A private parking code the government shelved in 2022, after the industry it targets took it to court, finally reached Parliament this week. The charge cap and add-on fee it sets are exactly what that industry already charges.
Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
In short. The Private Parking Code of Practice, the statutory code required by the Parking (Code of Practice) Act 2019, was laid before Parliament on 20 October 2026, more than seven years after the Act passed [1]. Its general charge cap is £100 and its debt recovery fee ceiling is £70 (Clauses 8.2.1 and 9.1) [2], the same two figures the parking industry's own voluntary code has used since October 2024 [5]. A tougher government code, with lower caps and no debt recovery fee at all, was withdrawn in June 2022 after the industry it targeted took the government to court [5]. The government's own evidence, published alongside the new code's consultation, calls the £70 fee "disproportionate" and records debt recovery agencies' average profit margin at 63.1% [5]. Two documented mistakes: four stars.
Picked from this week's GOV.UK publications feed: a statutory code seven years overdue, launched with a Downing Street press release and ministerial quotes, verified live with a 40-day Parliamentary scrutiny period now running. It scores on three criteria: the scale of motorists affected, the same-day press and political salience, and a live scrutiny deadline that could still change what comes into force. This is a Tier 2 structured teardown, built from the code's own clauses and the government's own evidence base for them.
Seven years, one withdrawal, two numbers
Sir Greg Knight's private member's bill became the Parking (Code of Practice) Act 2019, placing a legal duty on the Secretary of State to prepare and lay a code of practice covering private parking charges and appeals [5]. The government tried once, publishing a code in February 2022 that capped most charges below the level the industry was then charging and banned the add-on debt recovery fee outright [5]. Parking and debt recovery firms challenged it in court. The government withdrew the code that June while it reviewed the charge levels [5]. With no statutory code in force, the industry's own two trade associations wrote their own, the Industry Code, which took effect in October 2024 with a £100 charge cap and a £70 debt recovery fee [5]. The code laid before Parliament this week, under the heading "Option 3: Government adopts Industry Code with new compliance framework" in the government's own options paper, adopts those same two figures [5]. The duty is now satisfied on paper. Parliament has 40 days to object before the code can be issued, and a further 21 days after that before it takes effect [1].
The claim, tested
| The claim | What we found | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| Prime Minister Andy Burnham, in the same-day press release: "Being a few minutes late back to your car or typing one digit of your numberplate wrong shouldn't end with a hefty fine landing on your doormat" [4] | The code's own Appeals Charter lists both scenarios, a minor keying error and a forgotten permit later supplied, under "circumstances where reduced charge of £20 applies following first-stage appeal" (Clause 19.1(iii)), not among the charges that should never be issued (Clause 19.1(i)) [2]. The full charge, up to the £100 cap, is issued first. The motorist must spot it, lodge an appeal and supply evidence before it drops to £20 | The fine does land on the doormat. What changes is what happens after you appeal it |
| The code "fulfils" the 2019 Act's duty and the press release frames it as reform: "PM puts the brakes on rip-off parking charges" [4] | Clause 8.2.1 sets the general charge cap at £100; Clause 9.1 sets the debt recovery fee ceiling at £70 [2]. Both match the industry's own voluntary code exactly, not the lower caps and fee ban of the version withdrawn in 2022 [5] | The government's own options paper records this choice, in its own words, as "a weaker position than the previous withdrawn Code" |
| The press release promises the government will go "further still, by consulting as soon as possible next year on private parking debt recovery fees, including on whether to cut an existing £70 cap or scrap the fees altogether" [4] | The £70 fee is the exact figure the 2022 legal challenge was partly fought over. The government's own evidence states debt recovery agencies' average profit margin from 2019/20 to 2021/22 was 63.1%, more than three times the 18.9% and 14.5% margins the two trade associations report for their own parking operator members, and concludes "there is also some strong evidence that the current DRF cap of £70 is disproportionate" [5] | The fee the government's own evidence calls disproportionate is written into the code anyway, with the decision on it deferred to a further consultation |
What the code actually changes
None of this means the code changes nothing. For the first time, a single set of minimum consideration and grace periods applies to every accredited operator by law, not by voluntary trade body membership: at least five minutes to decide whether to park and ten minutes to leave once a session ends, set out in Table B.1 of Annex B, with larger car parks getting longer still [2]. New, codified grounds for cancelling a charge on appeal cover medical emergencies, breakdowns and broken payment machines [2]. A UKAS-recognised Certification Scheme will independently assess and monitor operators and debt recovery agents for compliance, rather than leaving that to the trade associations operators choose to join [3]. Before this code, an operator who joined no trade association at all was not bound by any code; after it, every operator is. That is a real structural change, even if the two numbers that generate most complaints have not moved.
Credit where due
The government has not hidden the history here. Its own options assessment names the 2022 withdrawal, the legal challenge, the industry's own replacement code and the reasoning for adopting its figures in public, page-referenced detail, which is exactly the paper trail that makes this teardown possible [5]. The mandatory grace periods, the new cancellation grounds and the move from voluntary trade-body coverage to a universal, independently certified scheme are genuine protections that did not exist before this week, for every motorist using private parking in England, not just those who already knew to check the small print. Ministers were also explicit that the fee question remains open and committed to a timetabled consultation on it, rather than quietly shelving it for another seven years.
Verdict
Four stars, from two documented mistakes. The code closes a genuine regulatory gap that had sat open since 2019, and some of what it adds, especially the mandatory grace periods and the move to one certified scheme, is real. The mistake is in the framing: a press release built around a motorist who should never feel a "hefty fine landing on your doormat" describes a code whose actual charge cap and debt recovery fee are the two figures that generate that fine, unchanged from what industry already charges itself, with the one number both sides fought over in 2022 now simply deferred again.
The star score counts two documented mistakes: (1) the press release's "shouldn't end with a hefty fine landing on your doormat" framing describes outcomes the code's own Appeals Charter places after a first-stage appeal, not before a charge is issued; and (2) the code sets the general charge cap and debt recovery fee at the same levels the industry already charges, a position the government's own options assessment calls weaker than the code it withdrew in 2022, while locking in a £70 fee its own evidence calls disproportionate pending a further consultation. One fall in the 1 to 3 band: four stars; the bands are on the ratings page. Checked directly against the Private Parking Code of Practice (PDF, 65 pages), the gov.uk guidance page, the Private Parking Certification Scheme page, the PM's press release and MHCLG's options assessment (56 pages), fetched 21 October 2026. The document is tracked in the Daily Register; a revision, including the outcome of the 40-day Parliamentary scrutiny period, will get a diff entry.
Sources
- Private Parking Code of Practice, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, published 20 October 2026
- The Private Parking Code of Practice (PDF), laid before Parliament 20 October 2026
- Private Parking Certification Scheme, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, published 20 October 2026
- PM puts the brakes on rip-off parking charges and car scams, gov.uk news, 19 October 2026
- Private parking code of practice: options assessment (PDF), Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, 31 March 2025, updated 15 May 2025