Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many people who received a court fine in England and Wales were unemployed at the time of being fined for (1) 2016, (2) 2017, (3) 2018, (4) 2019, and (5) 2020.
We do not centrally hold data on offender income and financial circumstances, and the data requested for each question cannot be obtained without incurring disproportionate cost.
Fines are means-tested. The value of a fine must reflect the seriousness of the offence and, when setting a fine, the court must take into account the financial circumstances of the offender, insofar as these can be assessed.