No, 5 million ULEZ fines did not go unpaid

Context

According to a claim on Facebook, 5 million ULEZ fines have gone unpaid. 

The Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) is an area of London where vehicles that do not meet emission standards are charged £12.50 daily to enter. If charges are not paid in time, fines are applied.

"I Read somewhere 5 million unpaid fines. Sounds like they lost out on 62.5 million and went after 450 million but we haven't got that either. So tyranny it is then. Keep putin them up, wheel keep breaking the camels back (sic)," read the Facebook post in full. 

It was shared in a public Facebook group that calls for action against the ULEZ and has more than 45,000 members. 

However, Transport for London (TfL), which manages the ULEZ, did not recognize the figure of 5 million unpaid fines, a spokesperson told Logically Facts. Numbers show it's unlikely that there have even been 5 million fines issued. 

In fact 

The ULEZ was launched in April 2019 and expanded in the summer of 2023 to cover all of London's 32 boroughs. 

The ULEZ charge is £12.50 for non-compliant vehicles. If you don't pay, you get a penalty charge of £180. The fine is cut in half if paid within 14 days. If not paid within 28 days, it increases to £270.

The £62.5m stated in the Facebook post appears to refer to 5 million cases of the £12.50 ULEZ charge which, according to the post, went unpaid. The £450m figure roughly equals the total amount of 5 million fines paid within 14 days at the £90 penalty charge. 

TfL told British fact-checkers Full Fact that 4.3 million penalty charges had been issued from April 2019 up to October 2023, making it unlikely that 5 million fines have even been issued at this time, much less gone unpaid. 

A report published on October 31, 2023, showed that from September 26 to September 30, an average of 2,696 penalty charges were issued per day. That average would have to have been multiple times higher through October, November, and December to even get to 5 million issued fines.  

Information on the TfL website shows that between April 2019 and April 2020, unpaid fines amounted to £17m. Between April 2020 and April 2021 it was £120m, while between April 2021 and April 2022, it was £256m. 

The verdict

The number of unpaid ULEZ claimed in the Facebook post is exaggerated. It is doubtful that 5 million penalty charges have even been issued at this time, much less gone unpaid. TfL has said it does not recognize the figure. Therefore, we have marked this claim as misleading.