The Fixed Penalty Regulations.

Last week’s amendment to the Emergency Powers Act added the power to create fixed penalty notice offences. The Fixed Penalty Regulations implement this.

A fixed penalty notice is a notice “offering the person to whom it is given the opportunity of discharging any liability to conviction for the offence to which the notice relates by payment of a fixed penalty” (reg.3). A constable who reasonably believes that a fixed penalty offence has been committed may give a fixed penalty notice to an adult (reg.6). The recipient then has 21 days to decide whether to pay the penalty, in which case no formal criminal prosecution may be brought (reg.7). If paid within 14 days, the penalty is £150; thereafter £250 (reg.9). A constable is not required to give a person the opportunity to pay a fixed penalty notice: the constable who considers the offence may be sufficiently serious to merit a heavier punishment is not required to give them the option of settling things with payment of a fixed penalty. A recipient who wishes to put before a court the case for their being innocent of an offence is not  prevented from doing so – rejecting a fixed penalty notice is not an appeal, rather, it is reopening the normal prosecution route, with the normal maximum penalties if convicted (thus ensuring these penalties comply with the Emergency Powers Act 1936 s.4(3C) as amended). Finally, accepting a fixed penalty notice is not an admission of guilt, and does not constitute a criminal conviction.

It will be recalled that a substantial number of Emergency Powers Regulations have created criminal offences punishable by a fine of up to £10,000 and/or a prison sentence of up to three months. These Regulations do not apply the fixed penalty regime to all of these offences – so for offences under the Infrastructure Support Regulations, for instance, a constable may not issue a fixed penalty notice; and a person who commits an offence may not exclude formal proceedings by paying a small fixed penalty. Instead, the Schedule to the Regulation specifies offences under four Regulations. Fixed penalty notices are available for: all criminal offences under the Potentially Infectious Persons Regulations; the only criminal offence under the Events and Gatherings Regulations; and the only criminal offence under the Prohibition on Movement Regulations.  Not all offences under the Closure of Business Premises and Other Premises Regulations are covered: contravening those Regulations by a person operating a business is not covered by the fixed-penalty system (the reg.7(1) offence), but obstructing without reasonable excuse a person carrying out a function under the Regulations is (the reg.7(2) offence).