Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many Dart Charge payments were (a) late and (b) not paid since 2010.

The Dart Charge free flow system is a prepayment system, but with users given until midnight the day after the crossing was made to make a payment without penalty. 95% of users of the Dartford Crossing pay in compliance with these charging rules and the 5% who do not are sent a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN). There is no category of ‘late payment’.

The number of UK PCNs issued since the introduction of the free flow charging scheme is as follows:

2015 - 2,106,748

2016 - 2,051,013

2017 - 1,869,800

2018 (up until 30/11/2018) - 2,014,737

Highways England pursue PCN cases vigorously, with 75 per cent of these paid following enforcement processes.