In relation to the recent High Court declaration on Uber and your answer to question 2019/14346, how can an operator accept a Private Hire booking and enter into a contractual obligation without the knowledge they have a driver to fulfil the booking? Will you make it a condition of licence, that operators should have that knowledge before acceptance?

There are around 1,800 licensed private hire vehicle (PHV) operators in London, many of which have different operating models and numbers of drivers and vehicles at their disposal.

As the regulatory authority, Transport for London expects London PHV operators to act responsibly and do everything that they can to carry out bookings they have previously accepted.

Despite this, there may be legitimate reasons why a PHV operator may not be able to fulfil a booking they have accepted, for example due to road closures, a vehicle breakdown or a driver becoming unwell. For this reason, making a mandatory requirement in all cases would be inappropriate.