Parking (Code of Practice) Act 2019

Question

15:08:00

Asked by

To ask His Majesty’s Government what progress they have made in implementing a code of practice under the Parking (Code of Practice) Act 2019.

In begging leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper, I declare my interest as the legislator responsible for the Private Member’s Bill that became the Parking Act 1989.

I thank the noble Lord for kicking off the very lengthy process that we are involved in today. The Government issued a code in February 2022, but it had to be withdrawn in June 2022 because of a legal challenge. Areas of challenge included concerns that the code incorporated lower caps than the industry caps on parking charges at the time and that it banned debt recovery fees. The Government are currently actively reviewing how best to raise standards in the industry and plan to launch a consultation about the private parking code of practice in the near future.

Oh dear. Following the success of my good friend the right honourable Sir Greg Knight in securing the Parking (Code of Practice) Act 2019, we still do not have an actual code in place six years on. Delays by the previous Government, through litigation and a need to consult—I think twice —more broadly, have all allowed things to come to a halt. We really must have the code, and I am therefore disappointed that the Minister refers to yet another consultation. This code is needed, so please can it arrive soon?

Hear, hear!

It sounds like there is unanimity around the Chamber on the need for this. Please be assured that I will follow this up to ensure that we do not wait another six years for the code. Consultation is very important. It is important that we take on board the views not only of the motoring public but of all the private parking organisations and motorists’ representatives. We do not want to end up with another legal challenge, which would hold it up even further. It is important we get it right this time.

My Lords, the RAC has said that private parking operators are on track to hand out a record 14.5 million fines this year. In addition to the long-awaited code of practice, will the Government go further and introduce a regulator with appropriate powers to protect motorists and ensure transparency across the system?

We want to make sure that we do as much as possible to protect motorists, but this is an industry that helps to regulate parking. Having been a councillor for many years, I know the distress that wrong and illegal parking can cause people, so we have to get the balance right. We will look at all these issues, including the regulator, as we go through the process of drawing up the new code. The important thing is that we get something in place as quickly as possible to put everyone out of the parking misery they have been suffering.

Can my noble friend say how the Government’s plans for greater devolution and multiyear funding settlements will help local authorities improve parking infrastructure and services?

I thank my noble friend. Giving local leaders the power and resources to deliver the solutions that are right for their area is at the heart of our Government’s devolution agenda. We have made £69 billion available to council budgets, and brought forward the first multiyear funding settlement in a decade, so that they can deliver better public services and drive forward our plan for change. The English Devolution White Paper was published in December 2024 and the Bill will come to us in due course, which I know noble Lords are all looking forward to. There will be an ambitious package of transport measures in there to give local leaders the tools and the flexibility they need to improve local transport networks and infrastructure. Through greater funding consolidation and multiyear settlements, authorities will have the flexibility to plan and deliver the services that are aligned to local priorities, and to design the transport systems that meet their local needs.

My Lords, I gather that a consultation will take place next week between the industry and the Minister. One hopes that a code will be set up, but the Government can determine fines. Does she agree with the leader of Bournemouth Council, Millie Earl, who, following an incident where fire engines could not get through on a road by the seafront, said: “We are really constrained in what we can do to deal with it”? The fines are now £35, which, as the former MP for Bournemouth East, Tobias Ellwood, said, is a very good bargain for parking for a day out.

It is very important that local areas can determine that themselves. It is not the Government’s intention to impose that on local areas, because it may vary across an area. It is very important that local areas can determine that themselves and fit it around their overall local transport strategy—that is key. There is a great difference between local authority car parking, where the money might be recycled into local services, and private parking. Sometimes there are agreements between the private parking companies, sometimes there are not. This is a matter for local determination.

My Lords, I declare an interest as a previous Transport Minister and pay tribute to the work of colleagues such as the noble Lords, Lord Kirkhope and Lord Brennan, in introducing and working with legislation. I make it clear to the Minister that companies have been stringing the Government along for many years and we are getting bogged down in process, but their business model totally depends on access to the DVLA register. It is only permissive for the Government to provide that information, to get them out of GDPR. Why do we not make it clear to the industry that we are going to get this solved, otherwise we will shut off access and its business will collapse straight away?

I would not take quite such a harsh view as my noble friend. On how the Government respond to the industry, there is a big industry here and we know that, as a result of the national code having to be withdrawn, it produced an update to the industry code, so the industry is trying to do something towards regulating itself, which we should commend. We will take account of that industry code when we draw up the national code to deliver better protections for motorists. My noble friend is quite right that we must make sure that the worst practices are dealt with, and the code will aim to make sure that they are.

My Lords, can the Minister outline the Government’s primary objectives for yet another consultation on private parking? What specific insights and further evidence do they hope to get from this? As she said, we have had two consultations on this already by the previous Government, and this seems to be another just waste of time, rather than getting this thing settled.

I understand Members’, motorists’ and the parking organisations’ frustrations, but the legal challenges that came forward in June 2022 relied heavily on the fact that there had not been proper consultation. That is why we need to make absolutely sure that we do it properly this time.

My Lords, one of the most frustrating elements of parking is when you turn up at the car park and discover that none of the three or four apps that you already have on your phone works in that car park. What will the Government do to try to introduce some level of commonality?

Again, I totally understand that frustration. What is important to motorists is that it is transparent when they arrive, so that they are able to make their own choice about whether they wish to use that car park. When you have a sign 12 feet up from the ground that you cannot read from your car, or when it has three columns of close-printed type in font size 6, it does not help anybody. All these matters are being considered. I hope that , as a result of the consultation, we will be able to do as much as possible to ensure that the process is transparent, so that when you turn up at a car park, you know what you have to pay and how long you will be able to stay there.

My Lords, I campaigned against cowboy wheel clampers because I saw the misery that rogue parking companies caused to motorists. Does my noble friend the Minister agree that, as the AA says, if there were an independent appeals process, a scrutiny oversight board and limits on what could go to court—as set out in the code of practice—the amount of time that courts spend on sorting out disputes could be massively reduced?

I thank my noble friend for all the work that she did on this—I am sure that the people in her area were grateful for it too. There is evidence of private parking appeals processes being unfair to motorists and insufficiently independent. It is important that motorists have confidence in the appeals process and that it is genuinely independent from the private parking industry. If motorists cannot trust the appeals process, they will be less inclined to engage with it. That could lead to worse outcomes for motorists. We will seek to further understand motorists’ concerns about the appeals process, and we are certainly looking at some of the ideas that my noble friend mentioned.