Every NHS Trust Answers for Car Park Firms as Four Groups Park Free

• NHS trusts answer for the private firms that run their car parks, the Department of Health and Social Care said in Commons written answers on 2 November.
• Disabled people, frequent outpatients, parents of sick children staying overnight and night shift staff park free under NHS guidance tied to the NHS Standard Contract.
• The Private Parking Code of Practice, laid on 20 October, points to cancelling a ticket on appeal when a medical appointment overruns and the driver has evidence, though the answers do not say it covers NHS sites.

A Hospital Ticket Lands Weeks Later, and the Contractor Is Not the Only One Who Owes You an Answer

A camera reads your plate at the barrier on the way into a hospital car park. A consultant runs forty minutes late, the machine is on the far side of the ward, and a charge notice drops through the letterbox three weeks later. Who has to answer for it?

The Department of Health and Social Care put the answer in writing on 2 November, in three replies to Commons questions 37611, 37612 and 37672. NHS organisations are locally responsible for their car parking, the department said, including the technology used to run it, such as Automatic Number Plate Recognition. Then came the line every driver holding a ticket needs to read: “NHS trusts are also responsible for the actions of private parking contractors and should take appropriate action where patients, visitors or staff complain about those contractors.”

That puts the trust alongside the firm that sent the letter. The same replies list four groups who must be offered free parking as a minimum, and a separate government code, laid before Parliament on 20 October, sets rules on charge levels, grace periods and appeals that could apply to the operator on the other side of the barrier. Each piece has limits, and the limits decide what a driver can do today.

Four Groups Park Free, and the Definitions Are Narrower Than Most People Assume

The free parking rules sit in the NHS car parking guidance for trusts, last updated on 29 March 2022. The guidance rests on Service Condition 17.10 of the NHS Standard Contract, which requires trusts to make car parking available free of charge to the groups and at the times the guidance names.

The first group is disabled people. That means a holder of a valid Blue Badge attending hospital as a patient or visitor, or a disabled person employed by the trust. Patients and visitors park free for the whole of their attendance. Employees park free while at the hospital for work purposes.

The second group is frequent outpatient attenders. Parking is free for outpatients who attend an appointment at least 3 times within a month and for an overall period of at least 3 months. The guidance defines a month as 30 days.

The third group is the parents of sick children staying overnight. The parent or guardian of a child or young person under 18, admitted as an inpatient overnight, parks free between 7.30pm and 8.00am while visiting. The guidance caps this at a maximum of 2 vehicles.

The fourth group is staff working night shifts, meaning a shift that starts after 7.30pm and ends before 8.00am. They park free for the length of the shift.

Anyone outside those four groups has no guaranteed free parking under the mandatory rule. The guidance adds voluntary measures, and says charges, where they exist, should be reasonable for the area: concessions for visitors of relatives who are gravely ill or have an extended stay, pay on exit schemes so drivers pay only for the time used, and a waiver of additional charges when an overstay is beyond the driver’s control, such as treatment taking longer than planned. Those carry no obligation.

Who Answers When the Ticket Arrives: The Trust, Under Its Own Guidance

The 2022 guidance says the same thing the department repeated on 2 November: “NHS organisations are responsible for the actions of private contractors who run car parks on their behalf.” It adds that contracts should not be let on any basis that incentivises additional charges, with the example of “income from parking charge notices only”.

The practical result is a second door to knock on. A driver who disputes a charge from a contractor can appeal to the contractor, and can also write to the trust, which the department says should act when patients, visitors or staff complain. The guidance asks trusts to publish their parking policy, car parking finances and summarised complaint information with the action taken.

Private ticketing runs at scale. Private parking firms made a record 16.9 million requests to the DVLA for keeper details in the twelve months to March 2026, up 17 percent on the year before, and each request can lead to a charge notice.

What the New Code Gives a Hospital Visitor, if It Reaches the Site

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government published the Private Parking Code of Practice on 20 October and laid it before Parliament. It states that it comes into force at the end of the period of 21 days beginning with the day on which it is issued. The code’s pages give no issue date, so no start date can be given here. Under section 2 of the Parking (Code of Practice) Act 2019, either House has 40 days from the day of laying to resolve against the code, a count that skips any time Parliament is dissolved, prorogued or adjourned for more than four days. Only if neither House objects can the Secretary of State issue it, and the 21 days then start. A driver cannot yet rely on its minimums as rules in force.

Where it applies, the code sets several rules that apply in a hospital car park.

Time limits. Table B.1 sets the minimum consideration period, the time a driver has to read the terms, find a space and pay, at 5 minutes for pay and display and pay on departure sites, and the minimum grace period at 10 minutes. A footnote says the category of permitted users includes people with hospital appointments where time limited parking restrictions apply, and those users also get 5 and 10 minutes. The grace period does not stack into free parking: the code applies it only to a driver who otherwise complied with the terms and leaves within the period. The general rules are in the earlier report on 10 minutes of grace.

Ticketless cameras. In a car park where ANPR is in use and a tariff must be paid, a driver gets no charge by paying in full before leaving. Where the car park is free to use, no charge follows if the driver logs the registration in the terminal provided before leaving. For stays over 24 hours, payment or logging must happen within 24 hours of arrival.

Medical delays. The code’s Appeals Charter lists circumstances where a charge should be cancelled on appeal if the motorist provides reliable evidence. They include a driver or passenger who suffers the onset of illness, and a driver or passenger delayed by an overrunning medical appointment. A clinic that overruns is the situation the clause describes.

Money. The charge is capped at £100. A minimum 40% discount must be offered for payment within 14 days of the notice being issued, which takes a £100 charge down to £60 or less. If a charge becomes overdue, up to £70 can be added for debt recovery, a ceiling of £170. A Blue Badge holder who did not display the badge can have the charge cut to £20 after a first-stage appeal by supplying a copy of a valid badge, though only the first time; later appeals are at the operator’s discretion.

Appeals. A notice can be appealed within 28 days of delivery, and the operator must respond within 28 days or acknowledge the appeal and say when it will finish. A charge paid cannot be appealed except where payment released a vehicle, for example at a barrier, or evidence shows wrongdoing by the operator, and then the appeal must be made within 30 days of paying. After a rejected first appeal the driver can go to the second stage service, and debt recovery must wait for the outcome. POPLA, the private land appeals service, received more than 107,000 appeals in its latest annual report, and close to half of those that completed the process ended with the charge cancelled, so the second stage is worth using on a strong case.

One clause speaks directly to hospital stays. Appeals outside the 28 days must be considered where the appellant shows exceptional circumstances, and the list includes being hospitalised as an inpatient. The period restarts, enforcement including court action must be paused, and the operator is responsible for applying for a stay in any court proceedings.

What the Answers Leave Open

Question 37611 asked a direct thing: whether the code’s provisions on clear signage, mandatory grace periods and reduced penalties for transactional errors will apply to private operators managing car parks on NHS hospital sites. The reply does not answer it. It restates local responsibility, the four free groups and the trust’s liability for its contractors.

The code itself leaves room for doubt. It applies to private companies parking on relevant land in England, Wales and Scotland, a term defined by reference to Schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, and it tells operators and landowners to satisfy themselves that their land counts. Its exclusion covers on street parking and parking places provided or controlled by local authorities, and does not mention hospitals. Healthcare also appears among the land uses on the code’s indicative list for operator data reporting. A trust car park run by a contractor is not obviously outside the code, though no page read confirms it is inside.

Question 37672 asked what assessment the department had made of ticketless ANPR systems. The reply gave no assessment. All three questions were tabled on 23 October and received one identical answer on 2 November.

What to Do When a Charge Notice Arrives From a Hospital Site

Check the group first. A Blue Badge holder, a frequent outpatient who meets the 3 in 30 days over 3 months test, the parent of a child admitted overnight and a night shift worker should not be paying at all. Write to the trust and quote the NHS Standard Contract free parking requirement.

Keep the appointment letter and note the time the clinic ran over. The Appeals Charter asks for reliable evidence, so photographs of the entrance sign, the payment machine and any queue, with times, give an appeal something to stand on.

Appeal inside 28 days of the notice reaching you. A complaint to the operator counts as an appeal for the timing rules if it challenges the notice.

Copy the trust. The department says trusts should act on complaints about contractors, and the guidance asks them to publish complaint summaries and the action taken.

If you were an inpatient and missed the 28 days, say so in writing and name the clause on exceptional circumstances. Until the code is confirmed in force at the site, treat its numbers as the standard to cite and not as a rule the operator has to follow.

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