Parking Ticket Data

The request was partially successful.

Dear Sir or Madam,

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 I would like to request some information relating to the enforcement of parking restrictions, specifically penalty charge notices.

1. I would like to request the raw data set of parking tickets issued in the name of the council within the last five year period broken down by:
date, time, location, narrative of infraction, current status of case, next status of case, transaction details (ie. date, time and method of payments made), officer ID

2. I would also like to request any information regarding ‘reward’/bonus schemes/contracts in place for your parking enforcement officers. This is envisaged to cover the details of any systems, including (where bonuses are paid) the amount per officer per year, for the last five years.

Regarding part 1. ideally I would like the location unit to be 'street' but if this is not practical then under your section 16 duty to advise and assist I would expect you to contact me to discuss how you record this geospatial data so that I may narrow my request in a way that works for both of us.

As a supplementary, under section 16, I would also ask that you provide some detail about the recording processes of this parking information. E.g. What software is used? What data fields are recorded? What other data sets it links to, etc.

If this information is held by an outside contractor then it is your responsibility under the FOIA to obtain that information.

If it is held by another public body then please can you inform me of this and if possible transfer the request to that public body. My preferred format to receive this information is by electronic means. For both parts I would like the response to be in the form of a raw text file, tab delimited, with text qualifiers where required.

If you need any clarification of this request or if it is too broad in any way please feel free to email me. If some parts of this request
are more difficult to answer than others please release the answerable material as it is available rather than hold up the entire request for the contested data.

If FOI requests of a similar nature have already been asked could you please include your responses to those requests. I would be grateful if you could confirm in writing that you have received this request, and I look forward to hearing from you within the 20-working day statutory time period.

Yours faithfully,

Neil Houston

Sarah Elizabeth McDougall, Manchester City Council

Dear Mr Houston,

Re: - Request for Information - Parking Ticket Information

Reference Number: ENV/7USDF2

Thank you for your request for information, which was received by
Manchester City Council on 7th August 2009.

It may take up to 20 working days (approximately 4 weeks) for the Council
to consider your request and to provide a formal response.If this
timescale needs to be extended to consider an exemption you will be
notified and kept informed.

If you have also requested personal information about yourself we will
answer your request as quickly as we can and within a period of 40
calendar days in accordance with the provisions of section 7 of the Data
Protection Act 1998. You will receive a separate letter in response to
this part of your request.

Please be advised that there may be a charge for your request. You will be
advised of this in due course.

If you have any queries, please contact me on the number below.

Regards

Sarah McDougall
Departmental Complaints Coordinator
& Customer Service Officer
Street Management & Parking
Neighbourhood Services
Manchester City Council
Tel 0161 234 5605
Town Hall Internal 800 4122
Web: http:www.manchester.gov.uk.
Email: [email address]

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Michael Ashman, Manchester City Council

[Subject only] Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FoIA), reference ENV/7USDF

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Michael Ashman, Manchester City Council

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Houston
I refer to your request made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000
(FoIA), reference ENV/7USDF2, received by Manchester City Council on 07
August 2009. I apologise for the delay in responding to your request.

You asked for the following information:
Parking tickets issued by Manchester City Council for the last 5 years.
You have also requested that this information be broken down by
date
time
location
narrative of infraction
current status of case
next status
transaction details (i.e. date, time and method of payment)
officer ID.

With regard to your request for officer ID, Manchester City Council
considers that this constitutes ***personal data*** (as defined at section
1 (1) of the Data Protection Act 1998), and as such is exempt under,
Section 40 of FoIA: Personal information about third parties.
This exemption applies because you have made a request for information,
which comprises or contains personal information about third parties. The
Council has determined that the information relating to the third parties
should not be disclosed because disclosure would contravene one or more of
the data protection principles under the Data Protection Act 1998,
including the principle that information should be processed lawfully and
fairly. This information is therefore exempt under: Section 40(2) of
FoIA.

As this is an absolute exemption there is no requirement to consider the
public interest.
With regard to the information about parking tickets that you have
requested, I have attached a PDF document, which is provided as you
requested, in its raw format :
(i) The date
(ii) Time
(iii) Location
(iv) Narrative of infraction
(v) Current status of case
(vi) Next status
Transaction details (i.e. date, time and method of payment)

It cannot be assumed that each entry relates to a single Penalty Charge
Notice (PCN). In some cases, one PCN may have multiple entries contained
in the raw data. For example, should someone pay and then successfully
appeal against their PCN, resulting in a refund, two entries would appear
in the raw data. As such the total number of entries in the raw data is
not representative of the number of PCN***s issued during that period.

I would also like to request any information regarding reward/bonus
schemes/contracts in place for your Parking Enforcement Officers. This is
envisaged to cover the details of any systems, including (where bonuses
are paid) the amount per officer per year, for the last five years.
Manchester City Council has never employed Parking Enforcement Officers.
On 1^st April 2009 Manchester City Council entered into a contract (***the
Contract***) with NSL Services Limited (formerly known as NCP) whereby NSL
Service Limited carry out some of the Council***s functions in relation to
traffic enforcement. Under the terms of the Contract NSL Service Ltd do
not pay bonuses to Civil Enforcement Officers (Parking Enforcement
Officers) known previously as Parking Attendants.

3. I would also ask that you provide some detail about the
recording processes of this parking information (e.g. What software is
used? What data fields are recorded? What other data sets it links to
etc?)
Regarding the recording of parking information, I would advise that the
notice processing software system used, is called Authority Traffic,
supplied by Civica and the data fields used are as follows-

Penalty Charge Serial Number
Vehicle Registration Number
Make of Vehicle
Model of Vehicle
Colour
Tax Disc Number
Tax Expiry Date
Contravention Date
Location
Officer
Observed on
Observed at
Contravention (narrative of infraction)
Current Status of Case
Next Status of Case
Name and address of registered keepers/drivers/payee details
Transaction details ie. date, time and method of payments made

The Authority Traffic, software links with the handheld units used by the
Civil
Enforcement Officers, which captures the information when issuing a
Penalty
Charge Notice.

4. If FoIA Requests of a similar nature have already been asked,
could you please include your responses to those requests.
The Council does not hold the requested information.
Please note if you are not satisfied with this response you may ask for an
internal review. If you wish to complain you should contact me in the
first instance.

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have
the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a
decision.
The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future
communications.

Regards

Graham Marsh

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Gareth Oakley left an annotation ()

If anyone is looking for data on the rate of appeals I've made another request further to this one here:

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/pe...

Norris left an annotation ()

It has been proven that NSL Services Ltd traffic wardens DO get bonuses/incentives to issue parking tickets in other places where NSL Services hold parking enforcement contracts, so it wouldn't surprise me if the same is true in Manchester. Find out more about quotas for NSL Services parking wardens at http://nutsville.com (you will need to search).