Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to prevent NHS trusts from generating surpluses from car parking income charged to staff, patients and visitors.

Free National Health Service hospital carparking is in place for in-need groups. This includes disabled blue badger holders, frequent outpatient attenders, parents of children staying overnight, and NHS staff working overnight.

Car parking charges, where they do exist, are a significant control mechanism within trusts to manage capacity as there are a limited number of car parking spaces available for patients and staff. The income from car parking is primarily used to pay for the cost of running the car park, for example security and maintenance costs. Any surplus income is re-invested in NHS services.

All trusts are expected to follow the published NHS Car Parking Guidance. This states that where car parking charges do exist, they should be reasonable for the area. The guidance is avaiable at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nhs-patient-visitor-and-staff-car-parking-principles/nhs-patient-visitor-and-staff-car-parking-principles