Road Traffic Offences
Transport
Jeremy Browne (Shadow Minister, Home Affairs; Taunton, Liberal Democrat)
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many (a) parking tickets and (b) speeding fines were issued for vehicles used by her Department in each of the last 10 years; and what the cost to the public purse of those penalties was in each year.
Jim Fitzpatrick (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Transport; Poplar and Canning Town, Labour)
The Department for Transport and its agencies maintain the policy that road traffic violations such as parking tickets and speeding fines remain the responsibility of the individual and are not reimbursed from public resources. The main exception to this is the Government Car and Despatch Agency (GCDA) which pays parking tickets when they arise operationally in circumstances where the overriding security requirements necessarily dictate the choice of parking location.
The Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA) also pays parking fines under exceptional circumstances such as during court appearances.
The following outlines the cost to the public purse for parking tickets in each of the last 10 complete financial years:
| £ | |
| 1999-2000 | 2,610 |
| 2000-01 | 1,820 |
| 2001-02 | 2,760 |
| 2002-03 | 4,900 |
| 2003-04 | 7,570 |
| 2004-05 | 5,610 |
| 2005-06 | 7,500 |
| 2006-07 | 5,990 |
Of these figures, VOSA contributed £30 towards one parking ticket in 2005-06 and £90 towards one parking ticket in 2006-07.
All monetary values are rounded to the nearest £10.
Complete records detailing the actual number of parking tickets and speeding fines issued for vehicles used by the Department in each of the last 10 years could be provided only at disproportionate cost.