Complaints about moving traffic offences

This fact sheet is aimed primarily at people who have concerns about a penalty charge notice (PCN) issued by enforcing authorities and who may be considering making a complaint to the Ombudsman.

I have received a penalty charge notice relating to a moving traffic offence. Can the Ombudsman help me?

• Transport for London (TfL) and councils both inside and outside London may enforce traffic regulations made under a variety of Acts. These include penalties for many different types of contravention, including for example those relating to bus lanes, yellow box junctions, prohibited turns and traffic prohibitions.
• The legislation provides that the registered keeper is responsible for any penalty charge even if they were not the person driving the vehicle at the time of the alleged contravention. The registered keeper is the person or organisation recorded as the keeper by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA).
• Penalties for bus lane contraventions in London are issued under the London Local Authorities Act 1996. Outside London the legislation is the Transport Act 2000. Moving traffic contraventions are enforced in London under the London Local Authorities and Transport for London Act 2003.
• If your complaint is about the issue of a penalty the legislation says that you may make representations to the enforcing authority against the issue of the penalty on certain statutory grounds. If your representations on these statutory grounds are rejected by the enforcing authority, you may appeal to a statutory tribunal. Inside London the appeal is made to the Parking and Traffic Appeal Service (PATAS) and outside London to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal (TPT).
• The appeal will be heard by an independent adjudicator who is not part of the enforcing authority; the process is free and relatively straightforward. The Ombudsman would usually expect someone to use this right of appeal and so would not be able to consider a complaint about the issue of the penalty.
• There are different specific statutory grounds of appeal for each type of contravention. The grounds can be checked on the PATAS and the TPT websites which are listed below. In addition to the statutory grounds for appeal the motorist can also ask the enforcing authority to consider any other reasons, known as ‘mitigating circumstances’, put forward for cancelling the penalty charge in the particular case.
• By law, the adjudicator cannot consider these mitigating circumstances. This means we can consider complaints about how an enforcing authority has considered mitigating circumstances in the case of a moving traffic enforcement penalty (but not a parking penalty). But if a council has considered these properly, we would not criticise the decision the enforcing authority has reached.
• We can look at complaints about other aspects of enforcement by an authority but, where a right of appeal, or a right to go to court exists, we would usually expect it to be used. This is because the law says that the Ombudsman should not normally look at something where Parliament has provided a statutory right of appeal or the right to be heard before a court.
• The Ombudsman may be able to consider a complaint about the actions of bailiffs acting for a council, but this depends on the individual circumstances. You should first try to resolve any issue with the council or the bailiffs. If the matter remains unresolved, we can consider the particular circumstances and decide if we can help.

I have paid the penalty charge to avoid it increasing, but I still want to contest it. As I no longer have the right to appeal, can you investigate?

Parliament provided you with the right of appeal to an independent adjudicator and the Ombudsman usually expects people to use that right to challenge penalty charges. Had you wanted to challenge it, you should not have paid the penalty but instead have used the appeals process. The fact that you have lost the right of appeal as a result of paying the penalty charge does not change this; it is very unlikely that the Ombudsman will investigate your complaint.

How do I complain?

• You should check with the enforcing authority as soon as possible about your appeal rights as there are time limits for appealing. Because the process for dealing with challenges to penalty charges is laid down by law and leads to an independent appeal, an enforcing authority will not usually deal with such matters through its complaints procedure. Further, the existence of appeal rights (whether or not you use them) will usually mean that the Ombudsman cannot help you.
• If you do complain to us, you should normally do so within 12 months of realising that the council has done something wrong.
• To complain to the Ombudsman phone our Advice Team on 0300 061 0614 or 0845 602 1983 (8.30am to 5.00pm, Mondays to Fridays). You will be able to discuss your complaint with one of our advisers. You can text us on 0762 480 4299.
• You can complete an online complaint form.

Examples of some complaints we have considered

Other sources of information

• In London – The Parking and Traffic Appeals Service (PATAS) website at www.parkingandtrafficappeals.gov.uk has details of the legislation and appeal process.
• Outside London – The Traffic Penalty Tribunal website at www.trafficpenaltytribunal.gov.uk/site/ has details of the legislation and appeals process.

Our fact sheets give some general information about the most common type of complaints we receive but they cannot cover every situation. If you are not sure whether we can look into your complaint, please phone 0300 061 0614.

Date Updated: 21/10/11