Protection of Freedoms Bill (Programme) (No. 3)

It is quite clear that consumer protection legislation has not worked in the motorist's favour in the past. Creating a criminal offence, as the amendment would do, would send a clear signal about how serious the matter is and how people who are going to issue tickets should be properly regulated. I am not sure that I agree with the hon. Gentleman. I want to move on to the RAC, which gave evidence that the provisions in the Bill would not create a landscape for parking in which the motorist could be guaranteed a fair deal from the parking industry. I know that the Government have made much of the fact that they are on the side of the motorist, but when motoring organisations and members of the industry itself are saying that the system being proposed in the legislation is unfair, the Government need to think again. As drafted, the right to challenge a ticket is very limited. It would apply only to cases in which liability could be enforced against a keeper. That means that if a person did not pay up to the parking company, the company could go after the keeper of the vehicle, whose information is held by the DVLA. The protection offered is that only a member of an accredited trade association—currently the British Parking Association—will be allowed access to DVLA information. However, the Government state in the impact assessment that they expect 74% of penalty tickets to be paid up front at the time the ticket is issued, rising to 82% when keeper liability is added in. The expectation is that people will just pay up and will not have the opportunity to lodge any kind of appeal. There is no independent appeal procedure. We understand that, under the Government amendments, members of the British Parking Association must have an internal disputes procedure, but we say that is not good enough: it is not fair and not independent. It is widely perceived that it must be independent. I mentioned the example of the company that Edmund King suggested made a lot of money out of ticketing. Will the Minister respond on the issue of road parking companies that are not members of the British Parking Association but are able to get information about a vehicle—for example, the address of a commercial vehicle on the side of a van parked in a private car park—or to gain access to lists of customers' details in a private car park? In those circumstances, the ticketing organisation could pursue the keeper without having gone through the DVLA. As I understand it, that could be done perfectly legally, but it could be threatening if money is demanded quickly in order to avoid the bailiffs coming round. Will the Minister for Equalities talk more about contract law and consumer protection? She made much in Committee of the fact that consumer protection law was already in place, but we made the case that that did not provide adequate protection for motorists. Will she therefore comment on the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 and explain whether she feels it needs to be strengthened or whether further information needs to be given to the public about its provisions? Let me make some specific points about the amendments in the group. New clause 15 would ensure that anyone issuing a penalty ticket must be registered with an accredited trade association, that all ticketers were currently members of the British Parking Association who must abide by the trade association's code of practice, which is agreed, in turn, with the DVLA. The new clause also means that tickets placed on the vehicle or those issued later through the use of ANPR—automatic number plate recognition—would be subject to an independent appeals procedure. This would ensure that the maximum fines on private land are the same as for those on public roads and that the same terms and conditions, the same right of appeal and the same prompt payment discount would apply. This has widespread support. The RAC and the AA have recently conducted a populist poll of 12,000 people, of whom 98% thought that there should be some form of licensing for ticketers. That shows that there is clear and overwhelming public support for this new clause, so I hope the Minister will think again and support it. Will the Minister clarify some points about the other amendments in the group? We welcome Government amendment 21, which came out of the evidence given to the Committee by Patrick Troy of the British Parking Association and Edmund King of the AA. The Opposition took the view that the drafting of the clause dealing with a fixed barrier was ambiguous. I am glad that the Government have recognised the issue raised by the Opposition and have sought to amend the provisions. I know, however, that the BPA still has some doubts about the new wording, as it fails specifically to mention wheel-clamping. Government amendment 76 passes liability from the car hire company to the person who has hired the car where appropriate. Will the Minister comment on the fact that she is making it easier to transfer keeper liability in those circumstances? Has she given any thought to the circumstances where, for example, a motorist takes their car to a garage and the garage parks it on someone else's private land? In that case, can the liability be passed back to the garage? As currently drafted, keeper liability means that the individual car owner would be liable as the keeper, even though the actions were carried out by the garage. Amendments 39 to 54 are technical, but will the Minister explain why she wants to move from the term ““relevant contract”” to ““relevant obligation”” in the wording of the affected clauses? Government amendment 59 deals with the issue of keeper liability. I understand that it relates to the use of ANPR and would allow a ticket to be sent to the keeper after the parking infringement has taken place. Let us suppose that a disabled person is dropped at an airport where there is a 15-minute limit for use of a parking space. Because of the nature of the disability, it takes up to 30 minutes for the car to be unpacked and moved away. What redress is open to the disabled person? If a ticketing regime were in operation, the person issuing the ticket would presumably be allowed to exercise some discretion on the basis of the disability, but an ANPR system would merely register that the car had entered the parking space at a certain time and left at a certain time, and a ticket would automatically be issued. There has been a real failure to address issues involving disability, which we discussed at length in Committee. It is a great shame that the impact assessment still fails to acknowledge or deal with the equality issues raised by parking bays and the time that people are allowed in which to park. Perhaps the Minister will comment on the example that I have given. I understand that the latest definition of car hire is not included in Government amendment 78. According to the hire car associations, specifying a six-month time limit is a rather old-fashioned approach, and it would be better to reflect modern leasing practices, which often involve a much longer period than six months. Perhaps the Minister could comment on that as well. As for Government amendment 62, why do the Government need the power to change the definition of ““relevant land””? I look forward to hearing from the Minister that she has had an opportunity to think again about the Bill's failure to deal with the issue of ticketing and introduce a fair, independent system of appeal to deal with the problem of rogue ticketers, which I believe will come back to haunt the Government.