The decision of whether to charge for car parking facilities is one for local determination in the light of local circumstances;

Charging for car parking in hospitals should not be motivated by a desire to generate income, and

Charging may only be justified if it:

is to cover the cost of providing improved parking facilities;

is to make the car park more secure, or

is to better manage existing car parking facilities by discouraging “fly parkers”.

The guidance issued on 1 April this year, and detailed in my answer to S2W-7206 on 28 April 2004, develops these principles and is much fuller. This guidance, which will cover all future car parking schemes, applies both where car parking facilities are being provided and/or managed by NHS boards and by private sector providers.

The revised guidance reiterates that car park charging should not be introduced as a means of generating income and details more fully the circumstances where charging may be justified, namely if it is to:

cover any significant costs in providing new or improved parking facilities or making existing facilities more secure (e.g. capital charges, maintenance costs, administration costs, security costs, security lighting, CCTV), and

better manage car parking facilities by discouraging unauthorised users (e.g. fly-parkers) but in so doing, measures taken to discourage unauthorised users must not be detrimental to the car parking arrangements for staff, patients and visitors.

The revised guidance also outlines more fully the principles NHS boards should adhere to where charges are made, as follows:

NHS boards must be able to demonstrate the level of income generated from car parking and how it has been utilised;

before introducing or substantially revising car park charges, NHS boards must consult with staff, the public and any relevant bodies or organisations;

sufficient car parking space and concessionary car parking rates should be available to staff and consideration should be given to providing concessions to certain categories of patient (e.g. patients attending regularly for dialysis or radiotherapy), and

a reasonable proportion of parking spaces should be set aside for disabled parking. In determining disabled parking spaces, the needs of disabled persons should be fully considered (e.g. wide spaces, no kerbs or steps, preferably under cover, and located at different entrances to the NHS facility).

The revised guidance further advises that where fly parking is a particular problem, in discouraging unauthorised users, NHS boards should investigate ways to control such parking, other than introducing excessive daily charges for all car-park users. Such options may be:

to check at manual barriers the validity of parkers between, say 7 am and 10 am (e.g. staff id, appointment card, details of the patient they are visiting); or

to limit the availability of car parking space by keeping certain car parks closed until 10 am and, say, designating car parks "staff only" and "out-patients/day-patients only", and

where there is no option but to discourage or control the level of unauthorised parking by charging excessive daily rates, arrangements must be put in place to ensure that patients and visitors who are legitimately parked in the car park all day are given a concessionary rate.

The guidance is clear that in all cases charges should reflect a reasonable balance between the perceived needs of staff, patients and visitors, the cost of car parking generally in the area, and the costs of maintaining car parking facilities, and concludes by stating that widespread charging of excessiverates to staff, patients or visitors cannot be justified.

First Destination of Graduates and Diplomates from Scottish Higher Education Institutions and Further Education Colleges, 2001-02

Sources: Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) and Scottish Further Education Funding Council (SFEFC).

First destination of graduates and diplomates information is collected by higher education institutions (HEIs) and further education colleges (FECs) through a voluntary survey to individual students of all nationalities within the EU who have successfully completed their course. Details are requested about the graduate’s or diplomate’s destination on 31 December following the end of the academic session in which they qualified.