Fixed Penalty Notice
Encyclopedia
Fixed penalty notices were introduced in Britain in the 1950s to deal with minor parking offences. Originally used by police and traffic wardens, their use has extended to other public officials and authorities, as has the range of offences for which they can be used.
In recent years, this has taken the form of using them to give police and public authorities in England, Scotland and Wales a realistic weapon against anti-social behaviour. They are designed to reduce paperwork on police and council officers by allowing low-level anti-social behaviour to be dealt with on the spot. Newer types of notice exist for disorder, environmental crime, truancy and noise. Receiving a notice is not a criminal conviction, and it is not a criminal offence not to pay the penalty within the specified time period. A fixed penalty notice is not a fine but merely an offer of a contract between a person
and, for example, a town council
. If joinder
is established, non-payment of the ticket is dealt with legally by a magistrates' court
(in England and Wales and Northern Ireland) and methods of enforcement include imprisonment. If joinder is not established, there is no lawful obligation for the fine to be paid.
to others". Penalty notices can also be issued for minor shop thefts and minor criminal damage and in January 2009 the offence of possession of cannabis was added to the scheme. Recipients have 21 days to pay the notice or request a court hearing. If a penalty notice is not paid after 21 days then the outstanding amount is increased by 50% and if it is still unpaid the fine is lodged at the local magistrates' court just as if the matter was an unpaid court fine. This is where PNDs and FPNs vary if they are not paid: the former results in an unpaid fine being lodged and the latter results in the recipient being summoned to court to answer for the original offence.
When paying penalty notices for disorder (PNDs), no admission of guilt is required. Paying the PND involves neither an official finding nor an acceptance of guilt and discharges all liability to conviction for the offence. PNDs for recordable offences are recorded on the Police National Computer however and may be disclosed on an Enhanced Criminal Records Disclosure issued by the Criminal Records Bureau, if it is concluded that the behaviour leading to the PND was relevant to the matter at hand, for example the applicant’s suitability to work with children. However, the mere fact that a PND has been issued would not make it relevant.
PNDs are generally issued to first-time offenders with no previous record. PNDs do not constitute a criminal record; they are non-conviction information and treated as intelligence.
The police forces currently trialling Juvenile PNDs are -
, and the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005
.
The majority of these are issued by local authority officers, but police and Environment Agency
officers have been authorised to issue some. The penalty ranges from £20 for unnecessary idling of a stationary vehicle engine to £500 for failing to comply with a noise warning notice in licenced premises.
By far the majority of fixed penalty notices issued for environmental crimes are for leaving litter, failing to remove dog faeces, and fly posting. The Government has determined that fly tipping is too serious to warrant a fixed penalty, and that cases should be referred to a magistrates' court.
Minor criminal damage such as graffiti
may also be dealt with by issuing a fixed penalty notice.
allows local authorities, head teachers (or their deputies) and the police to issue a £50 or £100 fixed penalty notice to a parent or parents who fail to ensure that their child regularly attends school.
The Education and Inspections Act 2006
came into force on 4 September 2007. Under this, parents of children excluded from school are required to keep them under supervision for the first five days of their exclusion. If the child is found in a public place without their parent during this time, the parent can be issued a £50 penalty notice, which rises to £100 if not paid in 28 days.
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In recent years, this has taken the form of using them to give police and public authorities in England, Scotland and Wales a realistic weapon against anti-social behaviour. They are designed to reduce paperwork on police and council officers by allowing low-level anti-social behaviour to be dealt with on the spot. Newer types of notice exist for disorder, environmental crime, truancy and noise. Receiving a notice is not a criminal conviction, and it is not a criminal offence not to pay the penalty within the specified time period. A fixed penalty notice is not a fine but merely an offer of a contract between a person
Person
A person is a human being, or an entity that has certain capacities or attributes strongly associated with being human , for example in a particular moral or legal context...
and, for example, a town council
Town council
A town council is a democratically elected form of government for small municipalities or civil parishes. A council may serve as both the representative and executive branch....
. If joinder
Joinder
Joinder is a legal term, which refers to the process of joining two or more legal issues together to be heard in one hearing or trial. It is done when the issues or parties involved overlap sufficiently to make the process more efficient or more fair...
is established, non-payment of the ticket is dealt with legally by a magistrates' court
Magistrates' Court
A magistrates' court or court of petty sessions, formerly known as a police court, is the lowest level of court in England and Wales and many other common law jurisdictions...
(in England and Wales and Northern Ireland) and methods of enforcement include imprisonment. If joinder is not established, there is no lawful obligation for the fine to be paid.
Penalty notices for parking and motoring offences
This was the original use for FPNs, currently continuing in Great Britain under powers provided by the Road Traffic Act 1991 as well as in Northern Ireland; in many areas this style of enforcement has been taken over from police by local authorities. Some other motoring offences (other than parking) can also be dealt with by the issue of FPNs by police, VOSA or local authority personnel. FPNs issued by local authority parking attendants are backed with powers to obtain payment by civil action and are defined as "penalty charge notices", distinguishing them from other FPNs which are often backed with a power of criminal prosecution if the penalty is not paid; in the latter case the "fixed penalty" is sometimes designated as a "mitigated penalty" to indicate the avoidance of being prosecuted which it provides.Penalty notices for disorder
Issued under Section 1-11 of the Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001 for public disorder offences and costing £50 for 'lower-tier' offences or £80 for 'higher-tier' offences, these can only be issued to people aged 16 or over. There are 23 offences for which a notice can be issued, such as being drunk and disorderly in a public place, selling alcohol to a minor (under 18), threatening behaviour or language and "behaviour likely to cause harassment, alarm or distressHarassment, Alarm or Distress
Harassment, alarm or distress is a statutory offence in England and Wales. It is also a term of art used in sections 4A and 5 of the Public Order Act 1986 .-The offence:...
to others". Penalty notices can also be issued for minor shop thefts and minor criminal damage and in January 2009 the offence of possession of cannabis was added to the scheme. Recipients have 21 days to pay the notice or request a court hearing. If a penalty notice is not paid after 21 days then the outstanding amount is increased by 50% and if it is still unpaid the fine is lodged at the local magistrates' court just as if the matter was an unpaid court fine. This is where PNDs and FPNs vary if they are not paid: the former results in an unpaid fine being lodged and the latter results in the recipient being summoned to court to answer for the original offence.
When paying penalty notices for disorder (PNDs), no admission of guilt is required. Paying the PND involves neither an official finding nor an acceptance of guilt and discharges all liability to conviction for the offence. PNDs for recordable offences are recorded on the Police National Computer however and may be disclosed on an Enhanced Criminal Records Disclosure issued by the Criminal Records Bureau, if it is concluded that the behaviour leading to the PND was relevant to the matter at hand, for example the applicant’s suitability to work with children. However, the mere fact that a PND has been issued would not make it relevant.
PNDs are generally issued to first-time offenders with no previous record. PNDs do not constitute a criminal record; they are non-conviction information and treated as intelligence.
Juvenile PND trials
In some areas there is a pilot scheme that allows penalty notices to be issued to 10- to 15-year-olds - the parent or guardian is liable for the penalty and the tariff is reduced, £40 for the higher-tier offences and £30 for the lower-tier offences.The police forces currently trialling Juvenile PNDs are -
- British Transport Police (Birmingham Division)
- Essex
- Lancashire
- Merseyside
- Metropolitan Police (Kingston Division)
- Nottinghamshire
- West Midlands.
Penalty notice for environmental crime
Fixed penalty notices are available as a means for dealing with various environmental crimes. The first was introduced in 1990 for leaving litter, and since then numerous others have followed, particularly as a result of the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003
The Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which almost entirely applies only to England and Wales. The Act, championed by then Home Secretary, David Blunkett, was passed in 2003...
, and the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005
Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005
The Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It implements proposals contained in the Clean Neighbourhoods consultation launched on 25 July 2004.-Section 108 - Commencement:...
.
The majority of these are issued by local authority officers, but police and Environment Agency
Environment Agency
The Environment Agency is a British non-departmental public body of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and an Assembly Government Sponsored Body of the Welsh Assembly Government that serves England and Wales.-Purpose:...
officers have been authorised to issue some. The penalty ranges from £20 for unnecessary idling of a stationary vehicle engine to £500 for failing to comply with a noise warning notice in licenced premises.
By far the majority of fixed penalty notices issued for environmental crimes are for leaving litter, failing to remove dog faeces, and fly posting. The Government has determined that fly tipping is too serious to warrant a fixed penalty, and that cases should be referred to a magistrates' court.
Minor criminal damage such as graffiti
Graffiti
Graffiti is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property....
may also be dealt with by issuing a fixed penalty notice.
Penalty notice for truancy
Section 23 of the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003
The Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which almost entirely applies only to England and Wales. The Act, championed by then Home Secretary, David Blunkett, was passed in 2003...
allows local authorities, head teachers (or their deputies) and the police to issue a £50 or £100 fixed penalty notice to a parent or parents who fail to ensure that their child regularly attends school.
The Education and Inspections Act 2006
Education and Inspections Act 2006
The Education and Inspections Act 2006 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. According to the government the Act "is intended to represent a major step forward in the Government’s aim of ensuring that all children in all schools get the education they need to enable them to fulfil...
came into force on 4 September 2007. Under this, parents of children excluded from school are required to keep them under supervision for the first five days of their exclusion. If the child is found in a public place without their parent during this time, the parent can be issued a £50 penalty notice, which rises to £100 if not paid in 28 days.
Penalty notice for night noise
Section 2 of the Noise Act 1996 allows local authorities to investigate complaints from residents about excessive noise coming from a residential dwelling during the night, defined as between the hours of 11pm and 7am.See also
- Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003The Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which almost entirely applies only to England and Wales. The Act, championed by then Home Secretary, David Blunkett, was passed in 2003...
- Traffic ticketTraffic ticketA traffic ticket is a notice issued by a law enforcement official to a motorist or other road user, accusing violation of traffic laws. Traffic tickets generally come in two forms, citing a moving violation, such as exceeding the speed limit, or a non-moving violation, such as a parking violation,...
and parking ticketParking violationA parking violation is the act of parking a motor vehicle in a restricted place or for parking in an unauthorized manner. It is against the law virtually everywhere to park a vehicle in the middle of a highway or road; parking on one or both sides of a road, however, is commonly permitted....
for United StatesUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
equivalents
External links
- Respect Task Force website
- Home Office
- Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001
- Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003
- Noise Act 1996
- Education and Inspections Act 2006
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