I very much welcome the statement. And can I add my agreement with what Dai Lloyd and Jenny Rathbone said about the action of the taxi driver and private hire drivers in Manchester?

Like many other people, I have friends and relatives working as taxi and private hire drivers, which is not surprising, considering the huge number of people who are employed in that industry. In many areas, taxis and private hire vehicles are the only public transport. They’re an essential part of the transport network; without them, many people could not travel after 6 o’clock in the evening or on a Sunday.

But most people don’t distinguish between hackney cabs and private hire vehicles. They book what they term a ‘taxi’, which they use generally to cover both types, and a vehicle turns up. And most people don’t, and I include myself in that, go and check whether it’s a taxi or a private hire—I ordered it, it mentions my name when it stops outside and I get in it. So, I think that the distinction between the two has become very blurred and as the Cabinet Secretary said earlier, the mobile phone has done it because you used to have to pre-book before you went, phone up and say ‘I need—’, but now you can book just before you’re ready to leave. Can I also welcome the public consultation?

Can I talk about cross-border licensing? Historically, lots of vehicles have been licensed in Powys and worked in Swansea, and the Cabinet Secretary said earlier in an answer to Gareth Bennett about having regional working. That’s fine with Neath Port Talbot and Swansea, but when you bring Powys in, dare I say it, the top end of Montgomeryshire isn’t part of the Swansea region, but Ystradgynlais is part of it. So, there are difficulties in defining what a region is and there are concerns that people have been licensing in Powys and using them in Swansea, where Swansea has had no control over them and, perhaps more importantly, they’ve had no control over the number of vehicles in use in Swansea because they’ve been licensed in Powys. And I use the word ‘Swansea’, I could say ‘Neath Port Talbot’ in exactly the same way because they’re equally as affected.

So, I’ve got two questions. Will the Government consider producing enforceable national standards and a national charge? My understanding is that it’s cheaper to license in Powys than it is in Swansea, therefore people do so. And also the standards that you need in Powys are different to those in Swansea, and therefore it’s easier to license, so people are making that decision that is not necessarily beneficial for those who are interested in taxi provision within Swansea.

On the Petitions Committee, yes, we took a lot of evidence, including from you, Cabinet Secretary, regarding taxis and there will be a report that will hopefully be coming before this Assembly at some stage in the future. The only thing I would raise from it is: are you considering setting quotas within the large taxi firms for the numbers that can take wheelchairs? In Swansea, there is one taxi firm/co-operative that has about 180 to 200 taxis. I think when you get to firms of that size, actually asking them to have 5 per cent or 10 per cent being able to take people in wheelchairs, I don’t is unreasonable. So, will you look at actually setting quotas, certainly for the firms with more than 10 taxis?