Scottish LEZ — Defective Notice of Rejection / 28-Day Window

If the council denies your challenge to a Scottish low emission zone penalty, it must send you a Notice of Rejection, and the law fixes exactly what that notice has to tell you — the reasons on each ground you raised, that you can appeal to the First-tier Tribunal within 28 days of the notice being served, the grounds you can appeal on, how to appeal, that the tribunal can award expenses, that paying within 14 days of the notice cuts the penalty in half, and what happens if you neither pay nor appeal. Two things follow. If the notice leaves any of that out or is wrongly dated, that is a real complaint about the council's handling, and the tribunal has power to accept an appeal after the 28 days if the notice made it hard to appeal in time. And whatever else you do, the half-price window reopens for 14 days when the rejection is served — many people do not realise this.

Legal basis

Low Emission Zones (Emission Standards, Exemptions and Enforcement) (Scotland) Regulations 2021 (S.S.I. 2021/177) regulation 9(4), which sets out what a notice of rejection must contain, including that it must "state that an appeal against the imposition of the penalty charge may be made to the First-tier Tribunal within the appeal period, or such longer period as the First-tier Tribunal may allow" and must "state that if the penalty charge is paid before the end of the period of 14 days beginning with the date of service of the notice of rejection, the penalty charge will be reduced by 50 per cent"; regulation 1(2), under which "the appeal period" means "the period of 28 days beginning with the date of service of the notice of rejection"; and regulation 10 (appeal to the First-tier Tribunal). Procedure is governed by the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland General Regulatory Chamber Parking and Bus Lane Appeals (Rules of Procedure) Regulations 2020 (S.S.I. 2020/98) as amended with effect from 1 June 2023 by S.S.I. 2023/159, regulation 2(c) of which (in the amended text — limb (c) does not appear in the Regulations as made) applies those Rules to low emission zone cases, those functions having been allocated to the General Regulatory Chamber by regulation 2 of the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland (Allocation of Functions to the General Regulatory Chamber) Regulations 2023 (S.S.I. 2023/158).

How to identify this in your case

Two separate checks, and it helps not to mix them. First, the contents: regulation 9(4) lists seven things the Notice of Rejection must contain — the reasons on each ground you raised, the right of appeal to the First-tier Tribunal within the appeal period, the grounds you may appeal on, how to appeal, the tribunal's power to award expenses, the 50 per cent reduction for paying within 14 days, and what happens if you neither pay nor appeal. Anything missing from that list is a defect in the notice. Second, and separately, the timing: when the notice was actually served, and when it reached you. The service date is not one of the things regulation 9(4) requires the notice to state, so a wrong or missing date is not a breach of that regulation — but it is exactly the evidence the tribunal needs if you are asking it to allow an appeal after the 28 days. Note too that your appeal itself must rest on one of the grounds in regulation 8(4); a defective notice supports a late appeal and is a fair complaint about the council, but it is not by itself a ground of appeal.

Sample appeal wording

Before you send this

Deadline. A late submission can be turned down without your argument being read. Check your notice for the deadline and how it is counted.
Paying may end it. Paying can count as accepting the notice and can close a challenge already under way. Part-paying or acknowledging an old debt can also revive a time limit that had expired.
The amount can change. Check what happens to the sum if you challenge — it may be held, re-offered lower, or keep rising, and fees or enforcement can continue meanwhile.
Use the official route. Use the method, recipient and form your notice specifies, with any reference, evidence and signature it asks for. Sent elsewhere, it may not count.
Only say what is true. Do not copy any statement of fact unless it is true for you, and check the legal point still applies. Delete what does not fit. It may be treated as your statement.
Careful what you volunteer. Avoid unnecessary admissions — naming the driver or accepting responsibility can remove arguments. But answer anything you are legally required to answer, and do include the evidence your ground needs.
Keep the record. Keep what you sent, the attachments, any receipt, and the reply. Note the next deadline.

Sample wording to adapt and send yourself — it may not fit your notice or the stage you are at. Replace the bracketed prompts with your own details; leave any case citation as it is.

To: General Regulatory Chamber, First-tier Tribunal for Scotland Re: Appeal — low emission zone penalty charge notice [PCN_NUMBER] — [COUNCIL] I appeal under regulation 10 of the Low Emission Zones (Emission Standards, Exemptions and Enforcement) (Scotland) Regulations 2021 against the imposition of this penalty charge. The notice of rejection is dated [DATE_NOR] and reached me on [DATE_RECEIVED]. Grounds of appeal: [SET OUT THE GROUNDS RELIED ON, WHICH MUST BE AMONG THOSE IN REGULATION 8(4)]. Defect in the notice of rejection. Regulation 9(4) requires the notice to contain [LIST WHAT IS MISSING — for example the statement of the right of appeal and the appeal period, the grounds of appeal, the manner and form of appealing, the tribunal's power to award expenses, or the 50 per cent reduction for payment within 14 days]. The notice served on me omits that. I raise this as a failure by the authority to comply with regulation 9(4), and not as a ground of appeal in itself. Time. The notice is dated [DATE_NOR] and did not reach me until [DATE_RECEIVED]. To the extent that this appeal is lodged outside the period of 28 days beginning with the date of service of the notice of rejection, I ask the Tribunal to allow a longer period under regulation 10(1), because [REASON — for example that the notice did not tell me of the right of appeal, or did not reach me until [DATE_RECEIVED]]. Yours faithfully, [APPELLANT NAME]

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Sources

The Low Emission Zones (Emission Standards, Exemptions and Enforcement) (Scotland) Regulations 2021 (S.S.I. 2021/177) regulations 1(2), 9 and 10
The First-tier Tribunal for Scotland General Regulatory Chamber Parking and Bus Lane Appeals (Rules of Procedure) Regulations 2020 (S.S.I. 2020/98), as amended by S.S.I. 2023/159
The First-tier Tribunal for Scotland (Allocation of Functions to the General Regulatory Chamber) Regulations 2023 (S.S.I. 2023/158)