Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to his Department's guidance on NHS patient, visitor and staff car parking principles, last updated on 29 October 2015, how many NHS trusts, NHS hospitals or establishments providing NHS healthcare in England have imposed a requirement for parking contractors to be members of a parking trade association, such as the British Parking Association and the Independent Parking Committee, since the initial publication of that guidance on 23 August 2014.

This data is not collected centrally.

National Health Service organisations are responsible locally for their own policy on internal travel arrangements and car parking, taking into account operational circumstances and community interests.

The NHS patient, visitor and staff car parking principles (first published in August 2014 and then updated in October 2015), set out a nationally consistent approach to determining car parking policies, making clear the rules which NHS trusts should follow when making decisions about car parking. However, the provision of parking spaces for patients, staff, contractors, and other visitors to the site and the level of any charges that are made to use them are matters for individual NHS trusts.