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Enforcing Across BordersDrivers of overseas-registered vehicles who choose not to pay penalty charges cannot legally be made to do so. This is because existing legal mechanisms do not allow UK decriminalised financial penalties issued to foreign nationals to be enforced by the courts in other EU member states.The UK’s decriminalised driving and parking laws are considered administrative by the European Union and fall outside the scope of both criminal and decriminalised EU legislation and regulations. This means that UK local authorities with decriminalised regimes cannot use UK or EU legal systems to pursue unpaid financial penalties they have issued to vehicles registered outside the UK. Overseas vehicles that commit a decriminalised offence are likely to receive a penalty charge notice if parking attendants observe them - in a typical borough attendants observe roughly ten per cent of offenders. Some will be prioritised for clamping and removal to the local pound where the borough can recover the fine just issued to the vehicle as well as the removal fee, but cannot legally require the vehicle’s registered keeper to pay any outstanding fines. Most local authorities do not issue penalty charge notices to non-UK contraveners observed by CCTV, nor do they pursue unpaid charge notices beyond initial issue - because the low probability of the fine being paid means administration costs outweigh revenue. In contrast if the owner of a UK-registered vehicle does not pay a decriminalised fine, the penalty is sent to the Traffic Enforcement Centre, part of Northampton County Court. There decriminalised penalties are registered as county court debts so they can be enforced through the UK legal system using automated bulk processing that is efficient and cost effective. SPARKS ResponseThe SPARKS Programme’s initial response to this issue was to lobby to have EU legislation amended so they apply to the UK’s decriminalised traffic regime and automated processing.Following legal advice that relevant EU frameworks and council decisions explicitly exclude claims by local authorities and other public bodies, SPARKS is developing a research project. Eurosparks is analysing the legal basis for cross-border enforcement of civil administrative debts and will make recommendations for how judicial processes between member states can be more closely aligned in future. |
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