POPLA vs the IAS: what actually happens when a parking appeal is decided
Both services are free, both are independent, both cover the same twelve months. Only one of them tells you how often it finds for the motorist. POPLA allowed 21.5% of the appeals it decided in 1 October 2024 to 30 September 2025. The IAS does not publish the figure at all — and the last time it did, it was 6%.
Counted from each service's own annual report · checked 20/08/2026
POPLA, 1 October 2024 to 30 September 2025
These are counts, not estimates. Every figure below is added up from the appendix table in POPLA's own annual report, operator by operator, and every percentage on this page is recalculated from those counts at the moment the page is served — there is no percentage stored anywhere in our code that could drift away from the numbers it came from.
| Outcome | Appeals | Share of concluded |
|---|---|---|
| Allowed — adjudicator found for the motorist | 14,578 | 13.6% |
| Refused — adjudicator found for the operator | 53,102 | 49.5% |
| Not contested by the operator — withdrawn before a decision | 34,502 | 32.2% |
| Not contested by the appellant — motorist withdrew | 5,020 | 4.7% |
| Total concluded | 107,202 | 100% |
- 21.5% allowed at adjudication — 14,578 of the 67,680 appeals that were actually decided.
- 45.8% ended with the charge cancelled — 49,080 of 107,202, once you add the 34,502 the operator withdrew before a ruling.
- 104,349 appeals were submitted in the year.
Source: POPLA Annual Report 2025 — Appendix (Parking on Private Land Appeals, 30/04/2026) — checked 20/08/2026. Period: 1 October 2024 to 30 September 2025.
POPLA's appendix breaks these totals down operator by operator — the full 2025 league table, every operator ranked by the share of decided appeals allowed →
The IAS, 1 October 2024 to 30 September 2025
The IAS publishes an annual report for the identical twelve months, prepared under Schedule 5 of the Alternative Dispute Resolution for Consumer Disputes (Competent Authorities and Information) Regulations 2015. It contains a section headed “IAS Adjudication Outcomes”. That section discusses, in prose, how outcomes should be thought about. It gives no number for how many appeals were allowed, and none for how many were refused.
| What the IAS report publishes | Figure |
|---|---|
| Disputes received | 34,383 |
| Disputes accepted (continued to case) | 25,476 |
| Discontinued for operational reasons | 8,907 (25.9% of disputes received) |
| — of which conceded by the parking operator before adjudication | 7,888 |
| — of which conceded by the motorist | 1,019 |
| Appeals allowed at adjudication | not published |
| Appeals refused at adjudication | not published |
Source: The Independent Appeals Service (IAS) Annual Report 2024–2025 (Independent Appeals Service, covering 1 October 2024 to 30 September 2025) — checked 20/08/2026. We fetched and read this report rather than quoting anyone else's summary of it.
When did the IAS stop publishing it?
The last IAS report to disclose an allowed rate covered 2021/22, when 6% of appeals were allowed at adjudication — 94% decided in the operator's favour. Reports since then have not carried the split, a point the RAC made publicly when it called on the industry to publish full and transparent appeals data.
Source for the 2021/22 figure and the transparency call: RAC calls on private parking industry to publish full and transparent complaints and appeals data (RAC, 30/07/2025) — checked 20/08/2026. We fetched and read the 1 October 2024 to 30 September 2025 report ourselves to confirm the split is still absent; that check is dated 20/08/2026.
Parking operators must accept determinations made by the relevant Appeals Service.Anyone quoting it as today's IAS success rate, including sites that sell appeal letters, is quoting a stale number. What can be said today is narrower and firmer: one service publishes its outcomes and the other does not, so a driver facing an IPC operator is choosing under uncertainty that a driver facing a BPA operator is not.
The one comparison that survives both caveats
Both services publish how often the operator gives up before a decision. That is the one thing you can compare, and it has to be done carefully, because the two bodies count out of different totals:
| Operator concessions | Count | Denominator | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| POPLA — appeals not contested by the operator | 34,502 | 107,202 appeals concluded | 32.2% |
| IAS — conceded by the operator before adjudication | 7,888 | 25,476 disputes accepted to case | 31% |
| IAS — the same count against the wider total | 7,888 | 34,383 disputes received | 22.9% |
Measured against live cases somebody actually had to defend, the two are close — 32.2% at POPLA and 31% at the IAS. Measured against everything that arrived, the IAS figure falls to 22.9%. We are showing both because the honest answer depends on a denominator neither body defines the same way, and quoting only the flattering one is how the numbers in this market usually get quoted.
Either way, the point stands: on the evidence both bodies actually publish, the strongest single argument for appealing is not the adjudicator at all. It is that on both routes charges taken to an independent service are abandoned by the company that issued them far more often than drivers expect: the IAS reports 7,888 of 25,476 accepted disputes conceded by the operator before adjudication.
How council PCNs compare
Council penalty charges go to a traffic adjudicator instead, and the London figures are published in full. In 2024-25, London's Environment and Traffic Adjudicators decided 21,246 parking appeals and allowed 10,496 — 49.4%. But 6,143 of those wins were cases the council chose not to contest. Strip those out and 20.5% were won against a council that turned up and argued.
| Route | Body | Period | Allowed where contested and decided | Charge cancelled including concessions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Private — BPA member | POPLA | 1 October 2024 to 30 September 2025 | 21.5% | 45.8% |
| Private — IPC member | IAS | 1 October 2024 to 30 September 2025 | not published | not published (operator concessions 7,888) |
| Council PCN, London | ETA | 2024-25 | 20.5% | 49.4% |
| Council PCN, England outside London and Wales | TPT | — | Not currently published — the tribunal's own appeals-data page said, when we checked it, that its published data runs only to 2021/22 | |
Sources: Environment and Traffic Adjudicators — parking appeal statistics 2024-25 (London Tribunals, covering 2024-25) — checked 20/08/2026 · Appeals Data and glossary (Traffic Penalty Tribunal, 16/04/2026) — checked 20/08/2026.
Set the two contested numbers next to each other and something quietly useful appears: 21.5% against a private operator at POPLA, 20.5% against a London council that defends its case. A contested appeal is a contested appeal. What differs between the routes is not how a fair-minded adjudicator decides — it is how much the issuer concedes before anyone has to.
What this means for your own ticket
Which body hears your appeal is not your choice: it is set by the trade association your operator belongs to. POPLA and the IAS side by side, including the 28-day and 28-day windows → · look your operator up among all 217 →
Should I appeal — and will I lose my discount?Free. Your issuer and notice date in; the discount rule that applies to you, quoted from the code, and your deadlines out.
Common questions
What percentage of POPLA appeals are successful?
21.5% of the appeals POPLA decided in 1 October 2024 to 30 September 2025 were allowed — 14,578 of 67,680. Counting the 34,502 charges the operator withdrew before a ruling, 45.8% of the 107,202 appeals POPLA concluded ended with the charge cancelled.
What percentage of IAS appeals are successful?
Nobody outside the IAS can say. Its 1 October 2024 to 30 September 2025 annual report does not publish how many appeals were allowed or refused. The last report that did covered 2021/22 and put the allowed rate at 6%. Treat any current-sounding IAS success rate you see quoted as a four-year-old number.
Is POPLA fairer than the IAS?
We cannot evidence that, and we will not claim it. What the published data supports is narrower: POPLA discloses its outcomes and the IAS does not, and both disclose operator concession volumes that are broadly similar. A difference in transparency is not the same as a difference in fairness, and we would rather say so than sell you a comparison the data does not carry.
Are council parking appeals more successful than private ones?
On the headline number yes — 49.4% of London parking appeals were allowed in 2024-25 against 21.5% at POPLA. But 6,143 of the London wins were uncontested, and once those are removed the contested rate is 20.5%, which is close to POPLA's. The difference is mostly in how often the issuer folds, not in how adjudicators decide.
Does it cost anything to appeal to POPLA or the IAS?
No. Both independent services are free to the motorist, and both require you to have completed the operator's own appeal stage first.
Sources named above: Alternative Dispute Resolution for Consumer Disputes (Competent Authorities and Information) Regulations 2015 (SI 2015/542)