Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of improving regulation of the way that debt collection is carried out in the case of parking fines.

The ten-minute grace period at the end of a paid-for parking period was introduced to recognise that drivers could arrive slightly late to their vehicle for reasons beyond their control. In this situation, a Civil Enforcement Officer (CEO) would be able to ascertain the precise time from which parking had been paid. This would not be possible with an equivalent concession at the beginning of a paid-for parking period, thus opening up the potential for drivers to delay paying until such time as a CEO is observed.

A requirement for transparency on matters relating to civil parking enforcement is enshrined in the Secretary of State's statutory guidance for local authorities in England on civil enforcement of parking contraventions. The guidance references the applicable legislation regarding debt collections. It applies at local authority owned or operated car parks and at the end of paid-for and free on-street parking in England. Private and off-street parking companies are the policy responsibility of the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG).