Free parking for NHS staff introduced during the pandemic has come to an end, with unions criticising the move as punishing struggling staff.

Announcing the removal of the benefit, the government said it was ‘delivering on our manifesto commitment to provide free hospital car parking to thousands more NHS patients and visitors’. According to the Department of Health and Social Care, more than 93 per cent of NHS trusts charging for parking have implemented free parking ‘for those in greatest need’, including NHS staff working overnight.

The broader policy, which was temporary and had been introduced ‘for the duration of the pandemic’, has reportedly cost around £130 million over nearly two years.

A freedom of information request made by the GMB union previously found that staff were paying up to £1,300 a year to park at work.

Parking at all NHS hospitals in Wales has been free since 2018. In Scotland, charging for parking at most NHS car parks ended in 2008, while the final costs at three hospitals still charging were scrapped in August last year. In Northern Ireland, free parking and free public transport for healthcare workers during the pandemic ended in August last year.