Summary

“The Traffic Penalty Tribunal (TPT) decides motorists’ appeals against Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs), issued by local authorities and charging authorities in England (outside London) and Wales, for parking and traffic contraventions. It is not ‘alternative’, but a regulatory tribunal established by legislation and provided by local government.

This includes appeals against penalties issued by over 300 local authorities in England and Wales for parking, bus lanes, Clean Air Zones, littering from vehicles and (in Wales only, though soon in England) moving traffic contraventions.

The TPT Adjudicators also decide appeals against penalties from a number of other road user charging schemes in England, including the Dartford-Thurrock River Crossing (‘Dart Charge’) scheme, the Mersey Gateway Bridge Crossings (‘Merseyflow’) scheme and the Durham Road User Charge Zone (‘Congestion Charge’).

Appeals to the TPT are decided by 24 part-time Adjudicators: all wholly independent lawyers, whose appointments are subject to the consent of the Lord Chancellor. The Chief Adjudicator is Caroline Sheppard OBE. The Adjudicators are supported by a small team of administrative staff, working remotely, who provide customer support to appellants and help manage appeals.

• The TPT decides appeals against ~35,000 PCNs each year. More than 95% of all appeals submitted to the Tribunal are completed end-to-end through an online appeals management system.
• Appellants not able to get online receive Assisted Digital support from the TPT’s support team by phone, Live Chat or post to complete appeals ‘by proxy’.
• The online appeals system and associated business processes represent a ‘digital-bydesign’ approach to dispute resolution, held up as an international exemplar by senior members of the judiciary, leading academics and legal commentators. Professor Richard Susskind, the world’s most cited author on the future of legal services, has described the TPT as having ‘the longest standing online public dispute resolution system.’
• The majority of cases are decided by Adjudicators on the basis of uploaded evidence, with Telephone and Video Hearings available if necessary, while instant messaging and Live Chat are available for communication by the parties throughout a case.
• Typically, more than half of cases submitted are completed within 14 days, with nearly three quarters within 28 days. As many as 12% are closed within a day.

The efficiency of the online system and transformed business processes, which resulted from an organisation-wide Digital Transformation, have inevitably also brought about significant savings for local authorities and the Tribunal, in terms of operational costs.”

For the full report, please visit: https://www.trafficpenaltytribunal.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Traffic-Penalty-Tribunal-Paper_Fast-Online-Appeals-Management-FOAM-System-and-Key-Principles_221121.pdf