Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether parking guidance to local authorities includes the powers and duties of traffic wardens and parking attendants to lift material used to cover (a) a car parked in a parking bay and (b) a motorcycle parked on a pavement to ascertain its identity and the right for the vehicle to be parked there.

Statutory guidance does not specifically address the lifting of covers placed over motor vehicles as part of Civil Enforcement Officers’ process of establishing evidence of parking contraventions. However, the statutory guidance requires civil enforcement to be fair, accurate and consistent. Local authorities should set clear policies and training for CEOs. It would ultimately be for the independent parking adjudicators to decide whether the authority had reliable evidence of such contraventions, and whether the method used to obtain it was reasonable.