Public Charge Point Regulations (PCPR2023)
On 23 November 2023, the Public Charge Point Regulations came into force. They were designed to improve user experience at public chargepoints and ensure they work properly as critical national infrastructure.
You can read the legal text here, and Gov.uk's guidance here.
This page summarises each of the six main requirements, with some commentary on how they can improve your experience, and compliance.
The requirements
| Pricing Transparency | Contactless | 99% Reliability | Helpline | Open data | Roaming | 🏷 | 💳 | ✅ | 📞 | 📈 | 👣 | All public chargepoints | All chargepoints over 50kW and any chargepoints over 8kW installed after November 2024 | Average across operator's chargepoints over 50kW | All public chargepoints | All public chargepoints | All public chargepoints |
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Pricing Transparency (from November 2023)
Public chargepoints must display the maximum possible cost per unit energy either:
- on the chargepoint, or
- on the chargepoint operator's app, without needing to enter a contract.
The unit must be p/kWh or £/kWh. In practice, tariffs are given in p/kWh as standard.
Where there is dynamic pricing, the tariff must never exceed the maximum displayed at the start of the session.
Connection fees and transaction fees must also be displayed.
Contactless (from November 2024, all chargepoints over 50kW and new chargepoints over 8kW)
All chargepoints of power 50kW or above must offer contactless payment.
All chargepoints of power 8kW or above deployed after 24 November 2025 must offer contactless payment.
99% Reliability (from November 2024, network average across chargepoints over 50kW)
Across a chargepoint operator's network, the average proportion of time that chargers of power 50kW or above are available must be at least 99%.
Time in which there is a physical barrier to the chargepoint, such as a road closure, will be exempt from the calculated reliability %.
While the Public Charge Point Regulations do not set a reliability requirement for chargepoints of power less than 50kW, landowners may impose requirements under contracts with chargepoint operators. Local authorities entering contracts associated with public funding may also stipulate reliability requirements.
Helpline (from November 2024)
At the charging point, the chargepoint operator must display its free helpline number.
The line must be staffed 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Open data (from November 2024)
Chargepoint operators must make reference data available free of charge.
The legal text says: "A charge point operator must ensure that reference data and availability data is made available to the public free of charge and in a machine readable format without any requirement to agree to terms and conditions regarding the use of that data." This does not necessarily mean it has to be made available to organisations or companies.
This open data will allow the public to assess reliability and availability for themselves.
The data is usually available as an API.
Zapmap has won a contract to help the DfT analyse chargepoint data under the new open regs.
Roaming (from November 2025)
Roaming is the EV equivalent of a fuel card. It means that a single card or mobile app can be used to pay for energy from multiple chargepoint operators.
Examples of roaming cards and apps are:
- Zap-pay (app)
- Octopus Electroverse (app or card)
- OVO Charge (app)
- Allstar Chargepass (card for business drivers)
- Paua (card or app for business drivers)
Compliance
There have been a couple of independent investigations into chargepoint operators' compliance with PCPR 2023, such as this LinkedIn post in January 2025 and this Fast Charge post about helplines in November 2024. Please note that we have included the links for reference but we do not claim they are correct and draw attention to the time which has passed since, during which services may be improved.
There are penalties for chargepoint operators who do not comply. These are £10,000 for each public chargepoint breaking each regulation except for 99% reliability. Since 99% reliability is measured across a network, the penalty applies to the network, and is also £10,000.