Welsh Government Raises Engine Idling Fines From £20 to £150 on 30 September

• The Welsh Government will replace the £20 fixed penalty for leaving an engine running while parked with a range of £75 to £150 from 30 September 2026.
• The £20 figure has not moved in more than 20 years, and the Welsh Government admits it holds no data on how many idling fines councils have issued, believing the number to be very low or zero.
• Drivers are only fined if they refuse to switch off when an authorised council officer asks, and the Welsh Government has ruled out exemptions for older cars without stop-start or for drivers worried about a flat battery.

Leaving Your Engine Running in Wales Is About to Cost Up to Seven and a Half Times More

Drivers in Wales who sit in a parked car with the engine ticking over are about to face a much bigger bill. The Welsh Government has confirmed that from 30 September 2026 it will scrap the flat £20 fixed penalty for a stationary idling offence and replace it with a penalty range of £75 to £150.

The change comes from an amendment to the Road Traffic (Vehicle Emissions) (Fixed Penalty) (Wales) Regulations 2003, the rules that let Welsh councils fine drivers for running an engine while stopped on a public road. The Welsh Government set out the new range and the start date on its own guidance page, Tackling stationary engine idling, which was last updated in March 2026.

At the top of the new scale, a fine of £150 is seven and a half times the current £20 penalty. Even the lowest figure in the new range, £75, is almost four times what drivers pay today.

The Welsh Government’s reasoning is simple. In its consultation response, published in January 2026, it said the £20 amount was set in legislation more than two decades ago, has never risen with inflation and is too low to deter anyone. Local authorities told officials at a workshop that the current fine was too small to make enforcement worth the cost of paying an officer to do it.

What Counts as Idling and When You Can Be Fined

Stationary idling means stopping a vehicle on a public road and leaving the engine running. Rule 123 of the Highway Code already tells drivers to apply the parking brake and switch off the engine when the vehicle is stationary, and the Welsh Government’s guidance repeats that it is an offence to leave an engine running unnecessarily.

The fine is not automatic. Under the 2003 regulations, an officer authorised by the local council must first have reasonable cause to believe you are idling, and must then ask you to switch off. You only commit the offence if you refuse. At that point the officer can issue a fixed penalty notice, or the case can go to a magistrates’ court, where the maximum fine is £1,000, level 3 on the standard scale.

The Welsh Government lists a handful of situations where running the engine is acceptable:

• Diagnosing an engine fault.
• Sitting stationary in traffic.
• De-icing or de-misting the windows for safety before setting off.

It also spells out what does not count as a good reason. Waiting to pick up or drop off passengers, charging a phone, listening to music and running the heater or air conditioning for comfort are all named as unacceptable reasons to keep the engine running.

That list catches a lot of ordinary behaviour. The parent waiting outside the school gate with the heater on in November, the driver collecting a relative from a hospital entrance, or the taxi sitting on a rank with the engine running to keep the cabin warm would all fall on the wrong side of it if an officer asked them to switch off and they refused.

Who Sets Your Fine and Why It Could Differ by Town

The biggest practical change for drivers is that there will no longer be a single national figure. The Welsh Government’s plans give each council discretion to set its own penalty from within the £75 to £150 range.

In its draft regulatory impact assessment, the Welsh Government said local authorities would have the power to pick amounts from within the prescribed range for idling offences, and that higher penalties would make enforcement more viable. Its consultation invited views on setting different levels to reflect local circumstances, with respondents suggesting tougher fines outside schools and hospitals.

The consultation also shows how divided opinion was. Out of 94 people who answered the question on local flexibility, 44 agreed councils should be able to set their own level, while 38 disagreed. Several respondents warned about a postcode lottery, where the same offence costs a driver £75 in one county and £150 in the next. Others feared councils would treat the power as a way to raise money, and some raised concerns about third-party enforcement firms chasing fines.

The Welsh Government said in response that local flexibility lets councils adjust penalties to local problems and keep enforcement cost-effective, and that it would look at how to reduce confusion and disparities across Wales.

The Numbers Behind the Rise

The consultation ran from 5 August to 30 September 2025 and drew 101 responses from members of the public, councils, health bodies and environmental groups. The original proposal was a narrower range of £50 to £100, with a start date of August 2026.

Respondents pushed back hard on the lower figure. Of the 93 people who answered the question on whether £50 would deter drivers, 48 disagreed or strongly disagreed. Many argued that £50 was too low, and some suggested £100 to £300. The final range the Welsh Government has confirmed, £75 to £150, sits 50 percent higher at both ends than the one it consulted on, and the start date has slipped from August to 30 September.

On what happens to the money, 65 respondents backed ring-fencing any surplus from idling fines for air quality measures, against 19 who opposed it. The Welsh Government described ring-fencing as a sensible approach, saying it would stop councils facing criticism that idling enforcement was a revenue source for wider spending.

The most striking figure comes from the Welsh Government’s own impact assessment. It admits it does not hold any data on how many idling fines have been issued in recent years, and that the number is assumed to be very low or zero. In other words, a power that has sat in Welsh law from 2003 has barely been used, and the new higher fines are aimed at making councils willing to use it.

The same document estimates that a full-time enforcement officer could cost a council around £25,000 a year plus on-costs, and suggests councils could add idling checks to the duties of existing parking enforcement officers. That last point is the one drivers should note. The people who already patrol town centres and school streets for parking offences could be the same people asking you to switch off.

No Exemption for Older Cars or Flat Batteries

Several people who responded to the consultation asked for leniency. Some wanted exemptions for older vehicles without stop-start technology. Others pointed out that drivers of unreliable cars keep the engine running out of fear it will not restart, for example with a weak battery. There were also concerns about the effect of bigger fines on low-income and rural drivers.

The Welsh Government rejected those requests. It said it does not see a need for an exception in the regulations for a vehicle that is not working properly, such as one with a flat battery, and that the same applies to cars without stop-start. Its position is that every driver is responsible for switching off when stationary, and that every driver has the chance to avoid a fine entirely by switching off when asked.

It did confirm one point that will reassure drivers stuck in queues. The rules do not apply where a vehicle is idling in queuing traffic.

For anyone running an older car without automatic stop-start, the combination of higher fines and no exemptions means the habit of leaving the engine on while waiting now carries a real cost in Wales.

What Welsh Drivers Should Do Before 30 September

The simplest protection is the one the law already asks for. Switch off when you are parked and waiting, whether that is outside a school, a GP surgery, a station or a shop. If an authorised officer asks you to turn the engine off, do it straight away. Refusing is what turns a conversation into a fixed penalty notice.

If you are worried about your battery, get it tested now. Many garages and parts retailers check batteries for free, and a weak battery that struggles to restart the car will not count as an excuse under the Welsh Government’s approach.

Check your own council’s website after 30 September. Each Welsh council can choose where in the £75 to £150 range its fines sit, so the amount you pay will depend on where you are caught. Drivers who travel across county boundaries for work, school runs or hospital visits could face different amounts in different places.

If you do receive a notice and believe it was issued wrongly, the 2003 regulations let you request a hearing rather than pay, and let you ask the council to withdraw a notice issued to the wrong person or in error. Keep any evidence, such as dashcam footage or a note of the time and location, that shows you were stuck in traffic or dealing with a genuine fault.

Drivers in England are not affected by this change. The equivalent English rules, the Road Traffic (Vehicle Emissions) (Fixed Penalty) (England) Regulations 2002, are separate. Anyone who regularly drives into Wales from Cheshire, Shropshire, Herefordshire or Gloucestershire should still assume the Welsh rules apply the moment they cross the border.

For more on how councils use enforcement powers against drivers, read our coverage of how POPLA saved UK drivers £5.4 million in cancelled parking charges and the £37.7 million councils collected in bus lane fines in six months.

Sources

• Welsh Government, Tackling stationary engine idling: https://www.gov.wales/tackling-stationary-engine-idling
• Welsh Government, Stationary vehicle engine idling: summary of response: https://www.gov.wales/stationary-vehicle-engine-idling-summary-response-html
• Welsh Government, Road Traffic (Vehicle Emissions) (Fixed Penalty Notice) (Amendment) (Wales) Regulations 2026: draft regulatory impact assessment: https://www.gov.wales/road-traffic-vehicle-emissions-fixed-penalty-notice-amendment-wales-regulations-2026-draft-html
• The Road Traffic (Vehicle Emissions) (Fixed Penalty) (Wales) Regulations 2003: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/wsi/2003/300/contents/made