Fixed Penalties

Mrs. Villiers
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) how many penalty charge notices have been issued in each region of the UK in each of the last five years;

(2) how many penalty charge notices have been issued by each local authority in each of the last five years;

(3) how many penalty charge notices have been issued by each local authority in each of the last 12 months.

Maria Eagle
Under the Road Traffic Act 1991, Decriminalised Parking Enforcement (DPE) powers allow local authorities to take over responsibility for enforcing breaches of parking regulations from the police. Available information on penalty charge notices issued by result and individual local authority was first published in the annual Home Office publication “Offences relating to motor vehicles, England and Wales 2002, Supplementary tables”—tables 22(a) to 22(b). Copies of the annual publications from 2002 to 2005 (latest available) are available in the Libraries of the House.

Within England and Wales, penalty charge notices data are submitted to the Ministry of Justice on a calendar year basis from local authorities and do not contain a month by month breakdown.

Information on matters arising in Scotland and Northern Ireland are matters for the Scottish Executive and the Northern Ireland Office respectively.