After section 90 of the Principal Act , the following section is inserted in Part 5:

90A.     Taxi areas and remote taxi areas

(1)  The regulations may from time to time, for the purposes of this Act, prescribe taxi areas and remote taxi areas by way of a description or one or more maps.

(2)  The Commission must cause to be established and maintained a database containing data from which there may be generated –

(a) one or more electronic maps setting out each of the taxi areas, and remote taxi areas, that are in effect for the time being, being those areas as prescribed from time to time under subsection (1) but with the boundaries of those areas indicated with greater particularity; and

(b) one or more electronic maps –

(i) setting out each of the taxi areas, and remote taxi areas, that were, but are no longer, in effect; and

(ii) indicating the period during which those taxi areas and remote taxi areas were, but are no longer, in effect.

(3)  The Commission must cause the electronic maps referred to in subsection (2) to be generated each time there is an alteration, of the data in the database referred to in subsection (2) , that has the effect of altering the boundaries of a taxi area, or remote taxi area, on a map that may be generated from the data.

(4)  The Commission must ensure that members of the public are able to view electronically, at a website of the Department, each of the electronic maps that is generated from time to time under subsection (3) .

(5)  The Commission, before generating under subsection (3) an electronic map after an alteration, of the data in the database referred to in subsection (2) , that will have the effect of altering the boundaries of a taxi area, or remote taxi area, on the map –

(a) must ensure that there is published in the Gazette a notice –

(i) stating that an alteration of the boundaries of the taxi area, or remote taxi area, will come into effect on the day specified in the notice; and

(ii) giving a general description of the nature of the alteration or specifying the taxi areas, or remote taxi areas, the boundaries of which have been altered; and

(iii) indicating the electronic address at which the electronic maps displaying the boundaries of the taxi areas, or remote taxi areas, may be viewed by members of the public on and from the day specified in the notice; and

(b) is to give to each holder of a licence that relates to a taxi area, or remote taxi area, to which the alteration relates a notice containing the information referred to in paragraph (a) .

(6)  An alteration of the boundaries of a taxi area, or remote area, shown on a map generated under subsection (3) takes effect on the day specified in the notice published in accordance with subsection (5)(a) as the day on which the alteration is to come into effect.

(7)  A reference, in a licence that is in force immediately before, or after, the day on which this section commences, to a taxi area, or remote taxi area, by name, is to be taken to be a reference to the taxi area, or remote taxi area, respectively, of the same name that is shown on an electronic map, referred to in subsection (2)(a) , that is generated under subsection (3) from time to time.

(8)  If there is a licence in effect that relates to a taxi area, or remote taxi area, regulations may not be made that have the effect that the taxi area, or remote taxi area, ceases to exist.

(9)  In legal proceedings, a certificate, signed by the Secretary, setting out the boundaries of a taxi area, or remote taxi area, at a time specified in the certificate is, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, evidence that the boundaries of the taxi area, or remote taxi area, were, at the time specified in the certificate, the boundaries specified in the certificate.