Key information
Request reference number: MGLA260723-2797
Date of response:
Summary of request
Your request
- What percentage and number of each category of the London Ambulance Service, Metropolitan Police Service and London Fire Brigade fleet is currently non-compliant with the ULEZ? Provide a breakdown by service and category of vehicle and include the outright total as well as the percentage.
- Please flag which vehicles are exempt from paying the charge.
- Confirm if the Mayor's Office owns any vehicles for the transportation of the Mayor, Deputy Mayors or Mayor's Office staff and if these are ULEZ compliant or not (as a percentage of that fleet). If not compliant, please state if they are exempt.
Our response
As of September 2023, ULEZ compliance for the Metropolitan Police Service and London Fire Brigade and breakdown by type of vehicle can be found in the table below:
*London Fire Brigade also operate 27 non-compliant national resilience vehicles which are
owned by the Home Office but operated by the London Fire Brigade. Their replacement
schedule is not within the control of the London Fire Brigade.
As the London Ambulance Service is not a GLA Group organisation, we do not hold up-to-date ULEZ compliance data for the organisation. You may wish to send a further request to the London Ambulance Service.
The GLA does not hold a more detailed breakdown by service and category of vehicle for the London Fire Brigade and Metropolitan Police Service fleets.
Whilst the GLA and the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) are closely linked, they are separate Public Authorities for the purposes of The Freedom of Information Act 2000, as per schedule 1 of the Act, so you may wish to send your request to MOPAC at
[email protected] or the Metropolitan Police Service.
Similarly, you may wish to contact London Fire Brigade directly for more information at
In line with national guidance on Clean Air Zones, the Mayor supports some flexibility and
recognises that, unlike for most fleets, it is difficult to replace emergency vehicles in order to achieve compliance with the relevant emission standards as they are specialist and adapted vehicles.
Based on this criteria, non-compliant emergency service vehicles are granted temporary exemptions on a case by case basis, agreed via Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) between Transport for London (TfL) and the relevant organisation.
As all the non-compliant vehicles owned by the London Fire Brigade and Metropolitan Police Service are essential for emergency services, are blue light or highly specialist and
difficult to upgrade or convert, they are exempt from paying the charge for the ULEZ under the relevant MoUs.
The current MoUs for the London Fire Brigade, Metropolitan Police Service and
London Ambulance Service are attached and are scheduled to be published on the TfL website in the coming week. Please note that since these documents were signed, the proportion of ULEZ-compliant vehicles in each fleet will have increased, given ongoing upgrades to fleets on a weekly basis.
Updated MoUs have now been agreed between TfL and other public emergency service
providers for the London-wide ULEZ. These have all been published on the TfL website.
The GLA does not own any vehicles for the transportation of any staff, including the Mayor, the Deputy Mayor or Mayor’s Office staff.
If you have any further questions relating to this matter, please contact us, quoting
reference MGLA260723-2797.