The government’s statutory Private Parking Code of Practice was laid before Parliament on 20 October, and on Sunday the BBC published a line-by-line check of what it actually changes. The answer matters to anyone who drives to a supermarket, a retail park or an out-of-town shopping centre, because those are among the privately managed car parks the code covers. Some of the headline protections already existed in the industry’s own rulebook. Others are genuinely new, and they change what happens when a shopper appeals.
This article sets out what the code says, what is new and what is not, what you would pay in common supermarket car park scenarios, when the rules are likely to bite, and what retailers who rent or own car parks need to do before the new regime starts.
In short
- The code is statutory: it was laid in Parliament on 20 October 2026 under the Parking (Code of Practice) Act 2019 and covers England, Wales and Scotland, but not Northern Ireland.
- The £100 cap is frozen: the maximum charge stays at £100, cut to £60 if paid within 14 days, exactly as under the current industry code.
- New free cancellations: charges must be cancelled on appeal for illness, an overrunning medical appointment, childcare delays, a breakdown or being stuck in a queue to leave, where the industry code offered only a £20 reduction or nothing.
- The £70 debt fee survives for now: ministers will consult next year on cutting or scrapping it, which motoring groups say is where small charges balloon into court claims.
- Timing: a 40-day scrutiny period runs first, then the code takes effect 21 days after it is issued, so the old rules are likely to govern most of the Christmas shopping peak.
What has the government actually announced?
Prime Minister Andy Burnham announced the code on the evening of 19 October, describing it as the latest of his government’s “everyday fixes”. “Being a few minutes late back to your car or typing one digit of your numberplate wrong shouldn’t end with a hefty fine landing on your doormat,” he said in the government’s press release. “These charges leave people feeling ripped off and out of pocket, so I’m putting a stop to them.”
The code itself was laid before Parliament the next day, 20 October, by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. It is published on GOV.UK alongside the government’s response to the 2025 consultation, a final stage impact assessment, a new certification scheme for operators and, from 23 October, an explanatory memorandum signed by Florence Eshalomi, the minister responsible. The full set of documents is available in the government’s Private Parking Code of Practice 2026 collection.
The code applies to “relevant land”, the legal term for privately managed parking such as supermarket, retail park, hospital, station and leisure car parks. Council-run car parks and on-street parking are covered by a separate statutory regime and are not affected. According to the explanatory memorandum, the code extends to England, Wales and Scotland.
The Parking (Code of Practice) Act 2019 began life as a private member’s bill and placed a duty on ministers to produce a code. A first government code was laid in February 2022 but withdrawn in June 2022 after a legal challenge from the industry. In the gap, the two trade associations, the British Parking Association (BPA) and the International Parking Community (IPC), wrote their own Sector Single Code, published in June 2024 and in force since October 2024.
The government ran a call for evidence in July 2023 and a consultation from July to September 2025, which drew 4,526 responses according to the press release. The new government code will replace the Sector Single Code when it comes into force, the explanatory memorandum says.
The parking code is one of a run of consumer measures that ministers have badged as tackling “everyday rip-offs”. The same press release announced that car clocking, winding back a used car’s odometer, will be added to the list of banned commercial practices in Schedule 20 of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024. “Nobody works hard for their money just to be deceived by a dodgy trader,” said Kate Dearden, the minister for consumer action.
The government also listed action on airline charges, rogue traders, school uniform costs and subscription traps. The last of those will directly change how shoppers cancel memberships and delivery passes, as our analysis of the UK subscription contract rules due from 1 January 2027 explains. Together, these measures shift more of the burden onto businesses to prove that their terms were clear and fairly applied.
The Competition and Markets Authority has also been involved. The consultation response says the code satisfies a recommendation in a CMA letter of April 2025 that the government should clarify that the five-minute consideration period is a minimum rather than a maximum. The government says it intends to consult further on the CMA’s remaining recommendations after the code is published.
Why does this matter to UK shoppers?
Private parking enforcement has grown sharply in a decade, and shopping trips are a big part of the reason. Most private car parks now run on automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras that log the time a car enters and leaves, then match it against a payment or a free-stay limit. Supermarkets and retail parks were early adopters because ANPR lets them offer free, time-limited parking for customers without staff on the gate.
The government’s impact assessment uses DVLA “keeper at date of event” requests, which operators must make to find the registered keeper of a car before sending a charge, as a proxy for volume. Those requests rose from 1.9 million in 2012 to 8.4 million in 2019 and to more than 15 million in the year to September 2025. The government’s press release says just under 17 million private parking charges were issued in the UK last year. The BPA’s own figures, quoted in the assessment, show the number of ANPR-managed sites rose by 80% between 2018 and 2022.
Not all of that growth is bad practice, the impact assessment concedes: more sites are managed, and cameras catch more genuine overstays. But the government also admits it “does not currently have access to data” showing how many charges result from deliberate rule-breaking versus honest mistakes. For the grocery shopper who misjudges a big weekly shop, or the parent delayed by a child at the till, that distinction is the whole point.
Supermarkets are landowners, not bystanders
In most supermarket and retail park car parks, the retailer or the landlord contracts a parking operator, and the operator issues the charges in its own name. The shopper’s contract is with the landowner, set out on the signs at the entrance, which is why the code places duties on how terms are displayed. Grocers are already under closer regulatory scrutiny this autumn, as our report on the CMA’s designation of Aldi and Lidl as large grocery retailers showed, and car park policy is one of the most visible ways a store’s reputation is made or lost before a customer reaches the door.
The code’s data rules make this link explicit. Operators will have to report figures to their trade association and to a new oversight board, broken down by the primary use of the land, and “Retail” is one of the listed categories. For the first time, it should be possible to see how many charges are issued in shop car parks compared with hospitals, stations or residential sites.
What is genuinely new, and what was already in place?
The BBC’s analysis, published on 25 October, found that several of the protections ministers highlighted were already in the industry’s code. The five-minute consideration period, the 10-minute grace period, the £100 cap with a £60 early payment rate, and the £20 reduction for some honest mistakes all appear in the Sector Single Code. The difference, as the AA’s head of roads policy Jack Cousens told the BBC, is who holds the pen. “Up until now, the private industry have held the pen on changing the code of practice. Now the pen is firmly in the hand of the government,” he said.
The table below compares the two codes on the points that matter most to shoppers, based on the government code, its consultation response and the BBC’s comparison.
| Rule | Sector Single Code (in force since October 2024) | Government code (laid 20 October 2026) | Change for shoppers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who writes and changes the rules | BPA and IPC trade associations | Secretary of State, after consultation, with an independent Scrutiny and Oversight Board | New: rules can no longer be changed by the industry alone |
| Consideration period | Minimum 5 minutes | Mandatory minimum 5 minutes at all sites except pre-booked parking, explicitly a floor not a threshold | Largely the same; clarified as a minimum |
| Grace period after a stay ends | 10 minutes | Minimum 10 minutes, except short-stay sites offering under 30 minutes | Largely the same |
| Maximum charge | £100, or £60 within 14 days | £100, or £60 within 14 days, frozen | No change |
| Illness, medical delay, childcare delay, breakdown | Reduced to £20 on appeal | Must be cancelled on appeal | New: these now cost nothing |
| Stuck in a queue to leave the car park | Not a listed circumstance | Must be cancelled if the driver stayed in the car | New |
| Wrong registration entered, permit not displayed | £20, first occasion only | £20, with the first-occasion limit removed | Improved for repeat honest mistakes |
| Debt recovery fee | Up to £70 | Up to £70, as an interim measure | No change yet; consultation promised for 2027 |
| Enforcement of the rules | Trade association membership, needed for DVLA data | Independently assured, UKAS-recognised certification scheme tied to DVLA access | New: stronger in principle, untested in practice |
A Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesperson rejected suggestions that little had changed, telling the BBC: “We’ve introduced significant changes to make life fairer for drivers, including cancelling the £20 charge for circumstances outside someone’s control like an overrunning medical appointment, and helping motorists get a fairer outcome with strengthened requirements for appeals.”
What would you pay in a supermarket car park under the new code?
The code’s Appeals Charter sorts mistakes into three groups: situations where a charge should not be issued at all, situations where it must be cancelled on appeal, and situations where it must be reduced to £20. Everything else remains subject to the standard charge. Applied to everyday shopping trips, the outcomes look like this.
| Scenario at a supermarket or retail park | Outcome under the government code | What you pay |
|---|---|---|
| You arrive, read the signs, find no space and leave within 5 minutes | Within the consideration period; no parking event | £0 |
| Your free stay ends while you are loading the boot and you leave 8 minutes late | Within the 10-minute grace period (not on short-stay sites) | £0 |
| You pay at the machine before leaving an ANPR car park | No charge should be issued if paid in full before exit | Tariff only |
| You are stuck in a queue for the exit barrier on a busy Saturday | Must be cancelled on appeal if you stayed in the car | £0 after appeal |
| Your child is taken ill in the store and you overstay | Onset of illness: must be cancelled on appeal | £0 after appeal |
| The pay machines are broken and there is no phone or nearby alternative | Must be cancelled on appeal | £0 after appeal |
| You typed an O instead of a 0 in your registration | Minor keying error: must be cancelled on appeal | £0 after appeal |
| You entered your partner’s registration, or forgot to enter it on a free customer terminal | Reduced charge on appeal | £20 |
| You overstayed by 45 minutes with no mitigating reason | Standard parking charge | £60 within 14 days, £100 after |
| You ignored the charge and letters | Charge plus debt recovery fee, then possible court costs | £170 plus any court fees |
Two caveats apply. The cancellation and reduction outcomes depend on evidence: the government says motorists will have their charge cancelled “where they can provide evidence” that a listed circumstance applies. And the code’s consideration and grace periods are minimums; the consultation response says operators “must give due consideration to the circumstances stated in a motorist’s appeal” and must treat the periods as floors, “not automatic thresholds for enforcement”.
Free customer car parks with registration terminals
Many shops now ask customers to tap their registration into an in-store tablet to validate free parking. The government accepted a trade association suggestion to extend the “pay before exit” protection to free-to-park ANPR car parks: provided a driver enters their registration on the terminal before departure, they should be exempt from a charge. If the driver forgets to enter it at all, the outcome is a £20 reduced charge on appeal rather than the full amount, and the code removes the old rule that this concession applied only once.
Blue Badge holders and families
The code contains specific protections for Blue Badge holders and drivers with disabilities, a group that relies heavily on close-to-store parking at supermarkets and retail parks. Where a Blue Badge holder forgets to display their badge but later supplies a copy that was valid at the time, the charge must be reduced to £20. Unlike the other honest mistakes, this concession keeps a “first occasion” rule, with later cases left to the operator’s discretion, after a disability charity warned that repeated reductions could undermine the badge scheme.
The code also says operators should recognise that drivers with disabilities “might reasonably need longer consideration period and grace periods”, requires disability awareness training for front-line customer-facing staff, and recommends clear surface markings for Blue Badge, parent and child and electric vehicle charging bays. Retailers reviewing their own approach can find wider context in our guide to retail accessibility, which covers the physical journey from car park to checkout.
For families, the most practical change is the new cancellation ground for delays caused by childcare arrangements. Under the industry code such delays earned, at best, a £20 reduction. Under the government code they should cost nothing on appeal, provided the driver can show what happened.
When will the new rules apply, and will they cover Christmas shopping?
The code is now subject to a 40-day period of parliamentary scrutiny, during which MPs and peers can object. If no objection succeeds, ministers issue it, and the code itself states that it “will come into force at the end of the period of 21 days beginning with the day on which it is issued”.
On a straight calendar count from 20 October, the 40 days run to late November, and 21 days after that lands in the week before Christmas. Under the 2019 Act, however, periods when both Houses are adjourned for more than four days do not count towards the 40 days, so any recess pushes the timetable back. The government says only that it will bring the code into force “as soon as possible”. Shoppers should therefore assume that the industry code, not the government code, governs their car park visits for most or all of the Christmas trading period, including Black Friday weekend.
- 19 October 2026: Prime Minister announces the code.
- 20 October 2026: code, consultation response and impact assessment laid and published.
- 23 October 2026: explanatory memorandum published for the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee.
- 40 days from 20 October, excluding long recesses: scrutiny period ends, then the code can be issued.
- 21 days after issue: code comes into force and replaces the Sector Single Code.
- After commencement: the government starts setting up the Scrutiny and Oversight Board, and updated motorist guidance appears on GOV.UK.
- 2027: consultation on debt recovery fees, including whether to scrap the £70 cap.
Watch for new signs at your local store
One provision will affect regular shoppers directly once the code is live. Where a site changes its terms in a way that would not be obvious to a returning driver, such as introducing enforcement for the first time or bringing in time-limited free parking, the operator must put temporary notices at the entrance for at least four months. The aim, according to the code, is that “regular visitors who might be familiar with the old terms do not inadvertently incur parking charges”. It is a direct response to complaints from shoppers caught out when a familiar free car park quietly switched to camera enforcement.
Does the code go far enough on the costs that hurt most?
The sharpest criticism concerns what happens after a charge is ignored or disputed. Operators may add a debt recovery fee of up to £70 per charge, and costs can climb further if a case reaches the county court. The BBC highlighted the case of Rosey Greenwood, who was pursued for £1,906 over 10 charges at the Copeland Street car park in Derby because she had paid but not within five minutes of arrival, and of Hannah Robinson, who was asked for £11,390. The claim against Greenwood was dropped after publicity.
The RAC’s head of policy, Simon Williams, told the BBC: “We’ve long called for the banning of debt recovery fees being added on top of parking charge notices, and a single independent appeals body to replace the two industry-run ones, but neither have been included [in the code] which is disappointing.” The AA also wants a single independent appeals process. “Drivers need to have confidence that when they are making their representations, it’s being heard by an independent body, as opposed to the private parking operators and their trade bodies marking their own homework,” Cousens said.
In its consultation response, the government describes keeping the £70 cap as “an interim measure to ensure motorists are no worse off while the evidence base is strengthened”. It has promised to consult “as soon as possible next year” on cutting the cap or scrapping the fees altogether. In the 2025 consultation, motorists who answered favoured a fee of £10 to £25, while operators and debt recovery agents argued £70 was the minimum viable level.
The £100 cap: what each side wanted
The cap was the most contested question in the consultation. According to the government response, 58.8% of motorists who answered opposed keeping £100, most favouring a cap of £50 to £70, while 37.8% supported it as a meaningful deterrent. A minority of operators argued for £110 to £164 to reflect inflation, and both trade associations urged higher levels. The government chose to freeze it.
Alison Tooze, chief policy officer at the BPA, told the BBC that retaining £100 was important: “Evidence shows that meaningful deterrents support compliance and good behaviours, helping ensure parking remains available for those who need it.” The IPC said it was reviewing the code in detail and that “any changes must remain fair to motorists while staying workable”. Parking campaigner Lynda Eagan was blunter: “They’ve tweaked a few things here and there, but it’s not actually going to make an awful lot of difference to people.”
How will the rules be enforced this time?
The code is not directly enforceable in court. Its leverage comes from DVLA data: an operator cannot send a charge to a registered keeper without buying their details from the DVLA, at £2.50 a record according to the RAC, and under the code that access will depend on compliance. The explanatory memorandum says compliance will be assessed through “an independently assured Certification Scheme recognised by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service”, and trade associations that fail to uphold the standards may lose their accredited status.
That matters because the existing system has a mixed record. The RAC reported on 19 October that the Government Internal Audit Agency assessed 90 car park management companies in 2024/25 on how they handle DVLA keeper data: 36 (40%) were rated red, 11 (12%) amber and 43 (48%) green. In theory, operators already lose data access if expelled from their trade association; campaigners told the BBC this has not happened in practice, and the government insists it will in future.
A new oversight board and real data
The code creates what the government calls a “fully independent” Scrutiny and Oversight Board, and requires operators to keep records for at least 36 months and report data on the charges they issue and how appeals are handled. The press release says the process of setting up the board will start once the code is in force. The impact assessment puts the public sector cost of running the framework at £0.69 million.
The government’s own modelling hints at the scale of change it expects. In an illustrative scenario in which charges fall by 5%, the impact assessment estimates operator revenue would be about £320 million lower over ten years, partly offset by £2.3 million of savings from fewer second-stage appeals. Those figures are a scenario, not a forecast, but they show ministers expect fewer charges to be issued and paid.
What should retailers and car park landlords do now?
The obligations in the code fall on parking operators, but retailers have every reason to act before it takes effect. A customer who receives a £100 letter after a Saturday shop rarely distinguishes between the store and the operator it appointed. Landowners also keep discretion over pricing: the government response notes that the £100 cap is a maximum and that landowners and operators may set charges below it.
Retailers and landlords with managed car parks should consider the following steps.
- Review the contract with your operator: check whether it is paid per charge issued, and whether your agreement allows you to instruct cancellations for genuine customers.
- Audit your signs: the code requires an entrance sign and terms that are visible and legible on approach; it dropped a fixed size standard in favour of signs suited to each car park.
- Check customer terminals: if free parking depends on entering a registration in store, make sure terminals are visible, working and placed where customers pass before leaving.
- Plan any change of terms carefully: introducing enforcement or time limits will trigger the four-month temporary notice requirement once the code is in force.
- Brief store staff: customers will ask about appeals; staff should know who the operator is and how to escalate a complaint.
Car park policy also sits alongside a heavier cost agenda for physical retail. With the Budget due on 28 October, many shopkeepers are more focused on the business rates changes independent retailers are pressing for, but a car park that deters repeat visits is a cost too, just a less visible one.
Out-of-town retail parks and town centres compete partly on how easy and cheap they are to park at. Town centres rely more on council parking, which this code does not touch, while retail parks rely on private operators. Access is a recurring theme in high street policy this autumn, from council parking charges to the Oxford Street traffic-free scheme starting on 26 October. A fairer private parking regime removes one of the grievances shoppers cite against out-of-town sites, which may narrow the convenience gap that town centres try to close with free or short-stay council parking.
How do you appeal a private parking charge from a shopping trip?
Until the code comes into force, appeals run under the Sector Single Code, which already offers a 28-day appeal window and a second stage with an industry-run independent appeals service. The government code keeps the 28-day framework: a charge may be appealed within 28 days of receipt, and the operator must respond within 28 days. If you appeal within the window, the code provides that the discounted rate remains available for a further 14 days after you are told your appeal has failed.
- Do not ignore the letter: ignoring it is how a £100 charge gains a £70 debt fee and can end in court.
- Gather evidence quickly: receipts with timestamps, a bank record of the parking payment, photographs of signs or broken machines, and any medical or childcare evidence.
- Check the grounds: compare your situation with the cancellation and £20 reduction circumstances listed above.
- Ask the store for help: a till receipt showing you were a customer is often the most useful single document, and many stores can contact their operator.
- Escalate if refused: use the second-stage independent appeal service named on the rejection letter.
The explanatory memorandum says the government will publish updated guidance on GOV.UK when the code comes into force, in part to counter “inconsistent or misleading advice” circulating online. Until then, the safest assumption is that the industry code applies, with its narrower list of free cancellations.
The government’s code does not lower the price of a parking charge, and it leaves the £70 debt fee in place for now. Its real gains for shoppers are narrower but meaningful: a longer list of situations, from a sick child to a queue at the exit barrier, where a charge must be cancelled outright, an end to the one-strike limit on £20 honest-mistake reductions, four months of warning signs when a familiar car park changes its rules, and enforcement that is written by government rather than by the industry itself.
For the next few weeks at least, and probably through the Christmas peak, the industry code still applies. Shoppers who receive a charge in the meantime should appeal on the evidence, and retailers should use the run-in period to make sure the car park outside their store is not the worst part of a customer’s visit.
Frequently asked questions
When does the new private parking code come into force?
The code was laid in Parliament on 20 October 2026. It must pass a 40-day scrutiny period and then takes effect 21 days after the government issues it. Recesses can extend the 40 days, so the new rules are unlikely to apply until around the turn of the year at the earliest.
Does the code apply to supermarket and retail park car parks?
Yes. It covers privately managed parking on “relevant land”, which includes most supermarket, retail park and shopping centre car parks run by private operators. It does not cover council car parks or on-street parking.
Has the £100 parking charge been cut?
No. The government froze the maximum at £100, reduced to £60 if paid within 14 days. Landowners and operators can choose to charge less.
What new reasons will get a charge cancelled?
Under the government code, charges must be cancelled on appeal for the onset of illness, an overrunning medical appointment, childcare delays, a breakdown, broken payment machines with no alternative, minor keying errors, and being stuck in traffic inside the car park while trying to leave. Evidence is required.
When do I pay £20 instead of the full charge?
The £20 reduced charge applies where you did not display a valid permit, entered the wrong registration despite paying, or forgot to enter your registration on a terminal at a site where you were allowed to park. It also applies once to Blue Badge holders who did not display a valid badge.
Can parking firms still add £70 debt recovery fees?
Yes, for now. The government kept the £70 cap as an interim measure and has promised to consult next year on cutting it or scrapping such fees altogether.
Does the code apply in Northern Ireland?
No. The explanatory memorandum says the code extends and applies to England, Wales and Scotland.
What happens to operators that break the code?
Non-compliant operators risk losing access to DVLA keeper data, which they need to pursue charges. Compliance will be checked through a UKAS-recognised certification scheme, and a new independent Scrutiny and Oversight Board will review sector data.