Sir Sadiq Khan has come under fire from the Conservatives after Transport for London (TfL) racked up a compensation bill of more than £7 million due to delays in issuing licences to taxi and private hire vehicle (PHV) drivers.
Nearly 18,000 drivers have already received special payments of between £300 and £500 under the Goodwill Payment Scheme, which was introduced at the start of the year to compensate those whose livelihoods were affected by the delays.
Cause of the delays
The delays were caused by the introduction of new licence processing software, combined with the recovery from an earlier cyber security incident. TfL was threatened with legal action due to the “significant hardship” suffered by minicab drivers waiting months to have their licences renewed.
The figures, obtained by the Conservatives under a freedom of information (FOI) request, revealed the scale of the disruption caused by TfL's licensing failures.
Tory criticism
Shadow Transport Secretary Richard Holden said: "Labour's Mayor of London once again proves his woeful administration is wasting Londoners millions of pounds and holding our capital back." He added: "It's about time that he got a grip of the entire system. This is simply a disgrace."
Braintree MP Sir James Cleverly, the early frontrunner to be the Tory contender in the 2028 London mayoral contest, added: "Londoners deserve a transport system that works for those who rely on it and those who pay for it."
Compensation details
The compensation scheme was for drivers whose renewed licence was issued between 1 September 2024 and 31 December 2025. To qualify, drivers had to meet a series of criteria, including being an existing taxi or PHV driver whose renewed licence was issued in that period, having a successful renewal application, experiencing a period without a licence, and passing any mandatory driver assessments before the licence expired.
The FOI release showed that TfL made 17,972 compensation payments, with the bill rising to £7,642,120 by mid-June 2026, leaving London farepayers to foot the cost.
TfL response
A TfL spokesperson said: "We are very sorry to drivers who experienced issues with our processing times of private hire driver licences. We worked urgently and took a number of steps to mitigate the impact of licence processing delays, including the recruitment of additional staff and issuing short-term driver licences, where appropriate, to support existing PHV drivers."
The spokesperson added: "The licence renewal process is now in a consistently steady operating position, and we strengthened our support for first-time applicants." TfL is currently prioritising licence renewal for drivers whose permit is due to expire in the next six weeks to ensure they can continue working without interruption.
