- 5 min
- to decide whether to park
- 10 min
- to leave once your time is up
- £20
- most you pay on appeal for an honest slip-up
- £100
- maximum charge, unchanged
- £70
- debt collection fee cap, unchanged for now
Figures from the government's announcement of 19th October 2026.
What was announced
On 19th October 2026 the Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, announced a new Private Parking Code of Practice as one of a series of what the government calls “everyday fixes”. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government laid it before Parliament the next day. It covers charges on private land in England, Scotland and Wales: supermarket, hospital and motorway service car parks, and every other private car park that issues them.
The government puts the number of private parking charges issued in the UK last year at just under 17 million. This is the second attempt at a statutory code: Parliament passed the Parking (Code of Practice) Act in 2019, and the first code, published in 2022, was withdrawn within months after legal challenges from parking firms.
These charges leave people feeling ripped off and out of pocket, so I'm putting a stop to them.
The new rules, one by one
On arrival you get a guaranteed five minutes to read the signs and decide whether to park at all, without a charge.
When your paid time or free period ends, you get ten minutes to get out before a charge can be issued.
A charge must be cancelled on appeal for an honest mistake, such as stopping briefly to check directions, and for things outside your control: a medical emergency, a breakdown, a broken ticket machine. You may need evidence that your case fits the government's Appeals Charter.
Forgot to display a permit, typed the wrong registration, or did not confirm it in the machine? On appeal, the most you can be asked for is £20. Wrong registration explained
Operators that break the code risk losing access to DVLA keeper records, which is how they find out who you are. Without it, they cannot trace the keeper behind a camera-issued charge.
Operators must report data on the charges they issue and how they handle appeals, and a new independent Scrutiny and Oversight Board will review it.
What does not change
For all the headlines, several things drivers and campaigners asked for are not in this code.
- Maximum charge
- Stays at £100. Which? had asked for £50, and the withdrawn 2022 code had cut most charges to £50.
- Debt collection fees
- The £70 cap stays for now. The government will consult in 2027 on cutting or scrapping it.
- Second-stage appeals
- There is still no single independent appeals service. POPLA and the IAS carry on.
- Council tickets
- Not covered. The code is about charges on private land, not council penalty notices.
- POFA's deadlines
- The Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 is untouched, including the 14-day rule for posted notices where no ticket was left on the car.
That last point matters most for anyone holding a charge. Whether a posted notice arrived in time is still decided by Schedule 4 of POFA, and you can check your dates with our free calculator or read how POFA works.
When does it start?
Not yet, and not soon. Under section 2 of the 2019 Act, Parliament has 40 days from the day the code is laid to vote it down, with breaks of more than four days not counted. If it survives, the government issues it, and it comes into force at the end of 21 days starting on the day it is issued.
Laid on 20th October, the 40 days run to about 28th November. Add the 21 days and the earliest it could apply is mid-to-late December 2026. That is our reading of the Act's timetable; the government has only said it will bring the code in “as soon as possible”.