RAC urges private parking companies to release data
The RAC is calling on private parking companies to publish ‘full and transparent’ complaints data to prove their claims that drivers who challenge tickets often succeed.
The industry’s two trade associations, the British Parking Association (BPA) and the International Parking Community (IPC), do not publish any information about the number of complaints members receive about parking charge notices, or how many are subsequently cancelled.
There is also little information available about the second-stage appeals process, which is available to drivers if their original appeal has been rejected. The two appeals bodies, Parking on Private Lands Appeals (POPLA) and Independent Appeals Service (IAS), both of which are funded by the trade associations, only publish limited data which it often out of date and lacking figures around the percentage of appeals that are successful.
RAC analysis of government data published in July 2025 found that private parking firms made a record 14.4 million requests to the DVLA for vehicle keeper details in the 2024/25 financial year – the equivalent of nearly 40,000 a day.
14,5 million tickets
RAC head of policy Simon Williams said: “After we predicted that private parking companies were on track to issue 14.5 million tickets in the space of just a year, the industry claimed there wasn’t an issue with tickets being issued unfairly and drivers are often successful in getting them overturned when they appeal.“While stories of drivers being treated poorly are all too common, data on the true number of complaints made to operators isn’t available. Even the information published by the industry’s two appeals bodies in their annual reports isn’t that revealing due to it either being out of date or scant.
“With the government now consulting on what should be in the official Private Parking Code of Practice, we wanted to draw attention to the current lack of data about complaints. We believe the industry should have to publish the volume of complaints made to operators, including the reasons tickets were issued and the nature of the complaints, and whether or not they were cancelled.
“In the meantime, we call on the private parking industry to voluntarily publish full and transparent complaints and appeals data.”
