§ Viscount Astorasked Her Majesty's Government:
What analysis they have made of the National Parking Adjudication Service report which states that although 20 new councils joined the scheme in 2003 there has been no significant increase in the volume of appeals compared to the previous year. [HL155]
§ Lord Davies of OldhamThe National Parking Adjudication Service (NPAS) provides free and informal independent adjudication in relation to decisions by local authorities outside London to impose penalty charges for parking contraventions. If 151WA a local authority rejects representations against the imposition of a penalty charge then they are required to inform the recipient of their right to appeal to an independent adjudicator. Whether they choose to do so is a matter for the recipient of the penalty charge.
Some 8,537 appeals were made to NPAS in the financial year 2002–03 as a result of the issue of 2,156,813 penalty charge notices, an appeal rate of 0.40 per cent. Some 9,205 appeals were made in calendar year 2003 as a result of the issue of 2,447,971 penalty charge notices, an appeal rate of 0.38 per cent. The chief adjudicator in her foreword to the 2003 report suggests that the lower than expected number of appeals may well be due to some councils having become more familiar with the decriminalised parking enforcement (DPE) scheme. For example, Manchester generated 1,162 appeals in 2002–03 but only 806 in 2003.
It is also relevant that the 20 new councils joined the DPE scheme at various points in 2003, half of them from 1 September onwards. While those joining the scheme in the second half of the year will have issued penalty charges any resultant appeals will have taken time to work through the system and some will not have arrived with NPAS until early 2004. In this respect it should be noted that comparing financial year 2002–03 (April 2002 to March 2003) with calendar year 2003 is not an exact like for like comparison.