Unpaid Fines
(asked on 14th July 2015) - View Source
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the value is of outstanding fines that were written off in each of the last five years; and how many outstanding fines were written off in each such year.
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 cancelled in England and Wales in each of the last five years.
Year | Total Value Legally Cancelled regardless of Imposition date | Total Value Administratively Cancelled regardless of Imposition date |
2010/2011 | £62,263,874
| £50,713,367
|
2011/2012 | £63,957,203
| £63,135,442
|
2012/2013 | £62,594,601
| £75,868,426
|
2013/2014 | £64,312,383
| £96,801,853
|
2014/2015 | £61,173,156 | £68,851,118
|
The total amounts cancelled 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
Financial impositions are only administratively cancelled after all attempts to collect the amount outstanding have been made, and in accordance with strict cancellation criteria. These impositions can be written back on to the system if more information is found – for instance, a new address for the offender.
Legal cancellations can be applied after the case has been reconsidered by a Judge or Magistrate. Typically, legal cancellations are used where a case has been re-opened and the defendant has been found not guilty, following the presentation of additional information. Legal cancellations can be full or partial remittances of financial impositions.
We do not have information on the number of accounts cancelled; we cannot separate the total number of accounts closed in the period to distinguish between the number that were closed due to payment and those closed due to administrative or legal cancellation.