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Fines

Volume 493: debated on Monday 8 June 2009

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what percentage of fines issued for (a) shoplifting, (b) parking offences and (c) alcohol-related offences were paid (i) at the first opportunity and (ii) after a court appearance in the last 12 months. (272311)

Information held by the Ministry of Justice for the number of Penalty Notices for Disorder (PND) issued to persons aged 16 and over for the offence of Theft (retail under £200), and for alcohol related offences in England and Wales in 2007 that were paid (i) at the earliest opportunity within the 21 day suspended enforcement period is shown in the table. 21 days is the minimum period before which forces can register a fine against the recipient for not responding to a notice, so forces can accept payments after the SEP for administrative purposes. It is not possible to identify the payment rate of fines arising from unpaid PNDs separately from other court-imposed fines. However, the latest enforcement rate for all fines including those from unpaid PNDs, is 85.2 per cent. for the period April to December 2008.

Information on the number of persons who requested a court appearance after being issued with a PND has been provided in the table. It is not possible from the information collected centrally to provide details on the outcomes of these cases.

PND data for 2008 will be available in the autumn of 2009.

Certain motoring offences, including parking offences where not de-criminalised, can be dealt with by the offer of a fixed penalty. Information reported to the Home Office on outcomes of fixed penalty notices (FPNs) are not broken down by offence, therefore data on payment rates for FPNs for parking offences are not available.

Number of penalty notices for disorder (PND) issued to offenders aged 16 and over for selected offences and outcome England and Wales 20071

Offence

Number issued

Paid in full within 21 days

Percentage

Court hearing requested

Percentage

Shoplifting

Theft (retail under £200)3

45,146

15,390

34

172

0

Alcohol related offences

Drunk and disorderly2

46,996

19,727

42

244

1

Sale of alcohol to drunken person5

81

50

62

3

4

Supply of alcohol to a person under 18

54

31

57

1

2

Sale of alcohol to a person under 183

3,583

2,623

73

13

0

Purchasing alcohol for a person under 183

555

244

44

4

1

Purchasing alcohol for a person under 18 for consumption on the premises

64

23

36

Delivery of alcohol to a person under 18 or allowing such delivery3

431

219

51

1

0

Drunk in a highway

2,066

942

46

8

0

Consumption of alcohol in a designated public place

1,544

259

17

6

0

Consumption of alcohol by a person under 18 on relevant premises3

85

55

65

Allowing consumption of alcohol by a person under 18 on relevant premises3

11

8

73

Buying or Attempting to buy alcohol by a person under 185

158

85

54

Alcohol related offences total

55,628

24,266

44

280

1

1 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 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.

2 Offence moved from the lower tier (£50) to the upper tier (£80) on 1 November 2004.

3 Offence added with effect from 1 November 2004.

4 Offence added with effect from 11 October 2004.

5 Offence added with effect from 4 April 2005.

Source:

Evidence and Analysis Unit—Office for Criminal Justice Reform, Ministry of Justice