Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department has issued guidance to local highways authorities on the issuing of (a) on-street and (b) off-street municipal parking fines by outsourced contractors where contractors provide financial incentives to their parking wardens.

The Department for Transport’s ‘Statutory Guidance for Local Authorities in England on Civil Enforcement of Parking Contraventions’ provides advice to local authorities intending to contract out civil parking enforcement functions either on-street or off-street. This states that such contracts should not involve rewards or penalties that incentivise the use of enforcement agents. Under Section 87 of the Traffic Management Act 2004, local authorities in England with civil parking enforcement powers must have regard to this statutory guidance.