Debate contribution: Hospital Parking Charges Bill: Accelerated Passage

Debate contribution by Mr Mike Nesbitt on 10 March 2026.

MLA

Mr Mike Nesbitt

Party at the time

Ulster Unionist Party

Date

10 March 2026

Type

Debate contribution (made as a minister)

Business

Executive Committee Business

Heading

Hospital Parking Charges Bill: Accelerated Passage

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5436915

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I beg to move

Deputy Speaker, thank you. I am grateful for the opportunity. I seek agreement to progress by accelerated passage the Hospital Parking Charges Bill, which will postpone the ban on charging money for parking vehicles in hospital car parks, as contained in the Hospital Parking Charges Act (Northern Ireland) 2022. I confirm to the House that Executive approval was secured for the process of accelerated passage, but I do not make the request lightly. Whenever possible, primary legislation, of course, should be subject to full Assembly scrutiny. The Committee Stage of any Bill is, clearly, a significant element of that scrutiny process. However, for reasons that I will outline, there are, on occasion, compelling grounds for the use of accelerated passage. Before I do that, I will say a few words about why legislative change is required. I will, of course, cover that in more detail in the Second Stage debate that will follow the debate on this motion. Health and social care trusts have been working to implement the legislative requirements of the Hospital Parking Charges Act by 12 May 2026. However, the financial challenges facing the health and social care sector mean that difficult decisions will need to be made across all areas of spend to return the sector to financial sustainability. That includes deferring the abolition of charging for hospital car parking to avoid the loss of some £7 million in charge income recurrently. Achieving financial sustainability will take a number of years to achieve, and that is why the deferral is for up to three years, in line with the timescales for the ongoing Budget process. I assure Members that I have made every possible attempt to avoid the need for accelerated passage. Last July, I wrote to Executive colleagues highlighting the implications for my Department of the outcome of the UK-wide 2025 spending review that took place in June.

I also set out some of the income-generation measures that I would need to consider, including deferral of the abolition of car parking charges in hospitals under the 2022 Act. Formal proposals for the deferral of the ban on charging vehicles for parking in hospital car parks were first circulated to Executive colleagues on 8 October last year and recirculated on 11 November. Subsequent versions of the papers were circulated on 5 December last, on 14 January this year and on 9 February. I then made a request for a decision by the First Minister and the deputy First Minister under urgent procedure on 17 February, with my recommendations finally being approved by the Executive on 26 February. That has left a very short period in which to go through all the stages of Assembly approval and secure Royal Assent. If the normal approach were to be adopted, it would not be possible to secure Royal Assent before 12 May, with the result that charges would have to be abolished temporarily, and it would be for a considerably longer period than the four days in 2024 before the current two-year deferral period came into effect. During that time, there was an uncontrolled surge in demand for car parking spaces. That resulted in significant disruption to flow in our busiest hospital sites. That is not something that I want to see repeated. If Members do not grant accelerated passage, the stark reality is that hospitals will have limited means to control parking, to preserve blue-light routes and to protect designated spaces. I hope that it is clear to Members that that would create an unacceptable risk of traffic chaos in and around critical hospitals, bringing with it risks to staff, patients and the public. I therefore commend the motion to the Assembly and ask that it agree that the Hospital Parking Charges Bill proceed under the accelerated passage procedure.

635 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 15:12 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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