The Civil Enforcement of Parking Contraventions (England) General Regulations 2007

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations, together with the Civil Enforcement of Parking (Representations and Appeals) (England) Regulations 2007 (S.I. 2007/3482), provide for the civil enforcement of parking contraventions in England (including Greater London) in accordance with Part 6 of the Traffic Management Act 2004. Part 6 and the two sets of Regulations accordingly supersede the provisions of Part II and Schedule 3 of the Road Traffic Act 1991.

Part 1 of these Regulations makes provision for preliminary matters including the citation, commencement and application of the Regulations (regulation 1), their interpretation (regulation 2), including in particular when a penalty charge is to be treated as “outstanding” for the purposes of these Regulations (see regulation 13(5)(a)), and the service of documents by post (regulation 3). Nothing in regulation 3 applies to the service of any notice or order made by a county court.

Part 2 relates to penalty charges. Regulation 4 enables penalty charges to be imposed for parking contraventions. A penalty charge is payable by the owner of the vehicle concerned (regulation 5(1) and (2)), except that regulation 5(3) and (4) makes special provision with respect to hired vehicles. In accordance with regulation 6, a penalty charge is not to be imposed except on the basis of a record produced by an “approved device” (see section 92(1) of the Traffic Management Act 2004 and the Civil Enforcement of Parking Contraventions (Approved Devices) (England) Order 2007 (S.I. 2007/3486) or information given by a civil enforcement officer as to conduct observed by him. Regulation 7 prohibits criminal proceedings and fixed penalty notices under the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988 in respect of parking contraventions in civil enforcement areas; but an exception is made for pedestrian crossing contraventions. Where such a contravention is the subject of criminal proceedings or of a fixed penalty notice, the issue of a penalty charge notice under the Regulations is prohibited and any penalty charge which has been paid must be refunded.

Regulation 8 defines a penalty charge notice and introduces the Schedule which makes detailed provision as to such notices including their content. Regulation 9 enables a civil enforcement officer, where he has reason to believe that a penalty charge is payable for a stationary vehicle in a civil enforcement area, to fix a penalty charge notice to the vehicle or hand one to the person appearing to him to be in charge of it. Regulation 10 makes provision for the service of a penalty charge notice by post, on the basis of the evidence of an approved device or where a civil enforcement officer has been prevented by some person from serving one in accordance with regulation 9 or had begun to prepare a penalty charge notice in accordance with regulation 9, but the vehicle was driven away before it had been served under regulation 9, and for the time limits applicable to notices served by post. Regulation 11 makes it an offence to interfere with a penalty charge notice served by its being fixed to a vehicle, except by or under the authority of the owner or person in charge of the vehicle or the enforcement authority.

Provision is made by Part 3 as to the immobilisation of vehicles. Regulation 12 defines the circumstances in which an immobilisation device may be fixed to a vehicle, requires a notice to be fixed to the vehicle at the time of immobilisation and creates the offences of interfering with the notice or the immobilisation device. Regulation 13 specifies exceptions to the general power to immobilise and regulation 14 specifies the pre-requisites for the release of a vehicle from an immobilisation device.

Part 4 provides for the appointment of adjudicators by enforcement authorities and for the functions of those authorities relating to adjudicators to be discharged through joint committees. By regulation 15 the London authorities are required to discharge these functions through a single joint committee and provision is made for the arrangements for the joint discharge of functions under the Road Traffic Act 1991 by those authorities to be continued in force under the new legislation until superseded. Regulation 16 requires the non-London English authorities to act through one or more joint committees (with a minimum membership of 3 authorities each) and also provides for arrangements under the 1991 Act to be continued as between English enforcement authorities until superseded. Enforcement authorities are required by regulation 17 to appoint a sufficient number of adjudicators and provision is made for parking adjudicators holding office under the 1991 Act immediately before the coming into force of these Regulations to continue in office.

Part 5 is concerned with the enforcement of penalty charges. Regulations 19 and 20 provide for the service of a notice to owner by an enforcement authority in respect of an unpaid penalty charge and specify the contents of a notice to owner and the time limit for service. Provision is made by regulations 21, 22 and 23 for the service of charge certificates in respect of unpaid penalty charges (where a notice to owner or penalty charge notice under regulation 10 has been served and the avenues of appeal have not been pursued or have been pursued unsuccessfully), for charge certificates to be enforced through a county court and for county court orders to be set aside where the respondent serves a witness statement stating one of the matters mentioned in regulation 23(2).

In Part 6, regulation 24 requires the function of setting the levels of charges under Schedule 9 to the Traffic Management Act 2004 to be discharged by the London local authorities through a joint committee. Regulation 25 applies section 55 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, with modifications, to the income and expenditure of enforcement authorities under Part 6 of the Traffic Management Act 2004 and regulation 26 provides for the carrying forward of the surpluses of non-London authorities in accounts kept under section 55 as that section applied to those authorities under orders made under Schedule 3 to the Road Traffic Act 1991.

A full impact assessment of the effect that this instrument will have on the costs of business and the voluntary sector is available from Traffic Management Division, Department for Transport, 2/06 Great Minster House, 76 Marsham Street, London SWIP 4DR (telephone [phone]) and can be found on the website of the Department for Transport at www.dft.gov.uk/.