2. Will the Minister provide an update on free car parking at hospital sites in Wales? OAQ53366

Car parking is free at all NHS hospitals in Wales. Health boards and NHS trusts are responsible for the local management operations and the arrangements for car parks on their sites.

I recently had correspondence from a constituent who wrote to me about an experience that he had at the University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff. He parked in a zone that was clearly marked out on the Cardiff and Vale university health board website as being designated for patients and visitors. He was then surprised to receive a £40 fine from a parking enforcement firm called ParkingEye, which said that the zone was for parking for staff only. He paid the fine, because he was afraid of the potentially spiralling costs of legal action. There appears to be confusion between what the health board and ParkingEye see as particular parking zones and those designated for particular kinds of use.

In the meantime, the health board has said that they will not intervene in any appeals to enforce parking fines with parking enforcement firms. I think free hospital parking is one of the Welsh Government's key achievements, and the Minister said in his answer that it's something that is universal. Can he therefore give some reassurances that health boards are implementing this policy effectively, including Cardiff and Vale board, and that, where it is needed, there's clear dialogue between the health boards and private parking firms to do it properly?

That's exactly what we expect. There is, of course, the challenge of making sure that free parking on hospital sites does not turn into people parking for free on hospital sites, but not actually making use of the healthcare services in that hospital. So, the challenge is how we make sure that people who are there receive the free parking that they should expect.

I'm interested in what the Member has said about confusion between a zone that appears to be marked out as a patient parking zone and they've parked there and still received a fine. If the Member provides me with details, I'll happily take the matter up to make sure that the policy is being applied exactly as it is intended to. But I do think the honest truth is that, at the start of free parking across the estate within Cardiff and Vale—one of the last to move over because of long-term problems they'd previously had—there were some challenges, and Members from Cardiff and the vale will have seen those in their constituency postbags. Those were significantly reduced, but I'm interested in any further instances to make sure that the policy is got right. So, please do write to me and I'll have the matter investigated.

Minister, I welcome the announcement that parking at all NHS hospitals in Wales has been free since the end of August last year. Since free hospital parking was first announced by the then health Minister, Edwina Hart, in March 2008, first of all, why did it take 10 years to implement this? The second thing is, it's a bit of a mess in certain areas, it needs proper management—the car parking—because it is used by staff, and for some of them, it's very important to come in at the right time and there's no space, they go around in circles, then patients in a certain urgency, and then visitors. In certain areas, it was also in negotiation with the board that ANPR technology would be used, which is automatic number plate recognition. So, are you in negotiation with such companies to make sure that parking in our hospitals is free and fair for patients, staff and visitors in Wales, please?

I'll deal with your first point about the time it's taken. I'm very proud that the Welsh Labour commitment has been delivered. We were not able to deliver it as quickly as we had wanted to because of the long-term contracts that existed—if you were listening to my first answer you would have heard me say that—and there was a practical point about the cost to the public purse in buying out those contracts. We now have a full estate of free parking for patients, and we look forward to England catching up with us. Despite long-held promises by the current Government, they do not have the same level of achievement that we can celebrate here in Wales, and I'm sure you'd join with me in recognising that. 

On the broader point about traffic management, this is a real challenge, not just in making sure that patients can park, but actually staff parking as well. That's partly about the efficient use of our large and significant sites—there are a large number of traffic movements on and off during the day—but also about encouraging people to take alternative ways of getting on to hospital sites, whether that's in Cardiff, where there is a park and ride facility, or, indeed, on the one that I've used with the Deputy Presiding Officer around Glan Clwyd. So, it's about a range of measures to make sure that people who do need to get onto the site are able to do so and to make proper use of that. And that is what we expect health boards to deliver in managing properly each hospital estate.