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SOUTH NORFOLK MP Richard Bacon has called on magistrates courts to ensure that offenders who receive a fine as part of their sentence pay up immediately, as a new report finds that only 5 per cent of offenders pay their fine on the day it is set.

Mr Bacon was speaking as the Commons public accounts committee published its report on fines collection.
 

Although guidance to magistrates states that fines are payable immediately, a review by the National Audit Office found that magistrates only asked seven per cent of offenders for immediate payment and only five per cent actually paid their fine at all.

Devon and Cornwall magistrates make a point of telling offenders that their fine is due immediately and although only 10 per cent of offenders pay up front, this is still twice the average achieved elsewhere.

Mr Bacon said today:  “Fines are due the moment they are set, not at an offender’s convenience.  Something is going seriously wrong when the best performing magistrates only make ten per cent of offenders pay their fine on the day of the trial.  Magistrates must ensure offenders pay up straightaway and only offer lenient terms in cases of real, proven hardship”.   

The report also finds the Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA) lacks basic information about offenders, such as how many offenders pay their fine.  LIBRA, the DCA’s delayed computer system, was supposed to hold this information but LIBRA may not be rolled out until March 2008.  Yet the current LIBRA contracts are due to end in early 2007, and the DCA has already put out two tenders for the system’s replacement.   

Mr Bacon added: “Delivering the LIBRA system would have made the imposition and collection of fines much easier but unfortunately the system has been hopelessly delayed and if LIBRA ever flickers into life it will be only just in time to be replaced”.   

31 January 2007

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See also:
PAC REPORT: Fines Collection