Every Driver Would Get 10 Minutes of Grace Under the Government Parking Code

• The government’s proposed Private Parking Code of Practice would set a minimum 10 minute grace period and a 5 minute consideration period, and freeze the private parking charge cap at £100.
• DVLA keeper data requests, a proxy for private parking charges issued, reached over 15 million in the year to September 2025, up from 1.9 million in 2012.
• Debt recovery fees would be capped at £70 for now, and operators that break the code would face the heaviest sanction of losing access to DVLA data.

What the Proposed Private Parking Code Would Change

The government has published its final stage impact assessment for a new Private Parking Code of Practice, setting out in detail what it intends to lay before Parliament. The document, produced for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, went up on GOV.UK on 20 October 2026. It is a proposal, not law. The code is not in force, and the assessment does not give a start date.

What it does contain is a clear list of rules that would apply to every private car park operator in England, Scotland and Wales if the code is laid. The assessment describes the aim as raising industry standards, improving oversight and appeals, and protecting motorists from unfair or disproportionate charges.

In the meantime the industry runs on a Sector Single Code of its own, published in June 2024 and in effect from October 2024, with a transition period that is due to end in December 2026.

The government’s consultation on the new code closed on 26 September 2025. Its GOV.UK page still says officials are analysing the feedback and that the outcome will be published later. So the impact assessment is the most detailed look yet at where the government is heading, and the consultation outcome has yet to appear.

Grace Periods, the £100 Cap and the Discount

For the ordinary driver, the headline proposal is time. The assessment proposes consistent minimum grace and consideration periods of 10 and 5 minutes. It defines a grace period as the length of time added to a parking period within which time no parking charge applies. A driver who overstays by a few minutes in a pay and display car park would have a 10 minute buffer before a charge could be issued. The consideration period applies as well, though the assessment says none applies to pre booked car parks.

On the size of the charge, the government says the proposal will freeze the parking charge cap at £100. That is a freeze, not a cut. The cap stays where it is.

The assessment also touches the early payment discount, which many drivers use to settle a charge quickly. It cites industry data from the IPC that around 56% of motorists pay at the discounted rate. The government says it will look at consulting on the discount rate once the code has been laid, following recent recommendations from the Competition and Markets Authority. So the discount is not settled in this document.

A further change targets a specific kind of mistake. The £20 reduced charge would be repurposed for genuine mistakes, with the assessment giving the example of forgetting to enter a registration in a free car park that uses automatic number plate recognition. Anyone who has driven away from a free car park having forgotten to tap in a plate on a screen will recognise the scenario.

The two time allowances do different jobs. The grace period is extra time added to the period a driver has paid for or is allowed, within which no charge applies. The consideration period is set at 5 minutes. The assessment calls both periods consistent minimums, which would mean every operator has to offer at least the same time.

The Scale of Private Parking Charges

The assessment gives one number that shows how large this part of motoring has become. Requests from parking operators for keeper details held by the DVLA rose from 1.9 million in 2012 to 8.4 million in 2019, and reached over 15 million in the year to September 2025. The assessment treats that count as a proxy for the number of parking charges issued, as there is no official annual total of charges.

A rise from 1.9 million to over 15 million in 13 years is roughly an eightfold increase. It sits behind the government’s argument for a single, enforceable code. Operators need keeper data from the DVLA to pursue unpaid charges, so the volume of requests is a fair guide to the volume of letters landing on doormats.

The government is open about the limits of its own estimates. Paragraph 32 of the assessment says it is unable to provide a tightly defined estimate of the costs of the proposal to business. For illustration it assumes a 5% reduction in the number of parking charges, within a range of 1% to 9%. That is an assumption used to cost the policy, and it is not a forecast of what will happen to fines.

Debt Recovery Fees, Appeals and the DVLA Sanction

Many drivers who have received a private parking letter know the second wave of cost: the debt recovery fee added when a charge goes unpaid. The assessment proposes a £70 debt recovery fee cap as an interim position. It also says the government intends to consult further, including on the option of banning debt recovery fees altogether. So there is no ban in the current proposal, and the £70 figure is described as interim.

Appeals are the other pressure point. The assessment proposes that the people deciding second stage appeals must have no affiliation with the private parking industry. It also says the government will ask the Scrutiny and Oversight Board whether it should recommend a government appointed appeals service. That question is left open.

Enforcement of the code itself rests on a sanction that operators will take seriously. The assessment says failure to comply will have the heaviest sanction of operators losing access to DVLA data. Without keeper details, an operator cannot trace the owner of a vehicle and cannot send the charge. The code would also bring in a certification scheme accredited by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service, and a Scrutiny and Oversight Board to supervise it.

What Is Still Undecided

Several of the biggest questions are open. The start date is not stated. The consultation outcome has not been published. The discount rate is to be looked at once the code has been laid. The £70 debt recovery cap is an interim figure with a possible ban to be consulted on. And the question of a government appointed appeals service has been handed to the Scrutiny and Oversight Board.

That list is worth reading before acting on any headline about parking fines. What is firm in the document is the direction: a minimum grace period, a frozen cap, independent appeal decision makers and a sanction tied to DVLA data. What is not firm is the timing and several of the numbers.

What Drivers Should Do Now

Nothing in the proposal changes the rules today. The Private Parking Code of Practice is a proposal at impact assessment stage, so the existing industry code, and its transition period running to December 2026, still governs private car parks.

Drivers can still use the facts in the document. A charge of up to £100 is the ceiling the government proposes to hold, and a £70 debt recovery fee is the interim limit it has in mind. The proposed 10 minute grace period and 5 minute consideration period give a clear measure of what the government regards as fair treatment for someone who overstays briefly.

The next steps are for the government to publish the consultation outcome and then to lay the code. Until it does, the assessment is the best guide to where the rules are heading. The code would apply across England, Scotland and Wales.

For a motorist, the 15 million keeper requests tell the story of how common these letters have become. The proposal is the government’s answer, and the details above show what it would and would not change.

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Sources:

• GOV.UK: Private Parking Code of Practice: final stage impact assessment
• GOV.UK: Private parking code of practice: consultation