TfL Ref: 2989-1718
 
Thank you for your emails received by us on 19 and 24 January 2018 asking for information about Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs).
 
Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy. I can confirm that we hold some of the information you require. You asked for the following:
 
FOI request into mistakenly issued penalty charge fines and repayment.
 
I’m referring to all penalty charge contraventions. Bands A and B. High level and low level.
 
We issue Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) for non-payment of the daily Congestion Charge, non-payment of the daily Low Emission Zone (LEZ) charge and for parking and moving traffic contraventions on our red route network. In the financial year ending 31 March 2017, we issued 949,513 PCNs for non payment of the Congestion Charge, 25,406 PCN for non payment of the LEZ and 505,804 PCNs for red route contraventions.
 
We issue PCNs when we have reason to believe a contravention occurred. All PCNs are subject to a statutory representations and appeals process. Should a driver believe the PCN was issued incorrectly, they can challenge the PCN. Should a driver pay a PCN and later have their representation accepted or appeal allowed, any payment will be refunded. Each challenge is considered on a case-by-case basis, including any mitigating circumstances. We have the discretion to cancel a PCN or refund all or part of a PCN payment for any reason, however this would not mean the PCN was issued incorrectly.
 
1)             Please state the amount TfL is currently due to pay back in mistakenly issued penalty charge fines, but has not yet paid.
 
When we receive a request for a PCN refund, details of the amount claimed is entered on to our system and the case is referred to our PCN refunds team for investigation on a case-by-case basis. PCNs that have been cancelled and are to be refunded are referred to the same team. As at 6 February 2018, our records show that we have 1,960 open refund requests on our system that relate to PCNs issued since 1 January 2017. Until each case is investigated, however, we are unable to confirm the number of valid requests or the amount to be refunded. As such, we are unable to confirm the amount of refunds currently outstanding. As explained above, we may also decide to issue discretionary refunds.
 
However, to review each of the 1960 open cases individually and extract the information you seek would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ of £450 set by the Freedom of Information (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004 as the majority of these will be PCNs that we have marked for cancellation and therefore will be valid.
 
Under section 12 of the FOI Act, we are not obliged to comply with a request if we estimate that the cost of determining whether we hold the information, locating and retrieving it and extracting it from other information would exceed the appropriate limit. This is calculated at £25 per hour for every hour spent on the activities described.
 
We have estimated that it would cost approximately £784 to provide a response to your current request. This is because it is estimated that it would take 32.6 working hours to retrieve and compile the information you have requested.
 
To help bring the cost of responding to your request within the £450 limit, you may wish to consider narrowing its scope so that we can more easily locate, retrieve and extract the information you are seeking. If you want to refine your request or make a Freedom of Information Act request in future, please bear in mind that the Freedom of Information Act allows you to request recorded information held by us. You should identify the information that you want as clearly and concisely as you can, specifying the types of document that you are looking for. You might also consider limiting your request to a particular period of time, geographical area or specific departments of the organisation.
 
Although your request can take the form of a question, rather than a request for specific documents, we do not have to answer your question if it would require the creation of new information or the provision of a judgement, explanation, advice or opinion that was not already recorded at the time of your request.
 
2)             Please provide a copy of current TfL guidance on repaying penalty charge fines issued mistakenly.
 
We have not issued guidance on repaying PCNs. However, when a penalty has been paid and it is subsequently cancelled the payment is refunded. We aim to issue all refunds within 10 working days. 
 
3)             Please state the number of complaints TfL has received concerning penalty charge fines in each of the last 5 calendar years.
 
As explained previously, there is a statutory process in place to challenge any PCN issued by TfL. All complaints that include a PCN reference number, including general complaints, are considered as representations or appeals. Therefore we do not record ‘general complaints’ in such a way that would allow us to separate them out from other representations or appeals and to try and locate, retrieve and extract this information would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ of £450 set by the Freedom of Information (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004.
 
4)             Please state the number of complaints TfL has received concerning penalty charge fines not being refunded after being mistakenly issued in each of the last 5 calendar years.
 
Please see above.
 
5)             Please state the number of penalty charge fines issued in each of the last 5 calendar years.
 
Information concerning the number of PCNs issued by all authorities in London is published annually on the London Councils website at: http://www.londoncouncils.gov.uk/services/parking-services/parking-and-traffic/parking-information-professionals/information
 
6)             Please state the number of penalty charge fines issued mistakenly in each of the last 5 calendar years.
 
Information about all PCN appeals heard in London is entered on a statutory register, available on the London Tribunals website via the following link: http://www.londontribunals.gov.uk/. As their website states ‘London Tribunals supports the independent tribunals, which consider appeals against PCNs issued by London’s local authorities and Transport For London’.
 
It may also be helpful to refer to the Chief Adjudicators’ Annual Reports that have a breakdown of a variety of statistics across all PCN contraventions here: http://www.londontribunals.gov.uk/about/annual-reports-and-appeal-statistics
 
Please note that in accordance with section 21 of the FOI Act, we are not obliged to supply you with a copy of the requested information as it is already accessible to you elsewhere.
 
If this is not the information you are looking for, or if you are unable to access it for any reason, please do not hesitate to contact me.
 
Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal as well as information on copyright and what to do if you would like to re-use any of the information we have disclosed.
 
Yours sincerely
 
 
Jasmine Howard
FOI Case Officer
Information Governance
Transport For London