Where to Get Your PE3 (and PE2) Witnessed

Who can legally witness a PE3 (and PE2)?

A PE3 must be sworn before a solicitor who is a Commissioner for Oaths, a Justice of the Peace (magistrate), or an officer of the County Court. The gov.uk PE3 guidance requires an independent authorised witness. A friend, relative, or you signing alone is not accepted, and the TEC will reject an unwitnessed form.

The PE3 is your statutory declaration, the substantive grounds explaining why you did not respond to the penalty in time. The PE2 is the application asking the Traffic Enforcement Centre for permission to file that declaration out of time. Both are governed by Civil Procedure Rules Part 75.

Because the PE3 is a sworn statement of truth, the witness is confirming your identity and administering the oath. That is why it cannot be anyone. It has to be a person the law authorises to take a statutory declaration.

Does it have to be done in person with the original?

Yes. For a PE2 and PE3 the TEC expects an in-person sworn declaration using the original printed hard copy. It cannot be done by video call, remotely, or by post. Doing it in person with the original document is what removes the risk of the TEC rejecting your submission on a technicality.

Do not sign the PE3 before your appointment. You sign it in front of the witness, who then adds their own signature, name, address, and qualification. A form signed in advance defeats the purpose of the oath and can be treated as improperly sworn.

Bring the actual printed forms, not a copy or a phone screen. The witness has to see you sign the physical document they are certifying, so a remote or pre-signed version will not satisfy the requirement.

Are the PE2 and PE3 sworn together?

Yes. When you are filing late, the PE2 and PE3 are completed and sworn together in the same in-person appointment before the authorised witness. The PE2 requests permission to file out of time and the PE3 sets out your grounds, so the TEC expects the pair to arrive together, correctly witnessed.

This matters because a common cause of rejection is submitting one form without the other, or having only one properly sworn. Treating them as a single package, witnessed in one sitting, keeps the submission clean.

These are the forms for bus lane and moving traffic contraventions. If your penalty is for a parking contravention, you need a TE9, which is a witness statement signed with a statement of truth and does not require a third-party witness. In that case you do not need a witnessing service at all, and you should use Parking Ticket Pal at parkingticketpal.com instead.

What are your options for getting a PE3 witnessed?

You have three realistic routes. Find a random high-street solicitor yourself, use a County Court officer for free, or book our fixed-price appointment for £49 that includes the oath fee and a form-accuracy check. Each trades cost against time and the risk of a wrong-form rejection.

A random high-street solicitor: the raw witnessing fee is conventionally around £5 plus £2 per exhibit under the Commissioners for Oaths (Fees) Order 1993. But you have to find one yourself, they will not help you fill in the form, they will reject it if it is filled in wrong, and many firms will not do PE3s at all. The low headline fee assumes everything else goes perfectly.

A County Court officer: witnessing is free, but you still have to locate a court that will do it, travel there, and fit their opening hours. There is no help with the form itself, so an error is still your problem to catch.

Our service at £49: a qualified solicitor and Commissioner for Oaths in Crystal Palace, London, part of the Amphlett Lissimore firm, serving London. The £49 covers the appointment, the statutory oath fee, and a check that your PE2 and PE3 are filled in correctly before you swear them. Appointments are usually the same week and take around ten minutes.

What should you bring to the appointment?

Bring your original printed PE2 and PE3 forms unsigned, valid photo ID, the Order for Recovery or penalty paperwork you received, and any documents you refer to as exhibits in your declaration. The witness needs to confirm your identity and watch you sign the physical forms.

Do not sign the forms beforehand. The whole point of the appointment is that you sign in front of the witness so the oath is properly administered. If you have already signed, you may be asked to reprint and start again.

Having your penalty paperwork to hand also helps confirm the deadline you are working to and that you have the correct pair of forms for a bus lane or moving traffic contravention rather than a parking one.

Why book with us instead of finding someone yourself?

Booking with us removes the two things that go wrong on the DIY route: finding a solicitor who will actually witness a PE3 at all, and getting the form rejected because it was filled in incorrectly. Our solicitor checks your PE2 and PE3 for accuracy before you swear them, then witnesses them properly in one appointment.

Many firms simply will not take on a PE3, and the ones that do witness the signature without checking your grounds, so an error only surfaces when the TEC returns it and your deadline has moved closer. We close that gap for a single fixed £49.

There is real urgency here. Once an Order for Recovery is registered you have 21 days to file, and a valid PE2 and PE3 can suspend enforcement for roughly six to eight weeks and even revoke the order, resetting the penalty to an earlier stage. Getting the forms witnessed correctly the first time protects that outcome.

Remember that a statutory declaration is made under oath. A false statutory declaration is perjury under section 5 of the Perjury Act 1911 and carries up to two years, which is another reason to have the form checked and sworn properly rather than rushed.

Frequently asked questions