03/09/2017 London News

Thousands of minicab drivers working in London have been

told their background safety checks are no longer valid.

Transport for London says the checks must be carried out again,

or drivers face being taken off the road.

Tara Welsh explains why, and the concerns it raises

When you're being driven by a stranger and your life

is in their hands, you'd hope that someone's checked it's a safe pair.

That's why a driver's background is looked into before

The way it worked was that a new driver applying

for a Government criminal record check would go through

a third-party company, and there were several of them.

But now Transport for London has changed the rules.

It said after reviewing its policy, people could only use

Checks done by else now won't be valid.

That means more than 13,000 drivers will have to reapply

I'm very concerned about how it's came to affect legitimate

drivers' incomes, especially if they are forced off the road

The paramount importance is people's safety, and if I'm afraid a cab

driver has got to pay ?60 to make sure he's done a proper DBS, well,

They work for several companies, but the biggest is Uber.

Its licence to operate in the capital expires

at the end of this month, but recently it's been accused

by the police are failing to report sex attacks on passengers

An Uber spokesperson told us that every private hire driver in London

has been through the same enhanced DBS background check that black

Uber does not process the background checks,

does not require potential drivers to use a specific provider,

and does not have a say in who gets licenced.

TfL hasn't given a reason why it's made this change,

just that it was advised to do so by the Disclosure

We couldn't get hold of anyone there today,

but it seems the authorities are making it tougher

to work in London's growing private hire business.

Tram drivers in Croydon who work along the route of last year's fatal

accident which claimed multiple lives are being balloted

for industrial action over the introduction

Seven people died and more than 50 were injured when a tram

It was travelling at over three times the speed limit.

The Aslef union says it wasn't properly consulted on plans

to install cameras which can detect driver fatigue.

The firm which runs the service says discussions are ongoing.

A boxer from Gravesend is training hard for a Gold medal

at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, which in itself is a minor miracle

when you consider he's already been declared clinically dead twice.

Cheavon Clarke is one of Britain's brightest boxing talents,

but his journey to the ring has been an unusual, as Sarah

Britain's top amateur heavyweight Chev Clarke is used to taking blows,

but outside the ring he's had an even greater challenges to face.

Aged eight, he nearly lost his life falling onto a metal spike,

and at 18 ended up in intensive care when his appendix burst.

The doctor said to my mum, I'm a very lucky young man.

They said during the operation I actually flatlined on the table.

Sometimes a look back and I think, wow, I've come a long way,

but then I just brush it off, because that's yesterday, man.

Despite his success, he's more than happy to help

out with renovations to his Gravesend gym.

His friends say his experiences mean he never gives up.

If that's happened to you, that's just helped him

so much with the boxing, because that mentality that he now

has going forward is allowing him to knock people out.

Chev has learned not to plan too far ahead,

except when it comes to the next Olympics.

Yeah, I want to go there and do damage.

You know, make everybody else proud, and again inspire people so, yeah,

And come Tokyo 2020, his friends won't be

A look at the weather, and it'll be a cloudy start to the day -

and things won't change much by the afternoon.

We'll keep bringing you the news for London throughout the week

Hello. All of that sunshine yesterday, so much cloud today, and

rain as well, although the further east you are, you could've stayed

dry. The rain has made some progress over the last few hours further

east, and across England it will turn increasingly lighted patchy

through the night. A lot of low cloud, Coast and hill fog around,

particularly to the south-west. It is a mild night to come with plenty

of cloud to start the day tomorrow. Gradually for parts of England and

Wales it will be brightening up, getting better through the day, but

another spell of wet weather comes through Northern Ireland and

Scotland. Going through the afternoon, western coastal parts of

Wales and England stay mainly cloudy, a bit grizzly in places, but

East Wales on the rest of England, the cloud starts to break