30/11/2025
PRESS RELEASE – for immediate release 30.11.25
Taxi operators condemn Fife Council’s “punishment exercise” over vehicle test failures
Proprietors of a leading St Andrews taxi firm have accused Fife Council of subjecting drivers to “a punishment exercise” in response to high rates of failure in taxi inspection tests, particularly in north-east Fife.
They argue the Council is doing nothing to support foreign drivers, despite its own data showing operators with foreign-sounding names were responsible for more than 42% of failed taxi tests – over twice the failure rate of native operators.
Operators from across Fife whose taxis had failed their inspection test in the spring were summoned to Fife House to meet members of the Regulation and Licensing Committee and key officers. East Fife (zone E) were singled out, with almost a quarter (45 out of 206) vehicles failing their test.
At the meeting, councillors branded the situation “unacceptable” and imposed new sanctions, including:
Operators signing a pre-test declaration confirming they had checked every item on the Fleet Services inspection sheet.
An additional MOT six months after any failed taxi test.
Automatic referral to a suspension hearing where licences could be removed.
James Glen, Director of St Andrews Taxis, said:
“When the higher-than-usual taxi test fails were first discussed in March, Cllr David MacDiarmid said:
If it was up to me, I would bring them all in, knock their heads together and knock some sense into them.
Why have they not got it into their skulls these are the standards we set?
“It felt like the Committee has acted on his words.
“The Committee did not consult with operators or trade associations on why failures were so high or how to tackle the problem.
“Instead, councillors imposed heavy-handed measures and draconian threats that increase bureaucracy and costs, with no evidence that they will improve outcomes.”
Former councillor and Director of St Andrews Taxis, Linda Holt, added:
“Councillors relied on headline figures and sensational talk of unsafe taxis, but failed to look at what was actually behind the failures. Many were for trivial issues such as missing fire extinguisher stickers. Yet all were treated as equally dangerous.
“They totally failed to drill down into the data. The Committee did not know what proportion of failed operators had only recently acquired a plate, or were persistent offenders.
“They also ignored clear patterns in the data. Publicly available records show taxis registered to operators with foreign-sounding names had a failure rate of 41.2%, compared to 17.8% for native-named operators. In other words, foreign drivers’ vehicles were more than twice as likely to fail.
“Blanket criticism of the whole trade undermines public trust and driver morale. Native-owned taxis—which are the majority—actually achieved an 82.2% pass rate, well above the overall figures the Committee quoted and better than the national average.
“When I raised this, Committee Convenor Cllr Tom Adams shut me down. But unless councillors acknowledge the problem, they cannot address it. Language barriers, difficulty navigating bureaucracy, or unfamiliarity with UK taxi standards may be part of the issue. Targeted solutions like workshops, translated guides, or plainer-English materials could raise pass rates significantly.
“Instead, councillors chose scapegoating over problem-solving.”
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https://www.fife.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0035/693944/Minute-of-the-Meeting-of-Regulation-and-Licensing-Committee-of-3-June-2025-Subject-to-approval-at-their-next-meeting-1.pdf
As quoted in The Courier (online edition May 7 2025): https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/news/5238875/fife-taxi-operators-fail-safety-tests/
If I remember rightly, the comments made it to the front page of the print edition.
Data taken fromhttps://www.fife.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0026/672290/Agenda-and-Papers-Regulation-and-Licensing-Committee-of-6-May-2025-1.pdf
Cars plated to drivers with foreign-sounding names
Total Fails: 21
Where operators had more than one plate, we looked at the number of cars failing as a proportion of the total no. of cars submitted by operator: 2/2, 1/2, 3/4, 2/2
Total no. of cars: 51
Failure rate: 41.2%
Chance of failing if a driver has a foreign-sounding name: 1 in 2.5
Cars plated to drivers with native-sounding names
Total fails: 24
Where operators had more than one plate, we looked at the number of cars failing as a proportion of the total no. of cars submitted by operator: 1/5, 1/2, 1/5, 1/3, 5/16, 2/4, 1/2, 1/4, 2/2
No of cars: 135
Failure rate: 17.8%
Chance of failing if a driver has a native-sounding name: 1 in 6
