Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 20 February 2018 to Question 127703, what information his Department holds on the level of hospital car parking charges and on what basis he decides whether the NHS has carried out its duty to ensure that charges are applied fairly.

National Health Service car parking data including level of hospital car parking charges at NHS trusts is collected annually through Estates Return Information Collection.

The latest available data for 2016-17 confirms the national average fee charges per hour for patients and visitors are £1.32 and £0.19 for staff.

NHS organisations are responsible locally for their own policy on 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 and the level of any charges that are made to use them are matters for individual NHS trusts.