now check drivers' right to work and Right-to-work checks widen to some taxi platform models in Oct.
Fairness
The council must offer every applicant a reasonable chance to use one of the three methods. It must not assume someone’s status from their nationality, ethnicity, accent, surname or how long they have lived here, and it must not check only the people it thinks are migrants.