Asked by: Lord Wasserman (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to Britishvolt entering into administration, what steps they are taking to ensure the secure and sustainable supply of electric vehicle batteries to British manufacturers.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government remains committed to Levelling Up and is actively engaging with companies to secure investments that will ensure the UK remains a world leader in automotive manufacturing.
We continue to work through the Automotive Transition Fund (ATF) to progress plans to build a globally competitive electric vehicle supply chain in the UK, which includes unlocking private investment in gigafactories, battery material supply chains, motors, power electronics, and fuel cell systems.
We have invested record sums in battery R&D – last October we announced a record £211 million uplift for the Faraday Battery Challenge, which brought the overall budget of this ambitious programme to £541 million. We recently awarded £27.6 million from this funding to 17 UK projects to support innovation in EV battery technology.
Asked by: Lord Wasserman (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how much in outstanding fines was written off administratively in (1) 2016, (2) 2017, (3) 2018, (4) 2019, and (5) 2020.
Answered by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar
HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) does all that it can to ensure that defendants pay what they owe, and that justice is delivered. However, in very limited circumstances HMCTS will administratively cancel the outstanding balance. The scenarios in which this can happen are severely restricted, and, in the event that the defendant’s circumstances change, the balance can be written back and enforcement recommenced.
The table below details the amounts of fines administratively written off and written back each financial year from 2016 onwards
Financial year | Administratively cancelled fines written off £000 | Administratively cancelled fines written back £000 | Net amount written off/ (written back) as disclosed in HMCTS Trust Statement £000 |
2016/17 | 3,057 | (20,782) | (17,725) |
2017/18 | 12,107 | (56,548) | (44,441) |
2018/19 | 8,261 | (16,583) | (8,322) |
2019/20 | 10,938 | (1,480) | 9,458 |
2020/21 | 9,442 | (645) | 8,797 |
Asked by: Lord Wasserman (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many individual offenders were committed to prison as a way of enforcing a court fine in (1) 2016, (2) 2017, (3) 2018, (4) 2019, and (5) 2020.
Answered by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar
The below table provides the number of committals to prison for non-payment of financial penalties imposed by the criminal courts. We are not able to say how many of these were made specifically in relation to fines.
Sentenced* admissions into prison – for non-payment of financial penalties
2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 |
398 | 257 | 163 | 125 | 63 |
* Sentenced admissions provide a count of prisoners that are classified as sentenced (i.e. the custodial punishment has been decided for the offender) following a court hearing for the first time in the reporting period.
Asked by: Lord Wasserman (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many individual offenders were issued attendance centre orders as a way of enforcing a court fine in (1) 2016, (2) 2017, (3) 2018, (4) 2019, and (5) 2020.
Answered by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar
The table provided below shows the number of cases heard in the magistrates’ court that resulted in a specific code to signal that an Attendance Centre Order (ACO) had been made in default of a financial penalty imposed by the criminal courts. It is possible that further ACOs were made that did not utilise this code. In respect of the data provided we are not able to say how many of these were made specifically in relation to fines (as opposed to other financial penalties).
| 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 |
ACO | 86 | 33 | 13 | 8 | 3 |
Asked by: Lord Wasserman (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many individual offenders were issued distress warrants as a way of enforcing a court fine in (1) 2016, (2) 2017, (3) 2018, (4) 2019, and (5) 2020.
Answered by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar
In 2016/17, 590,649 warrants of control (previously referred to as distress warrants) were issued in respect of financial penalties imposed by the criminal courts. Verifiable centralised records do not exist beyond this date and it would incur disproportionate costs to answer this question.
Asked by: Lord Wasserman (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many individual offenders were issued deduction from benefit orders as a way of enforcing a court fine in (1) 2016, (2) 2017, (3) 2018, (4) 2019, and (5) 2020.
Answered by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar
Central data does not exist in respect of the total number of Deduction from Benefit Orders issued in respect of financial penalties imposed by the criminal courts. It would incur disproportionate costs to answer this question.
Asked by: Lord Wasserman (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many individual offenders were issued attachment of earnings orders as a way of enforcing a court fine in (1) 2016, (2) 2017, (3) 2018, (4) 2019, and (5) 2020.
Answered by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar
Central data does not exist in respect of the total number of Attachments of Earnings Orders issued in respect of financial penalties imposed by the criminal courts. It would incur disproportionate costs to answer this question.
Asked by: Lord Wasserman (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what was the cost to the Exchequer of enforcing court fines in England and Wales for (1) 2016, (2) 2017, (3) 2018, (4) 2019, and (5) 2020.
Answered by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar
The National Compliance and Enforcement Service (NCES) is a division of HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) responsible on behalf of the courts for the collection and enforcement of court-imposed financial penalties, which includes fines, and the disbursement of funds to third parties. The total spend position for the NCES over the period in question is provided in the below table:
Financial Year | £000 |
2016-17 | 59,930 |
2017-18 | 61,184 |
2018-19 | 60,433 |
2019-20 | 59,958 |
2020-21 | 52,029 |
Costs of collection and enforcement are not separable from the costs of disbursements of compensation to victims, victim surcharge, costs to the Crown Prosecution Service and other prosecution costs. Nor is it possible to break down the specific cost of pursuing unpaid court imposed financial penalties against the cost of administering financial penalties that are paid. Furthermore, it should be noted that the NCES shares a number of services with other areas across HMCTS and the MoJ (e.g. shared buildings, IT etc), the cost for which cannot be separated, and that these figures represent therefore only partial costs using a cost modelling approach.
In addition, there are costs to HMCTS if cases are referred back to court for enforcement hearings which we are unable to break down.
Asked by: Lord Wasserman (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many people in each local justice area did not pay their court fine in England and Wales within 12 months for (1) 2016, (2) 2017, (3) 2018, (4) 2019, and (5) 2020.
Answered by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar
The Ministry of Justice holds published information on sentencing outcomes in England and Wales up to December 2020.
Court outcomes data is not held at either local authority or local justice area geographical level. Data is published at a police force area geographical level. Data on the number of people in each police force area who received a court fine in England and Wales for 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 can be found in the attached table.
We do not centrally hold data on the number of people who do not pay their court fines, and the data requested for each of these questions cannot be obtained without incurring disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Lord Wasserman (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many people in each local justice area received a court fine in England and Wales for (1) 2016, (2) 2017, (3) 2018, (4) 2019, and (5) 2020.
Answered by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar
The Ministry of Justice holds published information on sentencing outcomes in England and Wales up to December 2020.
Court outcomes data is not held at either local authority or local justice area geographical level. Data is published at a police force area geographical level. Data on the number of people in each police force area who received a court fine in England and Wales for 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 can be found in the attached table.
We do not centrally hold data on the number of people who do not pay their court fines, and the data requested for each of these questions cannot be obtained without incurring disproportionate cost.