Thursday 21 July 2016 4:13 pm

The UK is owed more than £300,000 in unpaid parking fines from embassies and foreign missions, according to the Foreign Office

By: Mark Sands

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Foreign embassies owe a total of more than £300,000 in parking fines, according to figures published by the Foreign Office today.

In addition to more serious offences, almost £500,000 of fines were levied through 2015, with just £161,328 either paid or waived by local councils, Transport for London and the City of London.

In a written statement published today, foreign secretary Boris Johnson said: “The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has held meetings with a number of missions about outstanding parking fine debt.

“In addition, in May this year we wrote to diplomatic missions and international organisations concerned giving them the opportunity to either pay their outstanding fines or appeal against them if they considered that the fines had been issued incorrectly.”

In total, 42 embassies still owe more than £1,000 in parking fines from 2015.

The worst offender is the Embassy of the Republic of South Sudan, which owes more than £50,000, followed by organisations representing Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and the Republic of Zambia.

Lib Dem MP Greg Mulholland said: “When council budgets are being slashed, the government should do more to pressure embassies to ensure diplomats obey the law of the land as British citizens have to.



“Over £300,000 remains unpaid. Why didn’t Boris Johnson as London mayor do more to put pressure on ambassadors? It is clear that several embassies such as South Sudan, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia have such large unpaid bills that they simply think they are above the law.”


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