Review of the Vehicle Recovery Legislation
Overview
This consultation document seeks views on new levels of charges applied to the removal, storage and disposal of vehicles in Scotland. These charges will apply where the police or local authority have cause to remove or recover a vehicle in particular sets of circumstances. The vast majority of these recoveries are carried out on behalf of the police under the Vehicle Recovery Scheme managed by a managing agent using various recovery operators across Scotland.
Removals ordered by the police are necessary in a variety of situations including enforcing the law and also to remove obstructions and potential dangers. In some cases the police may need to remove a vehicle for forensic examination. The local authority may also require to remove vehicles in circumstances where vehicles have become abandoned or are parked in contravention with the law.
The charges were last subject of a review in 2019 and since this time there have been inflationary and increased costs applied to this type of work. We have listened to our partners’ ask that these regulations be regularly reviewed, and this current review of the legislation is intended to deliver on that ask.
This public consultation is to allow adequate consideration to be given prior to regulations being laid before Parliament to introduce revised charges. We look forward to hearing your views.
Read the consultation paper. The consultation paper contains full background information for this consultation. You may find it useful to read or refer to while responding.
Consultation questions preview
The consultation questions are included here for your reference. Please click 'Begin consultation' at the bottom of this page to proceed.
Do you support the proposed 31% uplift to statutory removal, storage and disposal fees based on inflation?
Do you support uplifting the current flat ferry fee by 31% in line with inflation?
Do you agree that a time-based charge should be introduced to reflect the impact of ferry delays and waiting times?
Do you support the proposed hourly rates set out under Ferry Cost Recovery?
Do you agree that the final charging framework should make further provision for the circumstances in which ferry-related vehicle recoveries give rise to additional operational complexity or costs?
Do you support replacing the flat mileage rate with a tiered rate based on the maximum authorised mass (MAM) of the vehicle being recovered?
Do you agree that the proposed mileage rates fairly reflect the cost of operating larger or more specialist vehicles?
Subject to compliance with all applicable statutory consultation requirements, including section 134(8) of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, do you agree that future routine reviews of the statutory charging framework should be undertaken through a more streamlined process, based on targeted stakeholder engagement, evidence gathering and impact assessment, with full public consultation reserved for more substantive changes to policy or legislation?
Do you foresee any unintended consequences or risks arising from the proposed changes (e.g. increased vehicle abandonment)?
Do you have any views on how any unintended consequences or risks arising from the proposed changes could be mitigated?
Are there any other issues you feel should be considered that have not been covered in the other questions?
Useful information about responding to this consultation
As you complete your response, each page will provide the option to 'Save and come back later' at the bottom. This means you can save your progress and return to the consultation at any time before it closes. If you don't use this feature and leave the consultation midway through, your response will be lost.
Once you have submitted your response, you can enter your email address to get a pdf copy of your answers sent to you.
On the 'About You' page at the end of this consultation, organisations will have the opportunity to tell us more about their work and/or how their response was informed.
After the consultation has closed there will be a few months delay before any responses are published. This is because we must check any responses to be published abide by our Terms of Use.
All relevant submitted responses will be analysed. This may be carried out by third party organisations who Scottish Government, its executive agencies or non-ministerial offices, contract to do this work. Such data sharing will be governed by appropriate contractual arrangements to keep your data secure.
An analysis report will usually be published some months after the consultation has closed. This report will summarise the findings based on all responses submitted. It will be published on the Scottish Government website and you may be notified about it if you choose to share your email address with us.
You can also join our consultation mailing list where we regularly list newly published analysis reports (as well as new consultations).
Why your views matter
Consultation is an essential part of the policymaking process. It gives us the opportunity to consider your opinion and expertise on a proposed area of work.
Responses will be analysed and used as part of the decision making process, along with a range of other available information and evidence. We will publish a report of this analysis for every consultation. Depending on the nature of the consultation exercise the responses received may:
- indicate the need for policy development or review
- inform the development of a particular policy
- help decisions to be made between alternative policy proposals
- be used to finalise legislation before it is implemented
While details of particular circumstances described in a response to a consultation exercise may usefully inform the policy process, consultation exercises cannot address individual concerns and comments, which should be directed to the relevant public body.
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