Private parking fines: operators issue £1bn worth of tickets in 6 months as number of charges soars 24%

Private parking firms issued an average of 31,000 parking tickets per day in the second half of last year, according to new figures.

The number of tickets issued soared by 24% in the last six months of 2022, with a record 5.7 million handed out by private operators between July and December. That compares to 4.6m in the same period in 2021.

The figures were obtained from the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) by the PA news agency, which estimates that, in total, the charges are worth as much as £1.1 billion.

It requested data on how many times parking firms had requested driver records from the DVLA for alleged infringements in private car parks such as at shopping centres, leisure facilities and motorway service areas. It found that one operator - Parking Eye - was responsible for 1.1 million requests but that a total of 184 firms submitted requests between July and December, at a cost of £2.50 per record.

Private parking firms have been accused of using aggressive and underhand tactics to pursue payment and applying unreasonable fees to tickets as well as facing accusations that their signs are misleading or inaccurate.

A code of conduct for operators has been proposed to address these issues but it was put on hold in July 2022 following legal challenges from parking firms. Among the changes in the code were  a maximum charge of £50 - down from the current £100 - a grace period for drivers returning to their car late and the banning of any debt collection fees. It also proposed a single, independent appeals process.

RAC Foundation director Steve Gooding said: “If only the rest of the economy was booming like the private parking sector, perhaps we’d all be feeling more prosperous. Private parking looks set to be a billion pound-a-year business, if it isn’t already, with demands for up to £100 a time being sent out to drivers at the rate of more than one every three seconds.

“There’s widespread agreement that the Government should be setting up a regulatory framework for the industry, but it is nearly four years since the relevant law was passed. These numbers surely suggest that what’s needed is action now.”

A Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities spokeswoman said: “We are determined to create a new private parking code of practice which will bring in a fairer system with motorists’ interests at its heart. We’re working with industry and consumer groups to introduce the code as quickly as possible.”