Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many instances of ANPR failure linked to tampered or unreadable number plates have been recorded by (a) police forces and (b) National Highways in the past three years.

The Government does not collect data on instances of ANPR failure recorded by police forces.

National Highways (NH) holds data from 27 July 2023 onwards with regard to the Dartford Crossing, since the introduction of the new Dart Charge service. As part of NH’s administration of the Dart Charge service ANPR monitors all vehicles which make the crossing on this route. A very small proportion of crossings cannot be charged due to a range of factors, including environmental conditions, dirt on number plates, or deliberate obscuring or tampering.