Penalty Notices for Disorder
2. Penalty Notices for Disorder are a way of dealing
with minor criminal offences without the need for prosecution
and court proceedings. Importantly, acceptance of a PND is not
obligatory; there is always the option to elect for a court hearing.
However, if the PND is accepted and the penalty paid, the recipient
is discharged from liability to conviction for the relevant offence.
3. As a means for disposing of traffic offences expediently,
fixed penalty notices have existed for many years. They were introduced
for litter and noise offences in the 1990s, and were applied to
other offences by the Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001 ("the
CJPA"). The CJPA sets out some 21 offences for which PNDs
can be issued. These are divided into two tiers by regulations
under section 3: the penalty for lower-tier offences such as low-value
shoplifting is currently £50 and that for upper-tier offences
such as harassment under section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986
is £80.[1] The most
recent addition to the list of PND offences is cannabis possession,
which was included as a lower-tier offence in January 2009.
4. If a PND remains unpaid within 21 days of issue,
the penalty increases by 50%. Thereafter, if it remains unpaid,
details of the offence can be passed to the appropriate local
magistrates court and the offence can be dealt with by way of
normal prosecution. It is not entirely clear to us to what extent
that happens in actual practice.
5. Although recipients of PNDs who pay the penalty
do not receive a criminal record, certain offences such as retail
theft and cannabis possession are "recordable", a recordable
offence being one that is punishable by a term of imprisonment
or that is designated as such by statute. As explained
in the ED, Association of Chief Police Officers guidance results
in PNDs for recordable crimes being logged on the police national
computer, with the result that offenders can be traced and their
details checked if they commit another offence. Details of PNDs
on the police national computer can be disclosed to third parties
as part of an enhanced criminal records check if that is deemed
relevant.[2]
Background to the draft Order
6. At present, PNDs are issued by means of a paper
notice whose exact form is prescribed in regulations under section
3 of the CJPA. Equipping officers to issue PNDs by means of a
paper-based system requires them to carry books containing four
different types of ticket (one each for upper and lower-tier offences
for adults and one each for upper and lower-tier offences for
juveniles). That is clearly a clumsy and unsatisfactory arrangement.
Furthermore, the form needs to be republished if offences are
added or the amount of a penalty is altered, which carries a cost
(£75,000 for each Metropolitan Police Service reissue, according
to the ED.[3])
7. Most police forces have now developed electronic
handheld devices in the form of personal digital assistants (PDAs)
for use by officers—for instance, British Transport Police
officers already use PDAs to issue stop and search receipts. Using
them to issue PNDs would address the logistical problems mentioned
above. The ED also suggests that use of PDAs could potentially
save police officers up to around 50 minutes of time (in total)
per day.[4]
1 For juveniles the respective amounts are £30
and £40 Back
2
See ED paragraph 2.5 Back
3
See ED paragraph 2.12 Back
4
See ED paragraph 2.8 Back
