I have been asked to reply.
Information on prosecutions at magistrates courts is held by the Ministry of Justice for (A) fly tipping offences, (B) ‘other’ criminal damage, (C) dog fouling, (D) littering and (E) parking offences since 1997; these are provided in the following tables. The offence class of ‘other’ criminal damage includes, but cannot separately identify, offences of graffiti. Data on fly posting offences cannot be separately identified from the data held by the Ministry of Justice.
Number of defendants proceeded against at magistrates court 2006 1,791 2005 1,550 2004 1,317 2003 985 2002 922 2001 732 2000 648 1999 564 1998 516 1997 393
Number of defendants proceeded against at magistrates court 2006 13,478 2005 12,368 2004 13,359 2003 13,852 2002 14,152 2001 13,820 2000 12,802 1999 13,932 1998 14,148 1997 13,734
Number of defendants proceeded against at magistrates court 2006 404 2005 473 2004 461 2003 454 2002 355 2001 366 2000 341 1999 294 1998 184 1997 45
Number of defendants proceeded against at magistrates court 2006 2,031 2005 1,447 2004 909 2003 552 2002 333 2001 457 2000 466 1999 506 1998 496 1997 506
Number of defendants proceeded against at magistrates court 2006 9,059 2005 10,972 2004 14,710 2003 17,729 2002 17,554 2001 18,966 2000 19,624 1999 22,869 1998 23,572 1997 21,051
Data are collected by DEFRA on the number of Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) issued by local authorities, and how many had subsequently been taken to prosecution due to non-payment. Police Community Support Officers can issue FPNs if they have the relevant approval; such FPNs are issued on behalf of the local authority and are included in the aggregated figure provided by each local authority to DEFRA each year. FPNs cannot be issued for fly tipping offences.
The numbers of FPNs issued for each offence each year are included in the following tables.
Reporting year (April to March) Number of Fixed Penalty Notices issued Number of cases taken to court following non-payment 2006-07 42 2 2005-06 47 3 2004-05 19 2
As the power to issue FPNs for graffiti offences was introduced in 2003, statistics do not exist prior to this date.
Reporting year (April to March) Number of Fixed Penalty Notices issued Number of cases taken to court following non-payment 2006-07 3,675 205 2005-06 4,066 303 2004-05 3,557 330 2003-04 2,742 193 2002-03 2,036 127 2001-02 2,311 190 2000-01 1,817 91 1999-2000 1,545 111 1998-99 1,321 90 1997-98 292 11
Reporting Year Number of Fixed Penalty Notices issued Number of cases taken to court following non-payment 2006-07 43,624 2,144 2005-06 33,033 1,002 2004-05 25,216 1,100 2003-04 7,565 266 2002-03 12,820 169 2001-02 11,615 175 2000-01 2,247 66 1999-2000 2,970 30 1998-99 4,777 13 1997-98 727 74
The parking offences for which a FPN can be issued are nuisance parking and abandoned vehicles, as defined in the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005. The first year of available data is for the period April 2006 to March 2007.
Reporting yearApril 2006 to March 2007 Number of Fixed Penalty Notices issued Number of cases taken to court following non-payment (E(i)) Nuisance parking 1,657 0 (E(ii)) Abandoned vehicles 469 16
The police can issue penalty notices for disorder (PNDs) which can include offences such as littering. The littering offence was added to the PND scheme in 2004 when it was rolled out nationally.
Data on the number of PNDs issued for littering broken down by police force area are published as a part of the publication ‘Penalty Notices for Disorder’ for 2004 data and as a part of ‘Criminal Statistics, England and Wales 2006’ (for 2005 and 2006 data). These are available on the Ministry of Justice website.