§ Mr. Gordon PrenticeTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what powers police officers have to intervene to prevent contractors removing a vehicle in circumstances where the police believe no offence has been committed. [28504]
§ Mr. MichaelI understand that my hon. Friend has in mind action taken by contractors on behalf of a local authority which carries out on-street parking enforcement under provisions contained in the Road Traffic Act 1991. The Act provides for orders to be made in respect of particular geographical areas which transfers the enforcement responsibility from the police to the local authority. Arrangements of this kind operate throughout London and in certain other parts of the country. Vehicles contravening parking regulations are issued with penalty charge notices (PCNs). The penalty charges are civil debts, due to the local authority and enforceable through a streamlined version of the normal civil debt recovery process.
As the whole purpose of these parking provisions is to enable responsibility for enforcement to be transferred from the police to local authorities, the police have no specific powers to intervene in the type of situation which concerns my hon. Friend.
Drivers who wish to dispute local authority enforcement action, which may include wheelclamping and vehicle removal, are entitled to make representations to the authority concerned. If these are rejected, they may 336W appeal to the independent adjudicators who are appointed by the Parking Committee for London which oversees local authority parking enforcement as the Metropolis under section 73 of the Road Traffic Act 1991.