FOI request detail

PAYMENTS ACCEPTED AFTER DCA INVOLVEMENT

Request ID: FOI-2258-2021
Date published: 05 March 2021

You asked

1. In order to ascertain what appears to be an ambiguous position, I hereby formally make a Freedom of Information Request under the 2000 Act to the following data: 2. Could you please provide me with data that shows how many payments for your Order for Recoveries (“OFR”) were accepted from motorists AFTER you enacted the services of a Debt Collection Agency (“DCA”)? 3. I would like this data to cover from January 2018 to January 2021 and broken down by the number of payments accepted per year, plus those payments you rejected. 4. So you completely understand what I’m requesting, A. Order for Recovery received by motorist but not paid B. You enact the services of your DCA C. The motorist offers a payment of the OFR amount D. TFL accepts the payment E. The number of times per year between 2018-2021 this was done F. The number of times you rejected this type of payment between the same period 5. I’m aware this has occurred on a number of occasions and I would like to know how many times over the period in question

We answered

TfL Ref: FOI-2258-2021

Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 5 February 2021.

Your request has been considered in accordance with the FOI Act and I can confirm that we hold some of the information you require. You asked:

Could you please provide me with data that shows how many payments for your Order of Recovery were accepted AFTER you enacted the services of a bailiff between January 2018 – January 2021. I would like this broken down by number of payments accepted and rejected by TfL.

When an Order of Recovery is issued the recipient is given 21 days to pay the outstanding balance or submit a Statutory Declaration to the Traffic Enforcement Centre. If neither course of action is taken a warrant may be issued to our contracted Enforcement Agents. Once this stage has occurred the debt must be paid to the Enforcement Agents. We do however have discretionary powers accept payment directly. This is usually when there has been a processing error relating to the PCN or when there are mitigating circumstances.   

Between 1 January 2018 and 31 January 2021 a total of 232 PCNs were paid directly to TfL at the full Order for Recovery rate after a warrant had been passed to our contacted Enforcement Agents.

We do not record the number of requests to pay at this rate which were refused.   

If you wish to enquire regarding a penalty you have received you can do so by contacting our Road User Charging team at [email protected]

If you are considering submitting a further FOI request please think carefully about whether the request is essential at this current time, as answering FOI requests will require the use of limited resources and the attention of staff who could be supporting other essential activity. Where requests are made, please note that our response time may be impacted by the current situation.

Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal.

Yours sincerely

Eva Hextall

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

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