Council apologises after tender calls for "female, white and non-Muslim" taxi driver

Northamptonshire County Council has apologised after it asked for a “female, white and non-Muslim” taxi driver in a tender for a contract to transport a vulnerable child to and from school.

A taxi driver alerted the Northampton Chronicle & Echo, about the wording of the tender. He told the paper: “To say it is offensive would be very strong because I don’t know the reasons behind it, but the council should not be issuing tenders like this, full stop. I was in total disbelief that it would make such a stipulation.”

A spokesman for the council said: “We apologise unreservedly for this error of judgement which resulted from trying to address the specific needs of an individual child. We’re confident on the basis of our initial investigations that there was no malicious or discriminatory intent. However, we have now launched a full-scale review into this matter. We’re deeply sorry for any offence or distress this has caused.

“Northamptonshire County Council takes equalities very seriously and we will not tolerate any practices in this organisation which discriminate against any group or community.”

Anjona Roy, chief executive of Northamptonshire Rights and Equalities Council, told the Chronicle & Echo that the council could have left itself open to legal action under anti-discrimination laws.