History
This page tracks vehicle keeper data requests from 2010/11 onward. The figures are a strong proxy for private parking charge volume, but they are not a perfect ticket count, profit figure, or proof that every charge was wrong.
Read the data carefully
RAC Foundation analysis of DVLA data gives the historic 2010/11 to 2019/20 series. The GOV.UK KADOE spreadsheet gives later annual detail. These figures show scale and trend; they do not tell us how many charges were cancelled, paid, litigated, or invalid.
Ticket proxy graph
Scale is shown against the 2024/25 peak. The 2025/26 row is only Q1 to Q3, so it is not a final year total.
Sources: RAC Foundation historic DVLA analysis for 2010/11 to 2019/20; GOV.UK KADOE spreadsheet for 2020/21 onward.
Money at stake
This graph applies a simple GBP100 face-value scenario to selected years. It does not deduct early-payment discounts, cancellations, non-payment, VAT, operating costs, landowner shares, or court outcomes.
Source data: RAC Foundation historic DVLA analysis and GOV.UK KADOE volumes. GBP100 is a face-value scenario, not proven revenue.
Company history
This first table compares known high-volume rows. It is not yet a full company-by-company profit or dispute register.
| Company or route | 2018/19 KADOE | 2024/25 KADOE | Dispute and failed-ticket data | Profit and CEO pay |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ParkingEye Ltd | 1,852,085 | 2,300,360 | Coming soon: operator appeal/court outcomes. | Coming soon: accounts extraction and director pay check. |
| Euro Car Parks Limited | 672,359 | 1,733,493 | Regulator context: CMA information-notice penalty, not consumer-law finding. | Coming soon. |
| APCOA Parking (UK) Ltd | 109,027 | 960,482 | Coming soon: separate airport, rail, byelaw, drop-off and private land routes. | Coming soon. |
| Horizon Parking Limited | 176,962 | 875,833 | Coming soon: supermarket and retail cancellation route. | Coming soon. |
| Civil Enforcement Ltd | 368,883 | 684,864 | Coming soon: court claim and discontinuance data. | Coming soon. |
| Smart Parking Ltd | 391,048 | 626,570 | Coming soon: payment/app matching and cancellation data. | Coming soon. |
| UK Parking Control | 163,224 | 579,806 | Coming soon: permit, residential and debt route data. | Coming soon. |
| Parkmaven Limited | 0 | 519,481 | Newer high-volume digital route: coming soon. | Coming soon. |
| CP Plus / GroupNexus route | 181,477 | 493,026 | Coming soon: group structure and landowner contracts. | Coming soon. |
| UK Car Park Management Ltd | 187,637 | 444,678 | Coming soon: residential, permit, and legal escalation outcomes. | Coming soon. |
Sources: GOV.UK KADOE volumes, CMA Euro Car Parks information-notice penalty, and Companies House. Company KADOE rows can be affected by name changes, trading names, group structures, or agents acting on behalf of another operator.
Company trail
Ticket volume alone is not enough. A proper history page should join DVLA volume to the legal entity, officers, accounts, Gazette notices, ICO registration, trade-body route, procurement frameworks, public reviews, and court route.
Companies House incorporates and dissolves limited companies and makes company information public. The register is the starting point for company number, status, officers, accounts, charges, and persons with significant control.
The Find and update company information service includes a clear warning that Companies House does not check the accuracy of the information filed. Treat it as primary record, not complete truth.
The Gazette company search is useful for statutory notices, insolvency signals, address and company-profile checks, and historical notices that may not be obvious from marketing pages.
Parking firms using ANPR, appeals, keeper data, debt files, and contact records should have a traceable data-controller route. The public should check ICO registration, expiry, tier, address, and DPO route.
Check whether the company is using the BPA or IPC route, whether it is in an accredited operator scheme, what fees are tied to turnover, and what sanctions or audits are public.
The audit should connect company ownership, procurement routes, landowner income, appeal costs, debt recovery fees, and court outcomes before making claims about profit or responsibility.
Example source trail
This is an evidence map, not a verdict. It shows how the History page can move from raw ticket proxy data into a company-by-company public record.
| Source | What it adds | Audit question |
|---|---|---|
| Companies House overview | ParkingEye Limited, company number 05134454, active private limited company, incorporated 21 May 2004, registered office in Buckshaw Village, Chorley, SIC 52219, last accounts made up to 31 December 2024. | Extract accounts, parent/PSC history, charges, address changes, and any disclosed director-pay or highest-paid-director information. |
| Companies House officers | Officer register shows 43 officers and 41 resignations, with Philip Neil Boynes and Sian Louise Wicks listed as active directors in this check. | Build an officer timeline and match director changes to ownership, strategy, procurement, volume, and court-route changes. |
| ICO data-protection register | Parkingeye Limited is listed as data controller under registration Z943106X, first registered 24 March 2006, expiry shown as 23 March 2027, payment tier 3, with a DPO Centre route. | Compare ICO registration, privacy notices, DVLA use, retention policy, debt sharing, and false-ticket deletion route. |
| Trustpilot snapshot | Trustpilot showed a claimed Parkingeye profile with 3,987 reviews, TrustScore 1.1, "Bad", and "Hasn't replied to negative reviews" at this source check. | Do not treat reviews as proof by themselves. Code themes: payment/app failure, signs, appeal handling, debt pressure, disability route, and company responses. |
| Law Society office route | This is a public verification route for any regulated legal-office listing connected to ParkingEye. It should be rechecked manually because live directory pages can be fragile. | Separate in-house legal function, external solicitors, debt collector letters, Letter of Claim, and actual County Court claim forms. |
| BPA marketplace listing | The BPA Marketplace is described as a guide to members and promoted products/services. The listing needs a live page capture before treating service claims as facts. | Check AOS membership, sanctions, complaint handling, and whether marketing claims match appeal and cancellation outcomes. |
| Parking Network profile | Industry profile says ParkingEye was established in 2002 and gives a Chorley postal route and contact context. | Treat trade profiles as industry self-description unless backed by accounts, contracts, procurement records, or regulator data. |
| GCA framework RM6349 | Government Commercial Agency agreement "Income Generation from Estates & Assets" includes end-to-end car parking management, runs 29 October 2024 to 28 October 2028, and is open to public sector bodies. | Where a public body uses a parking framework, ask whether the specification protects accessibility, cancellation rights, data accuracy, and non-visible disability routes. |
| GCA Lot 5 suppliers | Lot 5 lists four end-to-end car parking management suppliers: APCOA Parking Services (UK), Euro Car Parks, ParkingEye, and Saba Park Services UK. | Ask how procurement scoring handles false positives, appeal quality, debt escalation, data deletion, complaint visibility, and household-cost impact. |
Snapshot date for review and register observations: 1 June 2026. Ratings, officers, registrations, and procurement details can change, so live links should be rechecked before publication outside this no-index draft.
Who funds the gatekeepers?
The funding question is not a conspiracy claim. It is a governance question: where the same industry that needs DVLA access also pays membership, scheme, audit, and appeal-related fees, the public needs plain disclosure and outcome data.
The BPA describes itself as a not-for-profit membership association representing the UK parking and mobility sector, with around 800 corporate members and a separate individual-membership structure.
BPA private-sector membership fees are annual and banded by parking-related turnover. The published April 2024 private-sector bands run up to GBP7,120 plus VAT for turnover above GBP20m.
The BPA AOS fee structure says AOS members must also be BPA corporate members, and that the AOS is directly funded by AOS fee revenue. It also lists an appeal-processing charge per appeal.
The IPC describes itself as the leading trade association for the professional parking community and offers membership, an Accredited Operator Scheme, Accredited Service Provider Scheme, and IAS route.
The IPC membership application terms say AOS/ASP fees are calculated by declared parking-related turnover and that members may have to provide audited-account evidence.
The next public dataset should publish membership-fee model, appeal-fee model, sanctions, operator cancellations, complaints, DVLA suspensions, and court outcomes side by side.
Debt recovery profit signal
This is sector-level evidence, not a company-by-company profit finding.
average debt recovery agency profit margin over 2019/20 to 2021/22 cited in the government options assessment.
net profit margin cited for BPA parking operators as a comparison point.
net profit margin cited for IPC members as a comparison point.
approximate share of charges sent to debt recovery that are paid at that stage.
government break-even estimate for debt recovery fees if the payment proportion does not change.
Next data build
First appeals, POPLA/IAS outcomes, operator non-contest, court claims, discontinuance, wins, losses, and default judgments.
Companies House accounts, parent entities, dividends, highest-paid director where disclosed, and parking-specific segment data where available.
Medical, disability, hardship, debt, and household-cost evidence should be anonymised before use.