This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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New approach to handling fine defaulters
20/12/2006
From summer 2007, courts across Scotland will place people defaulting on fines of less than £500 on a community sentence instead of short, unproductive periods in prison, it was announced today.
Under the new approach offenders will have to spend up to 100 hours undertaking constructive activity like unpaid work or financial management training.
Over 3,000 individuals are currently admitted to jail each year for failure to pay their fines, including hundreds of women.
The move follows a broadly positive evaluation of pilot projects set up in Glasgow District Stipendiary Magistrates Court and Ayr Sheriff Court, which is also published today.
The pilots, which ran for two years, saw removal of the courts' powers to impose a custodial sentence for offenders defaulting on fines up to £500 and replacement with a requirement to complete a Supervised Attendance Order.
Justice Minister Cathy Jamieson said:
"Very short prison sentences of a few days achieve little. Smart options such as Supervised Attendance Orders, which have been used by courts across Scotland since 1998, provide the opportunity for a more constructive approach.
"Substituting the unpaid portion of a fine for a period of unpaid activity - a fine on people's time rather than their pocket - makes sense. Spending up to 100 hours on constructive activity in the community can bring much greater results than a couple of nights in a prison cell. An order might, for example, require an offender to undertake financial management training to assist them in avoiding falling into financial debt - potentially tackling the root cause of their problem.
"I believe there could be particular benefits for women who get into difficulties - people with family responsibilities who may have got themselves into financial trouble through addiction or skills problems. I now want to see the positive aspects of the pilot courts replicated more widely across the country.
"The message we are sending is clear. Serious criminals can expect to spend serious time behind bars. However, we will also continue to develop effective community programmes, which can be shown to work, to turn people away from the revolving door of re-offending."
Bernadette Monaghan, chief executive of Apex Scotland, said:
"Apex has been involved in the initiatives in Glasgow and Ayrshire to pilot Supervised Attendance Orders as a first sentence option and very much welcomes this announcement by the Minister.
"The SAO is not explicitly aimed at progressing people into employment. However, in addition to completing it, 82 people in the Glasgow pilot also moved on to employment, education or training, with 41 securing full-time jobs. This is a major achievement, given that the majority of those we work with on SAO are at a considerable distance from the labour market and mainly need help with life skills.
"In our experience, Supervised Attendance Orders as a direct sentence highlight the value of a community sentence that is constructive, as well as punitive, in that offenders are given the opportunity to address their needs and the issues that have contributed to their offending in the first place."
Bakground:
Supervised Attendance Orders were first introduced in Scotland on a pilot basis in 1992 and rolled-out nationally during the mid to late 1990s following legislative amendments in 1995.
The Supervised Attendance Order (SAO) is a community-based alternative to imprisonment for fine default. The order is currently available to all courts throughout Scotland as a sentencing option for dealing for dealing with fine defaulters and substitutes a period of constructive unpaid activity for the unpaid portion of a fine. Activities can include components of social education, financial management and unpaid work. Orders are supervised by the local authority Criminal Justice Social Work Service.
Mandatory Supervised Attendance Order pilots were set up in Glasgow District Stipendiary Magistrates Court and Ayr Sheriff Court in 2004. These courts require to use Supervised Attendance Orders in dealing with those defaulting on fines of less than £500 and do not have the power to impose a custodial sentence in such circumstances. The measure being announced today extends this approach to all Sheriff and District Courts across Scotland.
The Sentencing Commission published a report on fines in May 2006, which recommended the mandatory use of Supervised Attendance Orders for fine defaulters.
The evaluation found that:
- Over the period of the pilot, no offenders were sentenced to custody solely as a result of fine default. The number of offenders, across Scotland, received into custody solely as a result of fine default fell from 4,168 in 2003-04 to 3,231 in 2005-06.
- The numbers received into custody from pilot courts where the offences listed on the warrant included fine default fell by 43 per cent (from 1221 to 700) in Glasgow, and by 58 per cent (from 91 to 38) in Ayr.
- There was a significant impact on women offenders, with a fall of around 60 per cent (from 170 to 67) in the number being received into custody from Glasgow District Court for offences including fine default.
- The main negative impact of the pilot was the high number of breaches in Glasgow. However, the level of breaches stabilised and fell over the last few months of the pilot, as new measures were introduced to address this.
The average cost of an SAO is £500. The cost of national roll-out is expected to be £1.6 million.
The number of fine defaulters admitted to Scottish Prison Service establishments in 2005-06 represents an average daily population of 53. It is anticipated that the new measure will reduce the average daily population by between 20 and 30 dependent on the extent to which courts impose a custodial sentence in dealing with breaches of Supervised Attendance Orders.