The office of the Minister for Infrastructure in Northern Ireland, Nichola Mallon, has responded to the NAFD’s call for the issue of funeral limousines to be exempted from the same licensing as taxi companies, which places funeral firms at a significant disadvantage, and became particularly evident during COVID-19.
Funeral limousines are included in the Taxis Act (Northern Ireland) 2008 and therefore require a Class C taxi licence, which means that funeral directors must abide by many of the same “hire and reward” regulations that might be relevant to other classed taxis but not so for private vehicles used for such a specific purpose as funeral (and for that matter wedding) limousines – these requiring the vehicle to be driven by a PSV-licensed driver, the vehicle undergoing an annual PSV check and employers also potentially funding the mandatory PSV CPD competency hours for their drivers.
While the anomaly of classifying funeral limousines as taxis has been discussed for some time, issues caused by it have really come to the fore during the COVID-19 pandemic when limousines were banned for use under the Department of Health Guidance, yet taxis were not. We are aware that many taxi companies were able to avail of financial assistance from the Government under the Taxi Driver (Coronavirus, Financial Assistance) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2021, yet no such offer was available or forthcoming to funeral directors. As a knock-on effect, with limousine drivers out of work for over a year and unable to claim financial assistance, many have had to find alternative employment. This has left a shortage of suitably-qualified PSV drivers available to drive for funeral directors, further exacerbating the issue. With this continued shortage, funeral directors are now being further penalised as they find themselves unable to provide limousine services to bereaved families because of the lack of specialist drivers.
Nowhere else in the United Kingdom are funeral limousines classed as PSVs, with all the inherent stringent regulatory rigour that entails. And yet, funeral directors in Northern Ireland must follow those regulatory requirements with all the associated prohibitive costs.
In a letter to Nichola Mallon last month, The NAFD set out its concerns and called for her to act now to support funerals firms that have played such an important role in society over the last 20 months. The response from Ms Mallon’s office stated that any review or relaxation of the Taxis Act 2008 would require further legislative/policy consideration and has indicated in a response to a written question from MLAs that it would also require a public consultation which was not possible in the “short remaining time in this current Assembly mandate”. Elections are due to be held next May. The NAFD Northern Ireland Executive is committed to continuing with a lobbying campaign to assist funeral directors in this matter.