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Private parking · England, Scotland and Wales

The new private parking rules, explained

On 19 October 2026, Prime Minister Andy Burnham announced a crackdown on what he called rip-off parking charges. The next day the government laid a new Private Parking Code of Practice before Parliament. We have read all of it. Here is what actually changes for drivers, what does not, and when it starts.

In 30 seconds

  • 5 minutes to decide whether to park, 10 minutes to leave after your time ends.
  • Honest mistakes and emergencies cancelled on appeal, with evidence.
  • Paid but wrong registration, or forgot your permit: £20 on appeal.
  • The £100 maximum stays. Debt recovery fees stay for now.
  • Not in force yet. Around the end of 2026 at the earliest.
  • Private car parks only. Council tickets are not affected.
“These charges leave people feeling ripped off and out of pocket, so I'm putting a stop to them.”
Andy Burnham, Prime Minister

Check your situation

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What happened?

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Based on the Appeals Charter and grace period table in the Private Parking Code of Practice laid before Parliament on 20 October 2026. It applies once the code is in force.

What is changing

5 minutes to decide whether to stay

A guaranteed consideration period to read the signs and leave without a charge. 10 minutes at free car parks with more than 500 spaces.

10 minutes to leave after your time ends

A grace period of at least 10 minutes at most car parks. There is no grace period in clearly signed short-stay areas.

Honest mistakes cancelled on appeal

Checking directions, a medical emergency, illness, a breakdown, an overrunning appointment, a childcare delay or a broken machine. You need evidence.

£20 for slip-ups

Paid but entered the wrong registration, forgot a permit, or did not register at a free car park. The charge drops to £20 at first appeal.

Typos like 0 for O cancelled

One-character keying errors that the operator should have spotted are on the cancel list, not the £20 list.

Rule-breakers lose DVLA access

Operators that do not follow the code risk losing access to DVLA keeper data, which is how they find out who to send the charge to.

Charges paused while you appeal

Debt recovery must not start, or must stop, while your appeal to the independent service is pending.

An independent watchdog

A new Scrutiny and Oversight Board, with operators reporting how many charges they issue and how they handle appeals.

What is not changing

Most of the coverage has focused on the good news. These are the parts that motoring groups say did not go far enough.

The £100 maximum stays

The cap is frozen at £100. Which? had asked for £50. Operators must still offer at least 40% off if you pay within 14 days.

Debt recovery fees stay, for now

Operators can still add up to £70 once a charge is overdue. The government says it will consult in 2027 on cutting or scrapping this.

Two appeal services remain

The RAC asked for a single independent appeals body. That has not happened. POPLA and the IAS carry on as the second stage.

Council tickets are not affected

This is a code for private land only. Council PCNs, bus lanes, box junctions and clean air zones work exactly as before.

When does it start?

  1. 19 October 2026Prime Minister Andy Burnham announces the rules.
  2. 20 October 2026The Private Parking Code of Practice is laid before Parliament.
  3. Next 40 daysParliamentary scrutiny. The code cannot be issued until this ends.
  4. Issue + 21 daysThe code comes into force. The earliest that can realistically happen is around the end of 2026.
  5. 2027Consultation on debt recovery fees, and on the Competition and Markets Authority's remaining recommendations.

The government says it will publish the transitional arrangements for operators when the code comes into force. We will update this page when it does.

Our take

This is the first time the government, rather than the parking industry, has written the rules. That matters more than any single change. An operator that ignores the code risks losing access to DVLA records, and without those it cannot find out who to chase. That is a real stick, and the old voluntary codes never had one.

The Appeals Charter is the part most drivers will feel. POPLA's 2025 report lists keying errors and mitigating circumstances among the most common reasons people appeal, and those are exactly the situations on the new list: a machine that would not take a card, an appointment that ran late, a registration typed in wrong. Until now, whether those got cancelled depended on which company you were dealing with. Once the code is in force, it is written down.

But nobody should think the problem is solved. The cap is still £100. The £70 debt recovery add-on is still allowed. The two appeal services the RAC wanted replaced are still there. And around 17 million private parking charges were issued last year, so even a small change in how they are handled affects a lot of people.

What to do if you have a ticket right now

  1. 1

    Do not wait for the new rules

    Your appeal deadline is still 28 days from the notice. The code is not in force yet, and waiting could cost you the right to appeal.

  2. 2

    Appeal anyway

    Operators can already cancel for the reasons on the new list, and many do. Explaining a broken machine or a medical emergency, with evidence, is worth doing today.

  3. 3

    Send evidence with the first appeal

    The new code is clear that cancellations depend on reliable evidence. A photo, a receipt, a hospital letter or a recovery invoice.

  4. 4

    Do not pay while you appeal

    Paying is treated as accepting the charge, and closes your appeal.

Common questions

What are the new private parking rules?

A government Private Parking Code of Practice, announced by Prime Minister Andy Burnham on 19 October 2026. It gives drivers 5 minutes to decide whether to park and 10 minutes to leave, cancels charges for honest mistakes on appeal, cuts charges for slip-ups like a wrong registration to £20, and keeps the £100 maximum.

When do the new parking rules start?

Not yet. The code was laid before Parliament on 20 October 2026 and has to go through 40 days of scrutiny before it can be issued. It then comes into force 21 days after it is issued, so around the end of 2026 at the earliest.

Do the new rules apply to my ticket from before they start?

The new code applies once it is in force. For a charge issued before then, the current industry code that operators already follow still applies. It is still worth appealing, and still worth mentioning any of the circumstances the new code recognises.

Is there now a 10-minute grace period for parking?

Under the new code, yes, at most private car parks: at least 10 minutes after your paid or permitted time ends before a charge can be issued. There is no grace period in clearly signed short-stay areas, or for non-permitted users of residents-only parking.

What if I entered the wrong registration?

It depends on the mistake. A one-character typo, like 0 for O, should be cancelled on appeal. If you paid but put in a different car's registration entirely, the charge drops to £20 when you appeal at the first stage.

Is the maximum private parking charge going down?

No. It is frozen at £100. Operators must offer at least a 40% discount for payment within 14 days, and can still add up to £70 in debt recovery costs if a charge goes unpaid, although the government plans to consult on that in 2027.

Do the new rules apply to council parking tickets?

No. The code only covers private land. Council Penalty Charge Notices are civil penalties under the Traffic Management Act 2004 and still go to London Tribunals or the Traffic Penalty Tribunal if you appeal.

Do the rules apply in Scotland and Wales?

Yes. The code covers private parking in England, Scotland and Wales.

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Where this comes from

We have taken every rule on this page from the government's own announcement and the full text of the code, not from other coverage.

Keep reading

Voidly is an independent free tool and is not connected to the government or any parking company. This page summarises the Private Parking Code of Practice as laid before Parliament on 20 October 2026 and may change before it comes into force. It is general information, not legal advice.