Clause 9 - Procedure
Criminal Justice and Police Bill
2:30 pm
Mr David Lock (Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department; Wyre Forest, Labour)
As my hon. Friend the Minister of State has made clear, some latitude exists already in respect of how fines for fixed penalties, most of which are for motoring offences, are received. As long as the letter is posted in the prescribed period, even if it arrives two days late—obviously there are problems before Christmas, for example—that is generally treated as a proper satisfaction of the fixed penalty notice and no further action is taken.
Ordinarily, a first-class letter is expected to arrive the next day and a second-class letter within three days. In practice, however, I do not think that there will be a problem. Under the existing operation of fixed penalty notices, reasonable latitude is given to those who are clearly attempting to pay. I hope that the right hon. and learned Member for North-East Bedfordshire (Sir N. Lyell) will accept my assurance that that is how the notices will work in practice.
Question put and agreed to.
Clause 9 ordered to stand part of the Bill.
Clauses 10 to 12 ordered to stand part of the Bill.