Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure NHS staff are exempt from hospital car parking charges.

Officials are working closely with the National Health Service and the independent sector to ensure that all NHS staff are exempt from hospital car parking charges during the COVID – 19 pandemic.

On 25 March Health the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care announced that hospitals will provide free car parking for our NHS staff who are going above and beyond every day in hospitals across England. On the same day, the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government announced that local councils will offer free on-street and off-street car parking in local authority car parks to all NHS staff members, health or social care workers, and NHS Volunteer Responders during the COVID-19 emergency response.

When the pandemic begins to abate, the NHS will move from providing free parking to all its staff, to the Government’s commitment to offering free hospital car parking to key patient groups and NHS staff in certain circumstances. Our plans include:

free parking for certain groups of people, following the Government’s commitment that disabled people, frequent outpatient attenders, parents of sick children staying overnight and staff working night shifts will no longer have to pay; and consideration of parking capacity across the country and how improved technology can reduce the administrative burden on hospitals.