Hundreds of parking offenders who thought they had escaped paying their fines will be forced to pay their penalties after all.

The Senate last night passed the Traffic Offences Procedure Validation Act 1998, which closes a legal loophole that will mean around $300,000 in traffic violations should soon be heading the Government's way.

Sen. Larry Scott, speaking after the session, said people who had been sent away from court after magistrates discovered that their offences were outside the six month process period, would now be receiving summons.

He added that it was not the fault of the people but the new act now validated the procedure of making them pay for their offence, and also validated the payments already made by motorists who were also outside the period.

There was criticism of the Government during the Senate session as Sen. Scott outlined the new act.

Sen. Milton Scott said he had never seen so much work done for such an amount.

"I think it is draconian,'' he said. "It is not something we can support, it should be in the garbage can.

"I don't see how dismissed charges can come up again if it is dismissed. It is a most unfortunate piece of legislation.'' Sen. Larry Scott said there were procedural problems with the processing of parking fines and staffing difficulties that meant the system had backed-up -- delaying hundreds of cases.

"At the time of the act offences were committed but procedurally it was not committed because it had not been properly summoned,'' he said.

Sen. Milton Scott said the answer was to give Magistrates' Court the space and the manpower then "we wouldn't be coming here for this legislation''.

Sen. Yvette Swan said there could be as much as $1 million outstanding, and it was a very important piece of law.