§ Lord Westburyasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they will publish figures recording the number of unpaid parking fines incurred by diplomatic missions in London during 1992.
§ The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Baroness Chalker of Wallasey)The information has been placed in the Library of the House. Details of those international organisations which incurred unpaid fines have also been provided. The figures may be reduced by late payments. The total of 4,166 represents a 19 per cent. reduction from the 1991 published figure of 5,145 fines, which has now been further reduced to 4,575 by late payments. This compares favourably with the same period in 1984 when almost 108,932 fines were recorded. We welcome this further reduction in unpaid fines and appreciate the co-operation of diplomatic missions and international organisations since the introduction of the parking policy. We shall continue to monitor carefully the level of unpaid fines and pressure diplomatic missions to reduce this still further.