SERU rule changes, notice by notice
TfL changes the SERU by notice. Here is every change we know of, newest first. Each one has the date, the notice it came from and the day we read it.
13 March 2026. The fees went up
TfL Notice 05/26, called Taxi and private hire licence fees, raised the SERU fee to £40 and a resit to £30. The change took effect on 9 March 2026. Before 9 March 2026 the SERU was £36 and a resit was £16.
The same fee applies to private hire and taxi drivers. The English speaking and listening assessment and the topographical skills assessment went up by the same amounts. The licence application and grant fees rose on 1 June 2026. TfL says the Finance Committee approved the changes on 25 February 2026, and writes, This is the first change to licence fees since 2017.
See every TfL fee for a private hire licence, with the total.
Source: TfL Notice 05/26, dated 13 March 2026. Read on 9 October 2026.
10 April 2026. The pass rates came out
From 1 October 2025 to 2 April 2026, 54 percent of private hire drivers passed the SERU, and 94 percent of taxi drivers did.
This is not a TfL page. TfL gave the figures in a freedom of information answer, reference 4884 2526, and TaxiPoint reported them. TfL has not put them on its own website.
Source: TaxiPoint, 10 April 2026. Read on 9 October 2026. More on the pass mark and pass rate page.
2 September 2025. Taxi drivers got their own SERU
TfL Notice 06/25 brought in a separate SERU for taxi drivers from 1 October 2025. TfL says it lasts approximately one hour, has 36 questions and a pass mark of 60 percent, and that the handbook is there to look at during the assessment.
It lists four kinds of question. One of them is multiple choice where you select all the correct answers.
It quoted a fee of £36 and a retest of £16. That was the fee before 9 March 2026, when TfL Notice 05/26 raised it.
Source: TfL Notice 06/25, dated 2 September 2025. Read on 9 October 2026.
June 2024. Drop downs replaced drag and drop
In the sentence completion question you now pick each missing word from a drop down, instead of dragging words into the gaps. There are 3 gaps and 6 words to choose from in each.
This one is not from TfL. It is what a trade site says, and a second trade site says the same. TfL has not published it.
Source: tflseru.co.uk, a training company, not TfL. Read on 9 October 2026.
17 January 2024. The open book trial
TfL said it intended to trial making the PHV driver handbook available for drivers to refer to during the SERU assessment, which it called an open book assessment.
The same notice says the SERU is not and has never intended to be a memory test.
Source: TfL Notice 01/24, dated 17 January 2024. Read on 9 October 2026.
We recheck the TfL notices and print the date we last did. We last checked them on 9 October 2026.
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