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Antisocial Behaviour: Fixed Penalties

Volume 489: debated on Tuesday 17 March 2009

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people have been issued with penalty notices for disorder in each of the last three years, broken down by type of offence; and how many remain unpaid. (262525)

[holding answer 10 March 2009]: The number of penalty notices for disorder (PNDs) issued and not paid within the suspended enforcement period in England and Wales for each year from 2005 to 2007 (latest published), broken down by offence are in the following table. PND data for 2008 will be available in November 2009.

Under the PND scheme, recipients have 21 days in which either to pay the penalty or request a court hearing. If no action is taken, a fine of one and a half times the penalty amount is registered against an offender by the magistrates court. The overall fine payment rate at court is 85 per cent.; the courts fine registration system cannot differentiate between those fines arising from unpaid PNDs and any other fine.

Number of penalty notices for disorder (PNDs) issued to offenders of all ages and not paid1, broken down by offence, in England and Wales, 2005 to 20072

2005

2006

2007

Offence

Issued

Not paid

Issued

Not paid

Issued

Not paid

Wasting police time

2,525

1,326

3,933

2,022

3,966

2,104

Misuse of public telecommunications system

405

167

909

386

1,193

523

Giving false alarm to fire or rescue authority

92

43

106

63

96

41

Causing harassment, alarm and distress

64,007

30,092

82,235

39,115

77,827

37,470

Throwing fireworks

642

295

682

302

649

275

Drunk and disorderly

37,038

16,176

43,556

18,883

46,996

20,629

Criminal Damage (under £500)

12,168

5,172

20,620

9,269

19,946

8,874

Theft (retail under £200)

21,997

12,940

38,772

22,603

45,146

26,035

Breach of fireworks curfew

33

15

53

19

39

14

Possession of category 4 firework

13

8

28

16

22

12

Possession of adult firework by person under 18

47

18

76

25

106

39

Sale of alcohol to drunken person

32

8

47

12

81

17

Supply of alcohol to person under 18

3

1

60

7

54

13

Sale of alcohol to person under 18

2,058

253

3,195

439

3,583

509

Purchase alcohol for person under 18

170

64

407

139

555

235

Purchase alcohol for person under 18 for consumption on premises

83

24

60

21

64

33

Delivery of alcohol to person under 18 or allowing such delivery

209

81

297

121

431

163

Trespass on a railway

220

123

1,042

491

1,527

747

Throwing stones at a train/railway

20

7

15

9

25

12

Drunk in a highway

3,138

1,469

2,712

1,279

2,066

920

Consumption of alcohol in public place

712

544

1,061

809

1,544

1,216

Littering

737

369

1,169

576

1,374

669

Consumption of alcohol by person under 18 on relevant premises

84

18

75

20

85

18

Allowing consumption of alcohol by person under 18 on relevant premises

27

13

14

4

11

2

Buying or attempting to buy alcohol by person under 18

21

8

73

21

158

49

Total—all offences

146,481

69,234

201,197

96,651

207,544

100,619

1 Not paid—not paid within the suspended enforcement period.

2 Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the police forces. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used.

Source:

Evidence and Analysis Unit—Office for Criminal Justice Reform