Hilary Benn – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hilary Benn on 2014-06-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the additional cost of additional appeals to the Parking Traffic Appeals Service if a 25 per cent discount is given to motorists who lose an appeal at tribunal against the issue of a parking ticket.

Brandon Lewis

As recommended by the Transport Select Committee (Local authority parking enforcement, HC 118, October 2013), the Government intends to work in partnership with a local authority to assess introducing a 25% discount to motorists who lose an appeal at tribunal level. This trial will allow us to evaluate the impacts, before rolling out the policy nationally.

The underlying policy rationale is the current lack of any discount at an appeal stage (but with a discount operating if the driver does not appeal) acts as a disincentive for drivers with genuine cases to appeal. I would remind the rt. hon. Member that parking fines are a quasi-judicial process, not a source of revenue for councils. This Government believes in fairness, in contrast to the Labour Government which actively told councils to adopt aggressive parking enforcement practices.