Two things about dashcams in London private hire vehicles are widely believed and both are wrong. The first is that TfL now requires you to have one. It does not. The second is that a dashcam is an ordinary consumer purchase, something you buy on a Friday and stick to the windscreen on a Saturday. In a licensed vehicle it is not that either. It is a vehicle modification, and it sits inside an approval regime with published rules that most cameras sold on the high street cannot meet as supplied.
That gap is where drivers get caught. Everything below comes from TfL's own guidelines, its inspection manual, the ICO and the underlying road traffic regulations, all checked on 4 August 2026.
Nobody has to fit one
There is no requirement anywhere in TfL's licensing documents to fit a dashcam or a passenger facing camera. TfL's own position is that "At present, taxi and PHV owners can choose whether to install in-vehicle CCTV in their vehicles."
TfL consulted on making in-vehicle CCTV mandatory between 9 February and 22 March 2021. Five years later that consultation is still marked as under review and no outcome has been published. Nothing since has made cameras compulsory.
Plenty of drivers have fitted one anyway. TfL's own licensee survey, published in its Taxi and private hire action plan in March 2025, found 27% of private hire drivers had road facing CCTV and 14% had passenger facing CCTV. Among taxi drivers the road facing figure was 57%.
So the honest headline is not that TfL has become strict about whether you have a camera. It has become specific about which one you fit, and that is a different and much less well known problem.
In TfL's vocabulary, your dashcam is CCTV
This is the single point that reframes everything else.
TfL's Guidelines for CCTV Systems in Licensed London Taxis and Private Hire Vehicles defines the term deliberately widely. A "CCTV system" means "any electronic recording device attached to the inside of vehicle having the technical capability of capturing and retaining visual images and audio recording from inside or external to the vehicle", and the guidelines add that this "may include for example, such devices as events/incident/accident data recording devices".
A forward facing dashcam is an electronic recording device attached to the inside of the vehicle that captures images external to it. It is caught.
TfL confirms this elsewhere in the same document, in the one place it uses the word directly: "Where a CCTV system is installed in order to record incidents outside the vehicle (eg a dashcam or similar), you should also display a warning sign wherever practical."
The approved devices list confirms it again. Its key reads "CCTV = internal recording" and "Incident camera = exterior recording", and one entry on it is named, in TfL's own table, as a Dash Cam.
You cannot argue your way out of these rules on the basis that you only have a dashcam, not CCTV.
There is an approved list, and it is not what you expect
TfL publishes a document its website calls CCTV and incident recording, approved devices. Internally it is headed "TfL Approved CCTV suppliers / installers" and every page is stamped "Updated: 20/02/2026".
It is four pages. The columns are supplier, contact details, camera system name, system details, and then a group of tick or cross columns headed "Taxis and PHV approved for installation", split into TX4, Vito, TXe, Dynamo and PHV.
Read that structure carefully, because it tells you three things.
It is a trade list, not a shopping list. Approval attaches to a system together with the supplier or named installer who fits it, not to a model number you can buy anywhere. Some entries name a specific installer for a specific product.
Approval is per vehicle type. A system approved for a TX4 taxi is not automatically approved for a private hire vehicle. The PHV column is its own column for a reason, and it is the only one that matters to you.
And it changes. Superseded versions from May 2025 are still reachable at their old addresses, so a link someone sent you last year may not be the current document. Check the date stamp in the footer before you rely on any copy of it.
The governing guidelines behind the list state the requirement plainly: "Only CCTV systems meeting these requirements and approved by TfL can be installed into licensed taxi and private hire vehicles."
So which of them can actually go on a private hire vehicle? We read the PHV column of the February 2026 revision line by line. It carries 33 camera systems and 29 of them are ticked for PHV. Only four are not: the Taxiworld IncidentCam Square camera, the Taxiworld IncidentCam Long camera, the Helix Pay HTC1 integrated payment system camera and the Curb CCTV camera system. Those four are approved for licensed taxis only.
One entry causes confusion and is worth calling out. Road Angel Halo Guard Taxi P/H reads like a taxi only product. It is not. The P/H stands for private hire, and it carries a PHV tick. It appears as a system supplied under SAFE Systems rather than as a supplier you would approach directly.
So the list is far more open than its reputation suggests. The real catch is that TfL replaces this file in place as suppliers come and go. Between the May 2025 and February 2026 revisions, two Smartwitness systems came off the list, Curb and Road Angel went on, and a Samsara product was renamed. A device that was approved when a forum post was written may not be approved now. Open the current PDF, check your exact system has a tick in the PHV column, and confirm with the supplier that they will fit it to your vehicle before you spend anything.
You are supposed to ask before you buy
The Taxi and Private Hire Vehicle Licensing Inspection Manual, version 20 of March 2026, is unambiguous about the order of operations. Any owner wishing to modify a licensed vehicle, including fitting extra parts, "must first apply for approval of a modification from the Licensing Authority before incurring any expense". Only approved fittings may be attached to the vehicle.
For a new camera specifically, the manual's special inspection section lists a "new in-cab CCTV system" among the items needing approval, and says the owner "should in the first instance contact the Licensing Authority prior to any modifications being carried out", supplying technical specifications, installation guidance and certification. At licensing you present written confirmation from TfL specifying what was approved.
The fitting is then recorded against your vehicle. Examiners are instructed to record or update the modification on the vehicle record with the correct Tech Memo number. For a PHV there is also a declaration form that must be issued, completed and signed, and a missing or unsigned form is itself a reason for refusal.
Practical version: ask your supplier for the TfL Tech Memo number for the exact system, because that is what the examiner checks against.
The four rules that rule out most cameras on sale
This is the useful part, and almost none of it appears on the retail listing for a dashcam.
Suction mounts are not permitted. The guidelines state that equipment must be installed so as not to increase the risk of injury or discomfort, and that "temporary fixing methods such as suction cups will not be permitted". Nearly every consumer dashcam ships with a suction mount. It also rules out the approach of taking the camera off between shifts.
Wiring has to be permanent and fused. All wiring "must be fused as set out in the manufacture's technical specification and be appropriately routed", and the inspection manual requires that visible wiring is safe and permanent and does not encroach into the driver or passenger area. A lead trailing from the cigarette socket across the dashboard is the opposite of this.
In-car viewing screens are not permitted. The guidelines say "Viewing screens within the vehicle for the purposes of viewing captured images are not permitted." That wording is about screens used to review footage, and TfL has not published anything on whether a small setup display on the device body is caught, so treat it as a question for your installer rather than a settled ban on any camera with a screen.
Audio should be off. TfL is firmer here than on video: systems "must not be used to record conversations between members of the public as this is highly intrusive and unlikely to be justified except in very exceptional circumstances", you should choose a system without the facility where possible, and where it exists "this functionality should be disabled". The narrow exception is a panic button responding to a threat of violence, and even then an automatic reset must return the system to normal after a set period. The ICO says the same independently: switch audio off by default.
A typical suction mounted dashcam with a screen and a live microphone, powered from the cigarette socket, breaches three or four separate provisions at once, whatever brand is on the box.
Where it can physically go
TfL does not publish a millimetre tolerance for camera placement. The numbers come from the MOT standard, and they bite because a London PHV needs an MOT issued within the last 14 days to sit its licensing inspection.
Zone A is a vertical band 290mm wide, centred on the steering wheel, within the swept area of the windscreen. An obstruction must not encroach more than 10mm into Zone A, or more than 40mm into the rest of the swept area.
Behind the rear view mirror is where a device intrudes least. Note that DVSA's windscreen obscuration guidance names stickers, pennants and satellite navigation monitors as examples of obstructions and does not name dashcams, so nobody official has said "dashcams must go behind the mirror". The limits are what your camera body and mount have to respect.
The underlying law is regulation 30 of the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986, which requires that the driver "can at all times have a full view of the road and traffic ahead". TfL cites it directly. This binds every driver in Great Britain, licensed or not. TfL is enforcing existing road traffic law at the inspection rather than inventing a dashcam rule.
Three more placement traps, all of them listed reasons for refusal:
Airbag and curtain deployment positions must be free from obstruction. That covers A pillar mounting and the cable run most self fitted installs use.
Equipment must not be mounted on or next to airbags, or near other safety systems such as autonomous braking. On modern PHV stock the forward camera and radar cluster sits behind the mirror, exactly where you want to put a dashcam.
And do not block the licence discs. It is a reason for refusal if there is insufficient space to fix the TfL licence discs to the screen, or material preventing them being affixed directly to it. A rear camera or its cable run is the usual offender.
The signage nobody mentions
Once a camera is fitted, signage is compulsory, and its absence fails the vehicle.
Two signs are needed: a TfL issued interior sign giving the data controller's details, and a supplier issued exterior facing sign telling the public that recording is taking place. The interior signs can be collected from any vehicle inspection centre, and you write the controller's phone number, email address or website into the blank space.
The inspection manual makes it a reason for refusal where "Mandatory CCTV signage not displayed in a prominent position" or where "data controller contact details not completed or not legible". A properly fitted, fully approved camera with a blank contact field on its sign still fails.
There is one more duty for a road facing camera that almost nobody has heard of. When the camera is activated in response to an incident, the driver "must inform the person(s) recorded that their personal data was captured, as soon as practicable after the incident", along with the purpose it was installed for.
The ICO side, and one thing TfL gets wrong
The moment a camera runs in a vehicle you are working in, the domestic exemption is gone and whoever decided to fit it is a data controller.
The ICO is direct about the consequence: "If you have a dashcam that you use for work purposes, on a vehicle that you use for work, even if you own the vehicle, then you will need to pay a data protection fee." Most small businesses pay £52 a year, the tier 1 figure set by the Data Protection (Charges and Information) (Amendment) Regulations 2025. The fee varies with turnover and staff numbers, so use the ICO's own fee checker rather than assuming.
TfL adds that documentary evidence the fee has been paid "may have to be presented to a TfL official at any time during the term of the TPH vehicle licence".
One correction worth making, because you will read the opposite in TfL's own document. TfL's guidelines state that failing to pay the fee is a criminal offence. That is not how it works now. The ICO treats non payment as a civil matter, enforced by penalty notice under the Data Protection Act 2018, with a maximum fine of £4,350. Pay it, but do not let anyone tell you it is a criminal record.
Three more data rules, all TfL's:
Footage must be encrypted, SD cards must be secure within the camera and formatted to it, and images must not be copied onto memory sticks or CDs for general storage outside the vehicle.
Recording must overwrite automatically, so images are retained for a maximum of 28 days. Longer retention is allowed only for something like an insurance claim or a criminal investigation, and everything is deleted once the case ends. The ICO takes a tighter line for ordinary road facing footage: if nothing happened, delete it after about a week.
Requests to view footage, from police, insurers or TfL, should only be accepted in writing, specifying why disclosure is required. Do not hand over a card at the roadside.
What actually happens if you get it wrong
Here is where the forum version and the published version part company.
The word "revoke" does not appear anywhere in the 66 page inspection manual. The enforcement route is the annual licensing inspection. "Unapproved modification fitted" is a listed reason for refusal, and there are five separate ways a camera can fail: fitted incorrectly or insecurely, in poor condition, encroaching into the driver or passenger area, no signed declaration form, or unapproved.
Refusal means no licence issued that day. It is not the loss of a licence you already hold.
The manual also carries an advisory alternative in the same row: "Unapproved modification fitted, driver removed on site". In other words, an examiner can let you take the device off there and then and record an advisory instead of failing you. That is the proportionate outcome the manual actually contemplates.
Mid licence, the realistic consequence is an unfit notice. If a defect is found during the licence period, the registered keeper is issued a notice prohibiting use of the vehicle until it is rectified. For a driver paying rent, that is the outcome that actually costs money.
Revocation does exist, but it is a separate step at the far end. Under section 16(3) of the Private Hire Vehicles (London) Act 1998, TfL may suspend or revoke where it is "no longer satisfied that the vehicle is fit for use as a private hire vehicle", or where a condition has been breached. It is not automatic and it is not what a bad dashcam triggers on its own.
You also have a right of appeal to a magistrates' court under section 25, within 21 days of the decision being served. Anyone telling you TfL's decision is final is wrong. What the inspection covers more generally is set out in our guide to the TfL vehicle inspection, and the other common refusal reasons are in why cars get rejected.
If you rent your car, this is not your decision
This matters more than most drivers realise, and it is simple.
TfL's rule is that prior approval for any aftermarket modification comes from the vehicle policy manager, and it is the vehicle owner who applies for the licence and presents the modification documents at inspection. On a rental fleet the vehicle owner is the rental company, not you.
The data protection position follows the same logic. TfL defines the controller as whoever "has decided to have a CCTV system installed and operating within the vehicle". If you buy and fit a camera, you are the controller, your details go on the interior sign, and you pay the ICO fee. If the fleet fits it as standard, the fleet is.
So if you are in a rented PCO car, do not fit anything to it yourself. Ask the company. An unapproved device on someone else's licensed vehicle puts their licence at the inspection and you will be the one without a car.
TfL has not fully made up its mind
An honest article has to include this, because you will find the contradiction yourself if you go looking.
The consultation page says "In-vehicle CCTV does not include external/road facing cameras such as dashcams". That sentence defines the scope of one consultation about mandating passenger facing cameras. It does not remove dashcams from the equipment guidelines or the approved devices list, both of which plainly cover exterior recording. Read out of context it points the wrong way.
A separate live TfL document, the Guidelines for Aftermarket Electronic Devices and Equipment in Private Hire Vehicles from January 2013, lists CCTV systems and event recorders and then says "it is not possible for TfL to offer specific purchase or installation advice in respect of these devices", and that whether a device should be installed "is a matter for vehicle owners, drivers and/or operators to consider".
And the governing CCTV guidelines are dated February 2021 and still marked V12, even though the approved list underneath them is revised several times a year.
These documents do not sit comfortably together. The safe reading is the strictest one: treat any camera as a modification, get it approved first, and keep the paperwork.
What is coming
TfL's action plan commits to "Reviewing and updating our guidance and requirements on in-vehicle CCTV in taxis and private hire vehicles in 2025/26 and from 2026/27, giving further consideration to mandating in-vehicle CCTV, which may include consultation on proposals". The Mayor has separately committed to increasing CCTV in taxis and private hire vehicles.
Nothing is mandatory today and no notice has changed that. But the direction is one way, and if you are choosing a system now, choosing an approved one is future proofing rather than compliance theatre.
Frequently asked questions
Does TfL require a dashcam in a London PHV?
No. Fitting a camera is optional and has been throughout. TfL consulted on mandating in-vehicle CCTV in 2021 and has not published an outcome.
Is there a TfL approved dashcam list?
Yes, though it is not a consumer shopping list. TfL publishes an approved devices document, updated 20 February 2026, listing camera systems against the suppliers and installers approved to fit them, with a separate approval column for private hire vehicles. That revision carries 33 systems, 29 of which are approved for PHVs. TfL revises the file in place, so check the current version rather than a copy.
Can I just buy a dashcam and stick it on the windscreen?
No, for two separate reasons. Fitting one to a licensed vehicle is a modification needing TfL's approval before you spend any money, and the guidelines ban temporary fixings such as suction cups outright.
Will I lose my licence over an unapproved dashcam?
Very unlikely. The published consequence is failure at the annual licensing inspection under "Unapproved modification fitted", with an advisory alternative if you remove the device on site. Revocation is a separate power that runs through the vehicle being unfit for use.
Do I need to pay the ICO?
If you run a camera in a vehicle you work in, yes. Most small operators pay £52 a year, and TfL can ask to see proof at any point during your licence.
Should the audio be on?
No. TfL says to choose a system without audio where possible and to disable it where it exists, and the ICO says switch it off by default. The exception is a panic button response, with an automatic reset.
I rent my PCO car. Can I fit my own camera?
Ask the company first. The approval application and the modification paperwork belong to the vehicle owner, which on a rental fleet is not you.
The simpler route
Every rule above exists because a licensed vehicle is not a private one. The paperwork, the approvals and the annual inspection belong to whoever holds the vehicle licence.
At Blackties that is us. Our cars are presented, inspected and re-licensed by us, on leases written to permit hire and reward, so modifications and their approvals are handled at fleet level rather than landing on a driver at a test centre. If you want a camera on a car you rent from us, ask and we will tell you what is approved for that vehicle.
See the fleet or register an account. If you are still working through licensing, start with the PCO licence guide.