Burnham's Private Parking Code Sets 5-Minute Decision Window and £20 Appeal Cap, Keeps £100 Maximum Charge

Drivers in England, Scotland and Wales are getting a statutory code for private car parks, seven years after Parliament passed the law requiring one.

The Private Parking Code of Practice is due to be laid in Parliament today, Oct. 20, according to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. Prime Minister Andy Burnham announced it Monday as the latest in his series of "everyday fixes."

What the code says

Drivers get a guaranteed five minutes to decide whether to park. They get ten minutes to leave once a paid session ends before a charge can be issued.

Charges will be cancelled on appeal for honest mistakes, such as stopping briefly to check directions. The same applies to a medical emergency, a breakdown or a broken ticket machine.

For smaller slip-ups, the maximum on appeal is £20. The government lists forgetting a parking permit, entering the wrong registration, or failing to confirm the registration at the machine.

The overall maximum charge is frozen at £100, the same figure as the existing industry code. The code also creates an independent Scrutiny and Oversight Board.

The enforcement lever is DVLA data. Operators that break the rules risk losing access to the keeper records they use to find the registered owner of a car. Without that access, chasing payment becomes far harder.

The government also plans to add "car clocking", winding back odometers, to the official list of banned practices for used-car dealers. Fraudulently selling a clocked car is already illegal. The government says listing it will make enforcement easier.

The scale of the problem

Private firms issued a record 16.9 million parking tickets in 2025-26, according to RAC analysis of government data with the Press Association. That is up 17% from 14.4 million the year before.

At up to £100 each, the RAC Foundation figures suggest drivers could face more than £4.6m in charges every day. That is a ceiling, not a collected total. Many tickets are cancelled, challenged or settled for less.

Burnham pointed to the human cost. "Being a few minutes late back to your car or typing one digit of your numberplate wrong shouldn't end with a hefty fine landing on your doormat," he said.

One case cited by the BBC involved a woman in Derby taken to court over a £1,906 claim after taking longer than five minutes to pay. The charge was eventually dropped.

The AA has warned that some drivers pay up even when they have done nothing wrong, to avoid the hassle. It said many fear legal action and don't expect a fair hearing on appeal.

Reform attempts so far

This is not the first try. Legislation passed in early 2019. An official code was unveiled in early 2022 and lasted under six months before legal challenges from several parking firms forced its withdrawal.

The Guardian noted the new code looks less generous than that one in at least one respect. The withdrawn version required cancellation of a charge "in all mitigating circumstances." The new one caps smaller slip-ups at £20 on appeal rather than wiping them out.

An industry code written by the British Parking Association and the International Parking Community has existed since 2024. The BPA welcomed the new framework but noted that many of its principles already appear in the voluntary code.

Where critics say it falls short

The consumer group Which? called the rules "long overdue" but said they fall well short of what drivers need to fight back against private parking "cowboys."

Its main objection is the cap. Which? had called for a £50 maximum, the level used for some charges under the withdrawn code. "It is particularly concerning that the government has shied away from a £50 price cap," it said.

Which? also criticised the lack of an independent appeals body "that could rein in the industry's worst practices." It said the government took no action on debt recovery fees, which it says are regularly added without motorists' knowledge and push unfair charges higher.

The RAC's head of policy, Simon Williams, called the code a "step in the right direction" but "not the leap" the motoring group wanted. He said the RAC has long sought a ban on debt recovery fees on top of parking charge notices. It also wanted a single independent appeals body to replace the two industry-run ones. Neither is included. "The fact we finally have a code seven years on from the Private Parking Code of Practice Act becoming law is positive," Williams said.

Angela Rayner, the Housing, Communities and Local Government Secretary, said: "Parking should be straightforward, not another everyday hassle."

What happens next

Ministers have not given a date for the code to take effect. They say they want it in force "as soon as possible."

On debt recovery fees, currently capped at £70, the government has promised a consultation next year. It will examine whether to cut the cap or scrap the fees altogether.

The code's first real test is whether the DVLA-access threat holds up if operators challenge it. Parking firms' legal action sank the 2022 code.