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Patients and visitors will be charged for hospital parking again from Friday.

In 2022 the assembly abolishing car parking charges at public hospitals in Northern Ireland.

But in March the health minister said that would need to be deferred for two years as hospitals were not ready.

New legislation was fast-tracked through the assembly to put this delay into law, however its passage was not complete in time to stop charges being temporarily scrapped.

This meant that for the past week there were no charges at hospital car parks.

As a result, patients, visitors and staff were warned of possible disruption and long delays for people to get parked.

In a statement, the Department of Health said it apologised for any inconvenience caused during this period.

It said the fast-tracked law had now been given Royal Assent - meaning charges could be put back in place at 00:01 on Friday.

"This will allow the Department of Health and Trusts the necessary time to implement a traffic management system to control parking," a spokesperson added.

The ban on parking charges was brought forward as private members' bill by Sinn Féin assembly member Aisling Reilly in 2022.

It proposed that car parking charges should be abolished for patients, staff and visitors and received cross-party support.

The bill was also supported by some trade unions, but the health trusts made clear that its implementation would be challenging.

The department said it anticipated that the traffic management system would be in place by now, "however unforeseen delays in the procurement process and subsequent legal challenges meant this was unfortunately not possible.

"Car parking permits for eligible healthcare staff will be provided free of charge throughout the two-year deferral period."