My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Margaret Beckett) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
There were 5,484 outstanding parking and other minor traffic violation fines incurred by diplomatic missions and international organisations in the United Kingdom recorded during the year 1 January 2006 to 31 December 2006. These totalled £506,475. In April this year, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office wrote to all diplomatic missions and international organisations concerned giving them the opportunity either to pay their outstanding fines or to appeal against them if they considered that the fines had been issued incorrectly. As a result of subsequent payments totalling £22,713 and formal appeals lodged, there remains a total of 4,859 (£448,965) unpaid fines for 2006*. The table below details those diplomatic missions and international organisations that have outstanding fines totalling £1,000 or more.
Diplomatic Mission/International Organisation No of fines Outstanding Amount in £ Saudi Arabia 319 29,620.00 China 272 25,630.00 Sudan 244 23,550.00 Egypt 210 20,065.00 Turkey 194 18,420.00 France 186 17,910.00 Russia 167 15,650.00 Afghanistan 133 12,840.00 Guinea 117 11,280.00 Kuwait 100 9,600.00 Germany 101 9,600.00 Zambia 92 8,860.00 Hungary 91 8,650.00 Pakistan 92 8,480.00 North Korea 90 8,370.00 Brunei 85 7,500.00 Libya 79 7,440.00 Qatar 74 7,205.00 Ghana 74 7,030.00 Kazakhstan 70 6,850.00 Greece 68 6,600.00 Bangladesh 64 6,465.00 Iran 69 6,380.00 Georgia 64 5,850.00 Sierra Leone 103 5,650.00 Cyprus 61 5,650.00 Jordan 59 5,550.00 USA 60 5,210.00 Angola 61 5,150.00 Mozambique 55 4,970.00 Malaysia 50 4,920.00 Ivory Coast 52 4,720.00 Oman 51 4,650.00 Lithuania 45 4,430.00 Tunisia 46 4,340.00 Uzbekistan 44 4,150.00 Algeria 45 4,000.00 Honduras 41 3,900.00 United Arab Emirates 46 3,425.00 Senegal 33 3,200.00 Jamaica 32 3,060.00 Mongolia 30 2,950.00 Kyrgyzstan 28 2,780.00 Thailand 28 2,680.00 Yemen 28 2,500.00 Kenya 29 2,480.00 Poland 32 2,480.00 Italy 28 2,250.00 Romania 26 2,440.00 Iraq 25 2,400.00 Tanzania 25 2,140.00 Ukraine 22 2,000.00 Ethiopia 24 1,950.00 Belgium 20 1,950.00 Bulgaria 20 1,900.00 Nigeria 24 1,800.00 Syria 18 1,800.00 Latvia 17 1,585.00 South Africa 17 1,550.00 Mexico 13 1,405.00 Vietnam 16 1,400.00 El Salvador 14 1,380.00 Morocco 17 1,360.00 Malta 13 1,300.00 Azerbaijan 14 1,200.00 Malawi 14 1,200.00 Botswana 13 1,060.00 Swaziland 13 1,050.00 Gabon 10 1,000.00 TOTAL 4,517 418,810.00 * This figure includes 46 fines (£4,530) that are in dispute by missions which claim not to have received the original penalty notices. These could not be resolved before issue of the Statement.
The number of outstanding fines incurred by diplomatic missions in the United Kingdom for non-payment of the London congestion charge since its introduction in February 2003 until 3 April 2007 was 74,198. The table below shows the 10 diplomatic missions with the highest value of outstanding fines.
Mission Number of outstanding fines Value £ USA 15,150 1,484,765 Nigeria 6,949 682,370 Sudan 5,633 545,990 Japan 4,119 386,150 Tanzania 3,119 298,940 Kenya 3,099 292,830 South Africa 2,773 267,290 Sierra Leone 2,619 252,310 Germany 2,515 223,950 Zimbabwe 1,641 157,430