Enforcement is the last resort for unpaid traffic penalties

Enforcement is the last resort for unpaid traffic penalties.

You may have seen today a prominent article in The Times titled ‘Bailiffs sent to millions more motorists as traffic fines rise’ – it’s also possible that if you don’t have a subscription to The Times, you won’t have seen much beyond the attention-grabbing headline.

The article goes on to say that “councils are sending bailiffs to millions of motorists a year to collect unpaid traffic fines, with numbers doubling since the pandemic.”

The increased of use enforcement agents is in part a consequence of councils acting more robustly to pursue people who park illegally and ignore traffic regulations, and in part the implementation of carbon reduction measures, such as congestion charges, clean air zones and low traffic neighbourhoods. Local authorities use certificated enforcement agents that are authorised by the courts and are highly skilled at tracing and recovering unpaid debts and fines responsibly at no cost to the council.

There were more than 18 million penalty charge notices issued last year. Numbers have risen steadily and are up 18 per cent outside London since 2018. In 2023-24, according to CIVEA data, councils referred 4 million penalty charge notices to enforcement agencies, up from 2.4 million the year before, up from 1.3 million in 2017-18.

It’s important to understand that 4 million warrants issued does not mean 4 million people have received fines. In many cases, an individual will have multiple fines for parking or road charging infringements.

With more incidence of people infringing traffic regulations and acting with impunity, it is legitimate for local authorities to use the full extent of their powers, including court action. We expect our councils to recover debts and fines to pay for local services, such as schools, police, social care and even to repair our roads. Enforcement is the fairest way to hold to account those who attempt to evade paying their fines.

Individuals are written to six times over a period of five months before a warrant of control can be requested and passed to an enforcement agent. If we identify someone struggling to pay because of extreme circumstances, we will always work with them and support services to reach a resolution. Of the 4 million penalty charge notices passed for enforcement around a third will be returned to the council without action, after we have completed tracing.

A final point not covered in The Times article is that there is an estimated 10 million vehicles on our streets driving around without tax, MOT, insurance, incorrect DVLA details or false number plates. Many of these will be linked to other criminal activity.

Every day enforcement agents see motorists not respecting rules, parking where they want and ignoring traffic regulations. Persistent evaders especially blatantly ignore traffic laws and inconvenience the majority, who are forced to pay more taxes to subsidise the deviant actions of the minority.

So while the headline may be alarming, the fact is that penalty charge notices are used to keep our streets safe, our environment cleaner and to uphold justice in our communities. It is a last resort of local authorities, but also one of the most effective.