Public perception Accusations of overzealousness on the part of parking attendants is likely due to high pressure management focused around delivering a certain number of tickets per day, leading to allegations of corruption and illegality. This brings accusations that their real purpose is to raise revenue for the local authority rather than keep the traffic moving. Those who receive fines argue that the "punishment does not fit the crime," pointing to the size of fines levied for minor parking violations in comparison with fines generally issued for more serious motoring offences or other offences such as shoplifting. Public dislike of parking attendants in the UK is such that some parking attendants have been stabbed, received death threats, and been issued stab-proof vests and cotton swabs to take DNA samples when members of the public spit on them, for later prosecution. Enforcement of laws dealing with the parking of motor vehicles in the UK can be the responsibility of one or more of the following persons: Public Civil enforcement officers (England, Wales, Scotland), including those previously known as parking attendants (whose duties might still be limited to parking contraventions or might now be extended to other road traffic contraventions where a local authority has chosen to do so), are employed by local authorities or a contractor providing their services to a local authority. Since the advent of decriminalised parking enforcement, they have largely replaced [police] traffic wardens as the primary enforcers of parking regulations. They have the power to issue penalty charge notices (PCNs) for parking contraventions dealt with by ss.63-79 Road Traffic Act 1991; in areas where their duties have been extended beyond that of a parking attendant they can also issue PCNs for parking offences coming under other legislation such as e.g. parking a vehicle entirely on a footway or the parking of a detached vehicle trailer or skip. Traffic attendants (Northern Ireland) issue parking offence penalty charge notices (i.e. a civil penalty not a criminal penalty) for the Roads Service using powers under the Traffic Management (Northern Ireland) Order 2005. Traffic wardens are employees of police forces and are primarily responsible for controlling traffic in general using powers available to authorised persons defined in the Road Traffic Act 1988. Their usage for parking enforcement is far less common since the advent of decriminalised parking enforcement which in many areas transferred the enforcement of offences concerning simple parking in