A private members’ bill, which has Government backing, is calling for a new set of rules to govern parking firms which would be administered by an independent regulator. Companies breaking the rules would be banned from accessing the DVLA data, effectively putting them out of business.

Last night, Sir Greg Knight, who tabled the bill in 2017, called on the Lords to approve it "speedily".

He said: "I hope they will conclude that my bill is both overdue and welcome and send it speedily on its way.

"My bill will introduce one code to cover all private car parking so it will be consistent and it will introduce fairness.

"One of the provisions I expect to be enforced will be that if a company doesn't follow the code and starts to use heavy hand tactics they will be denied access to the DVLA database so they will have no means chasing motorists if they don't play by the rules.

"There are cowboys in there and we need to root them out and put them out of business and that's what my bill will hopefully do."

Sir Greg added that his bill would also introduce a single appeals system which would be "truly independent" and "therefore we would expect unjust cases that are pursued to be thrown out on appeal".