Parking (Code of Practice) Act 2019

Baroness Taylor of Stevenage Excerpts

Tuesday 24th March 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Kirkhope of Harrogate]

To ask His Majesty’s Government what progress they have made towards implementing a code of practice under the Parking (Code of Practice) Act 2019.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (Baroness Taylor of Stevenage) (Lab)]

It is me again, I am afraid. The Government are committed to raising standards in the private parking sector. Last summer, my department consulted on proposals to raise standards across the private parking industry, ahead of implementing the new code and accompanying compliance framework for parking operators. The consultation attracted over 4,500 responses—which was no surprise to me; I know people have a great interest in this subject—a significant volume, and it is right that these are considered very carefully before the code is finalised. I add that the Government intend to lay the code in the House in autumn 2026.

--- Later in debate ---

[Noble Lords]

Oh!

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

It certainly will not be illegally parked if I am doing it—I can promise the noble Lord that. In February 2022, the previous Government introduced a private parking code of practice, which reduced the level of private parking charges and banned debt recovery fees. However, as the noble Lord will know, the parking industry subsequently challenged the charge caps on the grounds that the economic impact on the sector had not been sufficiently assessed and that caps were not supported by robust evidence. In the light of that challenge, the previous Government took the decision to withdraw the code in order to review the level of charges and the ban on additional fees. That review has been thorough: there was a call for evidence, and an impact assessment, an options assessment and a full public consultation, which I mentioned earlier, were published. It has been necessary to minimise the risk of further legal challenge and, crucially, to ensure that the impact of any future charge caps is understood and achieves the intended objectives. I recognise that the noble Lord’s patience is being tested and the process has taken time. However, we are committed to raising standards across the private parking sector and will lay the code in autumn 2026.

[Baroness Pidgeon (LD)]

My Lords, according to the RAC, private parking companies have issued a staggering 76 million parking tickets in the seven years since the Parking (Code of Practice) Act became law. In addition to this long-awaited code, what update can the Minister provide on work to introduce a regulator with appropriate powers to protect motorists and ensure transparency across the system?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

A parking regulator was considered as an option in the options assessment published last year. However, it was dismissed as disproportionate. Establishing a regulator would have involved significant cost, complexity and even further delay, duplicating functions that can be delivered more efficiently through the 2019 Act and existing sanctions, including access to DVLA data.

[Lord Spellar (Lab)]

I put it to my noble friend the Minister that wheel clamping took some 20 years from the Scottish courts declaring it illegal in Scotland, against lots of obstructionism within officialdom in the Department for Transport and other departments, to finally being banned in England. We must know now what we want to do. Motorists are still being ripped off, companies are still behaving badly, and the appeals system often does not work. Should we not just take action and get on with it? It might even be rather popular.

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

It would be popular with me, but we need to make sure, once we put something in place, that it is legally robust and understands the impacts that the code will have—that is really important. We consulted on the appeals process last year to understand the concerns that motorists have with it—I have also heard many concerns from around the House when we have discussed this before—and we are working to address them. Is it very important that motorists have confidence in the appeals process and trust that they will get the right outcome as quickly as possible. For motorists, this means ensuring that appeal decisions are fair and, importantly, that those decisions are made independently from the private parking industry.

[Lord Jamieson (Con)]

My Lords, on many new housing estates, the roads have not been adopted by local highways authorities, despite residents paying council tax. What are the Government doing to ensure that they are built to adoptable standards and then adopted? That would allow local authority enforcement of parking offences.

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

That is slightly tangential to the Question. I know that this is a real frustration both for those living on new estates and for the local authorities that are sometimes charged with picking up the bill for the insufficient quality of roads. Steps will be taken in the forthcoming leasehold and commonhold Bill to address many of the issues with these so-called freehold estates. I am sure that we will have a very useful discussion on that when the Bill comes before the House.

[Lord Vaizey of Didcot (Con)]

My Lords, I hope the Minister has heard what the noble Lord, Lord Kirkhope, had to say. I think that his argument has prevailed. As was just demonstrated, parking covers a very wide landscape, so may I draw the Minister’s attention to the difficulty one has in parking electric bikes in London? They are now geolocated, so you park it outside a station, but the app will not let you close. Can the Government please sit down with the mayor and the London boroughs to create a win-win—for people who hate these bikes being parked randomly on the street and for those of us who depend on them, who would just like to see more parking places for them?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

I understand the frustrations that people feel, but if you are parking the bike where you are supposed to park it, you should be able to log out of the system. It is absolutely unacceptable for bikes to be left in some of the places that I see them being left, and it causes a great obstruction, particularly to our residents with less mobility. If there is a bike in the middle of a pavement it is very hard to manoeuvre around it, particularly if you are in a wheelchair. We are looking at all these issues. New powers are being granted to local authorities as part of the Bill we will be debating later this afternoon, so I hope that will help the situation.