Fines/penalty charge notices issued to police vehicles stats

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.23.029988

I note you seek access to the following information:

1. I would like to know how many fines/penalty charge notices have been issued to police vehicles (marked and unmarked) since the start of 2020 for travelling through road closures related to Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs), school streets or other similar schemes?

2. I would also like to know what the process is for these fines to be cancelled because police vehicles are exempt. Do officers or other police employees have to write to councils in order to have each penalty notice cancelled? And is there an estimate of how much police time this has taken?

Decision

I have today decided to disclose the located information to you in full.

Please find below information pursuant to your request above.

Q1 - I would like to know how many fines/penalty charge notices have been issued to police vehicles (marked and unmarked) since the start of 2020 for travelling through road closures related to Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs), school streets or other similar schemes?

The MPS do not hold this level of granular detail, as we do not log the specifics of each penalty charge notice (PCN) received. You may therefore wish to approach individual councils for this information.

Q2 - I would also like to know what the process is for these fines to be cancelled because police vehicles are exempt. Do officers or other police employees have to write to councils in order to have each penalty notice cancelled? And is there an estimate of how much police time this has taken?

The cancellation process is as follows:

PCN received > Scanned and logged centrally > Operational Command Unit (OCU) identified and ticket and Appeal Form (4738) sent to Fleet Single Point of Contact (SPOC) > Fleet SPOC to identify driver > Driver to complete Appeal Form and authorised by Superintendent to confirm on police duties at the time of offence > Form returned to Fleet Services > Appeal sent to council > If cancelled, amend databases > If refused, fine to be paid by unit.

Please note that as ‘estimates’ do not meet the definition of recorded information within the meaning of section 84 of the Act, this information is not held for FOIA purposes. However the below information has been provided as part of our normal course of business and as a gesture of goodwill.

We estimate that the amount of police time spent on this process is approximately 25 minutes per ticket.