The Traffic Commissioners (TCs) have started to publish online the outcomes of driver conduct hearings.
It follows widespread approval of the proposal from respondents to a consultation held in 2019. While there is no statutory requirement for TCs to publish notice of driver conduct hearings or the decisions taken therein, the consultation document noted that they “recognise the risk of action being taken against a driver’s entitlement of which an employer is unaware.”
As a result, the publication of outcomes will make it easier for employers to investigate whether a driver has been subject to regulatory action.
The data is presented in an Excel spreadsheet. Within it is the date of the hearing, the driver’s first name and surname, their year of birth, the categories of their vocational driving entitlement and the first three digits of their postcode. The decision is detailed in brief. Updates will be made weekly, usually on Mondays.
Where applicable, the spreadsheet will also include details of when a decision is appealed and the outcome of that appeal.
In the consultation document, the TCs noted that many licence suspensions handed out at driver conduct hearings are relatively short. Because of that, an employer may unwittingly continue to deploy such an driver as the sanction may not be identified during routine licence checks.
The TCs have ensured that data protection principles are complied with when the document is published.
