The truth about the number of parking cases lodged by BPA members in the Small Claims court in 2011

Compliments of Nev - a tireless worker for the rights of motorists in the UK


I have an idea that the BPA at some point claimed that there about 36,000 cases per year? Maybe someone can correct me

Dear All,

Please find the attached breakdown of those now infamous 845 private parking cases that were lodged by BPA AOS members in the small claims court for 2011 (England and Wales).

For those who are not aware, the BPA have come up with a number of explanations as to why these 845 cases don't appear to match their claimed figures of 36,000 to 90,000

1) They first thought that the 845 were only appeals to a circuit judge (no they are not)

2) Their members list hundreds of cases on one application (no they don't - that's not how the system works - it's one case one listing)

3) They don't include NI and Scotland (true- but they represent only a tiny proportion of the population of the UK)

4) It was a best guess and they told the DVLA that, it's the DVLA's fault for using the figures in the Impact Assessment.

Regards

Nev

Name of Parking Company Number of claims initiated
ARMTRAC SECURITY SERVICES 28
BALFOUR BEATTY WORKPLACE LIMITED 8
BALFOUR BEATTY WORKPLACE LTD 2
BUSINESS WATCH GUARDING LTD 2
CAR PARK SOLUTIONS 1
COMBINED SOLUTIONS UK LTD T/AS COMBINED PARKING SOLUTIONS 10
COMBINED SOLUTIONS UK LTD T/AS COMBINED PARKING SOLUTIONS 8
COUNTY PARKING ENF AGY LTD 22
DEVERE PARKING SERVICE 4
DEVERE PARKING SERVICES 92
DEVERE PARKING SERVICES ( A FIRM) 14
DEVERE PARKING SERVICES (A FIRM) 58
DEVERE PARKING SERVICES LTD 52
DISTRICT ENFORCEMENT LIMITED 30
EAST KENT HOPITALS UNIVERSITY NHS FOUNDATION TRUST 1
EAST KENT HOPITALS UNIVERSITY NHS FUNDATION TRUST 1
EAST KENT HOSPITAL NHS TRUST 1
EAST KENT HOSPITALS U.NHS.F.T ROSS HOUSE 25
EAST KENT HOSPITALS UNIVERSITY N H S FOUNDATION TRUST 1
EAST KENT HOSPITALS UNIVERSITY NHS 1
EAST KENT HOSPITALS UNIVERSITY NHS FOUNDATION TRUST 14
EAST KENT HOSPITALS UNIVERSITY NHS TRUST 1
EAST KENT HOSPTALS UNIVERSITY NHS FOUNDATION TRUST 1
EAST KENT UNIVERSITY NHS FOUNDATION TRUST 1
ELITE MANAGEMENT (MIDLANDS) LI 53A LOWER HALL LANE 8
ELITE MANAGEMENT (MIDLANDS) LI BRADFORD HOUSE 7
ELITE MANAGEMENT LTD 53A LOWER HALL LANE 7
ETHICAL GROUP LTD 1
EURO CAR PARKS LIMITED 7
EXCEL PARKING SERVICES 1
EXCEL PARKING SERVICES LIMITED 7
EXCEL PARKING SERVICES LTD 10
LEGAL PARKING ENFORCERS(UK)LTD 23
NAPIER PARKING LIMITED 1
NCP LTD 2
NEW GENERATION PARKING MANAGEMENT LTD 2
NEWLYN PLC 7
NORTHERN RAIL LTD 2
OBSERVICES PARKING CONSULTANCY LTD 167
OBSERVICES PARKING CONSULTANCY LTD 56
OCS GROUP UK LTD T/A CANNON C ONSUMABLES NORTHGATE WHIT 7
parkingeye LIMITED 40 EATON AVENUE 5
PARKSHIELD.COM LTD T/A PCPEA 9
PREMIER PARKING SOLUTIONS 13
RESIDENTIAL MANAGEMENT GROUP LIMITED 1
RESIDENTIAL MANAGEMENT GROUP LTD 1
RISK CONSULTANTS LTD T/A APSECT PARKING SOLUTIONS 1
RISK CONSULTANTS LTD T/A ASPECT PARKING SOLUTIONS 5
RISK CONSULTANTS LTD T/A ASPECT PARKING SOLUTIONS 19
RISK CONSULTANTS LTD T/S ASPECT PARKING SOLUTIONS 1
RISK CONSULTANTS T.AS ASPECT PARKING SOLUTIONS 1
RISK CONSULTANTS T/A ASPECT PARKING SOLUTIONS 1
ROSSENDALES COLLECT LIMITED 1
ROSSENDALES LTD 1
SALISBURY NHS FOUNDATION TRUST 2
SECURE CAR PARKS LTD 26
SECURITAS SECURITY PERSONNEL L TD CREDIT CONTROL REGENT BU 2
SECURITAS SECURITY PERSONNEL LIMTED 1
SECURITAS SECURITY SERVICES 1
SECURITAS SECURITY SERVICES LI MITED 203-205 LOWER RICHMOND 1
SECURITAS SECURITY SERVICES LI MITED UNIT 2 REDHALL COURT 1
SUSSEX SECURITY SOLUTONS LTD 34
TOTAL PARKING SOLUTIONS LTD 1
TOTAL PARKING SOLUTIONS LTD SOMERSET HOUSE 4
VEHICLE CONTROL SERVICES 2
VEHICLE CONTROL SERVICES LIMITED 8
VEHICLE CONTROL SERVICES LTD 7
VINCI PARK CAR PARK SERVICES U PORTSOKEN HOUSE 2
WING PARKING LTD 1
Total 845

I'd already done some more work on this and got hold of the email exchanges between the BPA and the DVLA that give the audit trail for the original figures (the emails are redacted courtesy of the DVLA).

What is clear from those emails and must not get confused is this.

The BPA did not supply the DVLA with a numeric figure, they gave then a percentage return of between 2-5% of all AOS members PCN's taken to the small claims court each year (this is important because of what I will get to in a minute or so).

It was the DVLA who took that 2-5% range and converted it into a numeric range of being between 36,000 and 90,000. The DVLA did this on the basis that they reckoned on 1.8 million BPA AOS PCN's per year.

OK park that there for a minute.

Lets go back to the email exchanges, when the BPA gave the 2-5% figure, they also claimed that they believed that their members were issuing 4 million PCNs per year

This means that the BPA were (in effect) at that time feeding the DVLA a numeric range of between 80,000 to 200,000 cases in the small claims court each year!

The email subject boxes are marked as "AOS Operator Survey Results" - this was not therefore a 'best guess' nor anecdotal evidence informally provided to the Dft. This was information that was passed to the DVLA under the email heading of 'AOS Operator Survey Results'

Furthermore, this was information repeatedly asked for by the DVLA to (quote) 'satisfy the economists'

It is this 'smoking gun' email sent by Steve Clark (Cc'd to Patrick Troy and Kelvin Reynolds) which contained the crucial 2-5% response for the DVLA and the claim of 4 million tickets

That means that 'they' (all three of them were party to the email) were trying to convince the DVLA that their members were taking between 80,000 and 200,000 motorists to court each year!!

Now I know that the DVLA challenged them over the 4 million figure which was eventually haggled down to 1.8 million but surely to God the alarm bells should have gone off in the DVLA with the huge disparity and the retraction, when pushed, from 4 million to 1.8 million.