Dartford-Thurrock Crossing: Tolls

(asked on 25th May 2016) - View Source
Questioner
Lilian Greenwood Portrait
Lilian Greenwood
(Labour - Nottingham South)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what proportion of (a) tolls and (b) fines related to non-payment of tolls were unpaid on the Dartford Crossing in each of the last three years; and what the cost to the public purse of unpaid fines was in each of those years.

Answered by
Andrew Jones Portrait
Andrew Jones
This question was answered on 8th June 2016

A new payment system was introduced at the Dartford Crossing on 30 November 2014 known as Dart Charge. 93% of drivers are paying the charge on time and I understand that similar charging systems without barriers also do not achieve complete first time compliance. Cases of non-payment are followed up appropriately.

Year - Dart Charge

Proportion of crossings charges not paid

Proportion of unpaid Penalty Charge Notices

Value of unpaid Penalty Charge Notices

April 2015 – March 2016 (New system)

7.5%

Note 1

Note 1

30 November 2014 – March 2015 (New system)

6.1%

1.73%

£13,431,945.07

Year - Pre Dart Charge

Proportion of crossings where the charge has not been paid

Number of violations* and DTDs**

Value of unpaid road user charge from DTD passages
(Not inclusive of money not recovered from violations as this historical data was not collected)

April 2014 – 30 November 2014

0.36%

107,449

£64,940

April 2013 – March 2014

0.34%

151,311

£85,828

Note 1 – The proportion of unpaid Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) for April 2015 to March 2016 and the subsequent cost to the public purse of unpaid PCNs for that year cannot be accurately determined at this point in time because around 275,000 of these PCNs were issued in 2016 and are still in the early stages of the enforcement process. Action is ongoing and can take many months to complete so the proportion of unpaid PCNs relating to 2015/16 and the cost to the public purse can be expected to change as a proportion will be paid over the coming months.

*Violation - Any crossing for which there is no valid payment eg tailgaters.

**DTD - Dockets used to be issued to personal users of the Crossing with no means of payment that were allowed passage at that time.

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