Criminal Justice and Police Bill
7:00 pm
Baroness Buscombe (Conservative)
Perhaps I may interrupt the Minister. The point I was trying to make was this. There may be a situation where an on-the-spot fixed penalty notice may be less appropriate, but the police officer may weigh up quickly in his mind that given the fact that the case will take up a great deal of time in form-filling and that if the case goes to court he will be involved with a shift in the burden of proof beyond reasonable doubt, it will be much easier to hand out an on-the-spot penalty--and our criminal justice system is thereby diminished.