Skip to main content

Antisocial Behaviour: Fixed Penalties

Volume 494: debated on Monday 15 June 2009

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice pursuant to the answer of 21 April 2009, Official Report, column 616W, on antisocial behaviour: fixed penalties, how many penalty notices for disorder were issued (a) in a police station and (b) on the street in (i) 2002, (ii) 2003, (iii) 2004, (iv) 2005 and (v) 2006. (278426)

Information available to the Ministry of Justice on the number of persons aged 16 and over issued with a penalty notice for disorder (PND) in (a) a police station and (b) on the street, in England and Wales, 2004 to 2006 is shown in the following table.

PNDs were introduced under the Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001 to provide the police with a simple financial punishment to deal with minor antisocial and nuisance offending either at a police station or on the street. Operational guidance to forces issued by the Secretary of State for Justice sets out the criteria which should be considered by officers in deciding where to issue a PND.

The PND was made available to all forces from April 2004.

Number of persons aged 16 and over issued with a penalty notice for disorder in a police station and on the street in England and Wales, 2004 to 20061

Police station

Street

20042

55,219

6,901

2005

110,432

34,845

2006

125,122

75,634

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 The penalty notice for disorder scheme commenced in 2004.

Source:

OCJR E and A (Office for Criminal Justice Reform, Evidence and Analysis Unit), Ministry of Justice