Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether her Department has considered introducing an automatic payment option for clean air zone charges nationwide, similar to the system operating in London; and whether she will review the level of penalty charges for late or non-payment to ensure they are proportionate.

Autopay, where a driver could register their vehicle with the service and payment is taken automatically when that vehicle enters a Clean Air Zone, was considered as part of the CAZ digital service user research and design phases. This is not an existing feature of GOV.UK Pay.

Autopay was not taken forward at the time because it would have added significant cost and complexity to the service and would have delayed the point at which the service (and therefore the first CAZs) could go live. Penalty Charges for late payment are a matter for local authorities.