To ask the Secretary of State for Health what instructions he has given to trusts to (a) allow families to reclaim the cost of hospital car parking charges incurred when visiting their children and (b) provide free car parking bays in hospitals for parents visiting their children. (249783)

Car parking arrangements, including charges, are a matter for individual national health service bodies, based on their own local circumstances. However, guidance from the Department to support trusts in implementing parking policies, issued in December 2006, strongly recommends NHS bodies to provide free or discounted car parking to those patients and their relatives or primary visitors who have to use the car park regularly. The Department reminded NHS bodies of this in November 2008.