Request ID: FOI-1706-2223 Date published: 02 November 2022
You asked
Please provide the following data:
For the 7 days of the week starting Monday 19th September- Sunday 25th September 2022
1) How many vehicles that were required to pay the congestion charge were driven in the Congestion Charge zone on each day during the hours when the congestion charge was in force?
2) What percentage of the vehicles that were required to pay the congestion charge were issued fines (for non-payment or incorrect payment)?
Please provide figures for each day separately.
Please also provide the same information for the 7 days of the week Monday 20th September-Sunday 26th September 2021 and for the week Monday 21st September-Sunday 27th September 2020.
We answered
TfL Ref: 1706-2223
Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 14 October 2022 asking for information about congestion charge fines. Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy. You asked:For the 7 days of the week starting Monday 19th September- Sunday 25th September 2022: 1) How many vehicles that were required to pay the congestion charge were driven in the Congestion Charge zone on each day during the hours when the congestion charge was in force? 2) What percentage of the vehicles that were required to pay the congestion charge were issued fines (for non-payment or incorrect payment)? Please provide figures for each day separately. Please also provide the same information for the 7 days of the week Monday 20th September-Sunday 26th September 2021 and for the week Monday 21st September-Sunday 27th September 2020.
We do not hold the information you have requested. To explain further, the Congestion Charge operates using Automatic Number Plate Recognition technology. As a vehicle either enters, leaves or drives within the zone its registration is recorded along with a colour image of the vehicle. At the end of the charging period, when the three day payment period has expired, the list of vehicles observed in the zone is compared against the vehicles for which a charge has been paid and those which are 100% discounted, exempt from the charge or registered on a Congestion Charging Auto Pay account. When the congestion charge is paid for a vehicle, any images of that vehicle in the charge zone are deleted. This is because we only need to keep images of vehicles who enter the zone when the charge hasn’t been paid – if no match is found, the images are retained and are then used for issuing penalty charge notices (PCNs).
Therefore we are unable to provide the figure you have asked for in question 1 of your request. We are also therefore unable to provide the figures for question 2 of your request as this figure is derived from the answer to question 1 which, as stated we don’t hold.