Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the value was of fines remaining uncollected on 31 December (a) 2010, (b) 2011, (c) 2012, (d) 2013 and (e) 2014.

This Government takes recovery and enforcement of financial impositions very seriously and remains committed to finding new ways to ensure impositions are paid and to trace those who do not pay. This is why there has been a year on year increase in the total amount of financial penalties collected over the last four years. The amount of money collected at the end of 2013/14 was £290 million. The amount of money collected reached a record high of £310 million at the end of 2014/15 - an increase of £20m (7%) in cash collection of financial impositions (excluding confiscation) compared to that collected in 2013/14.

The table below shows the total value of financial impositions outstanding in England and Wales at the end of each of the last five financial years.


Year Total Value Outstanding regardless of Imposition date
2010/2011 £609,559,294
2011/2012 £593,268,197
2012/2013 £575,507,170
2013/2014 £548,811,011
2014/2015 £571,061,117

The total amounts outstanding can relate to impositions made in the year stated or any previous year. These figures include fines, compensation orders, victim surcharge orders and prosecution costs orders

The outstanding balance figures includes the value of accounts that were not due to be paid by the end of the period specified (either because they were imposed close to the end of the year or because they had payment timescales set by the courts for beyond the end of the year) and those that were being paid by instalments on agreed payment plans. .