§ Lord Brougham and Vauxasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether their privatisation programme has taken or will take a substantial proportion of parking stock out of public ownership; and whether they will lay regulations before Parliament to bring car parking within the scope of the Fair Trading and Sale of Goods Acts.
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Trade and Industry (Baroness Denton of Wakefield)The Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 gives local authorities the power to provide off-street public car parks where it appears to them to be necessary to do so in order to relieve or prevent traffic congestion. The Government have no powers to require authorities which provide such car parks to dispose of them.
There is no provision in the Fair Trading Act to extend the definition of services by statutory instrument so that it would apply to the provision of car parking space. The Green Paper on Abuse of Market Power published by the President of the Board of Trade on 30th November 1992 invited views on 3WA options for strengthening UK legislation on monopolies and anti-competitive practices. Under all the three options outlined in the Green Paper there would be the possibility to cover the provisions of car parking space and analogous grants of rights to enter or use property. There are no plans to amend the Sale of Goods Act 1979 or the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 to include car parks in so far as the car parks are not already within the scope of these Acts.