Lilian Greenwood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2016-05-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what proportion of (a) tolls and (b) fines related to non-payment of tolls were unpaid on the Dartford Crossing in each of the last three years; and what the cost to the public purse of unpaid fines was in each of those years.
Andrew Jones
A new payment system was introduced at the Dartford Crossing on 30 November 2014 known as Dart Charge. 93% of drivers are paying the charge on time and I understand that similar charging systems without barriers also do not achieve complete first time compliance. Cases of non-payment are followed up appropriately.
|
Year – Dart Charge |
Proportion of crossings charges not paid |
Proportion of unpaid Penalty Charge Notices |
Value of unpaid Penalty Charge Notices |
|
April 2015 – March 2016 (New system) |
7.5% |
Note 1 |
Note 1 |
|
30 November 2014 – March 2015 (New system) |
6.1% |
1.73% |
£13,431,945.07 |
|
Year – Pre Dart Charge |
Proportion of crossings where the charge has not been paid |
Number of violations* and DTDs** |
Value of unpaid road user charge from DTD passages |
|
April 2014 – 30 November 2014 |
0.36% |
107,449 |
£64,940 |
|
April 2013 – March 2014 |
0.34% |
151,311 |
£85,828 |
Note 1 – The proportion of unpaid Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) for April 2015 to March 2016 and the subsequent cost to the public purse of unpaid PCNs for that year cannot be accurately determined at this point in time because around 275,000 of these PCNs were issued in 2016 and are still in the early stages of the enforcement process. Action is ongoing and can take many months to complete so the proportion of unpaid PCNs relating to 2015/16 and the cost to the public purse can be expected to change as a proportion will be paid over the coming months.
*Violation – Any crossing for which there is no valid payment eg tailgaters.
**DTD – Dockets used to be issued to personal users of the Crossing with no means of payment that were allowed passage at that time.
