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6 Operational Guidance for Police officers during the Pilot
The following section is taken from the Standard Operating Procedure 10 document
6.1 List of Offences
1. Riotous behaviour whilst drunk in licensed premises - Section 78 of the Licensing (Scotland) Act 1976
2. Refusing to leave licensed premises on being requested to do so - Section 79 of the Licensing (Scotland) Act 1976
3. Urinating or defecating in circumstances causing annoyance to others - Section 47 of the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982
4. Being drunk and incapable in a public place - Section 50(1) of the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982
5. Being drunk in a public place in charge of a child - Section 50(2) of the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982
6. Persisting to the annoyance of others in playing musical instruments,
singing, playing radios etc on being required to stop - Section 54(1) of the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982
7. Vandalism - Section 52(1) of the Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995
8. Consume alcoholic liquor in a public place - Sections 201 & 203 of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973
9. Breach of the Peace
10. Malicious Mischief
6.2 Brief Description of Circumstances under which the issuing of an FPN is a Suitable Disposal
The Lord Advocate has issued Guidelines to officers including examples of circumstances in which it might be appropriate to issue a penalty notice in relation to simple, straightforward cases. It is not possible to reproduce the guidelines here as they contain information which might enable would be offenders to tailor their behaviour to avoid prosecution.
Officers have been instructed by the Lord Advocate that a penalty notice cannot be issued in respect of more serious offences including those which involve the following:
- Injury to any person
- Persistent or alarming conduct
- An indication that the offence is homophobic, racial, religious or motivated by hate
- a pattern of harassment or intimidation
- domestic violence
- an indication that the offence is football related
(the list is not exhaustive)
Similarly, a penalty notice should not be offered where certain circumstances apply to the offender, including where the offender:
- Has a recent analogous previous conviction.
- Has been issued recently with an offer of a fiscal fine or warning letter for an analogous offence by the Procurator Fiscal;
- Has been issued recently with more than one fixed penalty notice for the same offence;
- Is known to be already subject to bail
- Is already subject to an Anti-Social Behaviour Order
- Has no verifiable satisfactory address for enforcement purposes
(the list is not exhaustive)
6.3 Process of issuing an FPN
6.3.1 Street Issue
It is envisaged that an officer who finds an offender committing an offence and decides to dispose of it by way of fixed penalty will issue a notice to the offender taking into consideration the aforementioned guidelines.
- The officer will charge that person as they currently do.
- The officer, prior to finishing their tour of duty, will
- Create a crime report for recordable offences
- Register a standard prosecution report on SMART using the fixed penalty route. PTP numbers will be written on the fixed penalty notice in the appropriate place.
This will result in the SPR being filed in a fixed penalty disposal area. They will also complete the fixed penalty notice and forward it by internal mail, to the Central Ticket Office for processing
6.3.2 Custody Issue
Powers of arrest for offences that may result in a Fixed Penalty Notice remain unchanged and can be exercised where appropriate. The Police Custody Staff, in consultation with the reporting officer, may choose to dispose of arrested offenders by way of a notice. This disposal will be at the discretion of the Custody Sergeant.
Offenders should be processed as normal, prior to release.
- The arresting officer in the case will pass sufficient details of the circumstances to Custody Police Staff who will issue the fixed penalty notice on the release of the offender.
- Custody staff will update custody records as they currently do using fixed penalty offence charge codes and ticket numbers.
The arresting officer, prior to finishing their tour of duty, will
- Create a crime report for recordable offences
- Register a Standard Prosecution Report on SMART using the fixed penalty route. PTP numbers will be written on the fixed penalty notice. Note that functionality has been created within SMART for Custody Staff to register the SPR for the arresting officer.
- Custody Police staff will issue the fixed penalty notice on release of the offender and forward it by internal mail, to the Central Ticket Office for processing. They should clearly mark in the remarks section that this is a custody disposal and was issued on behalf of the arresting officer. This will ensure an SPR raised, as a result of a court hearing request, will be returned to the correct officer to complete and submit to case management.
The registering of the SPR on SMART using the fixed penalty route will result in the SPR being filed in a fixed penalty disposal area.
6.4 Process if fine is not paid.
The Central Ticket Office ( CTO) receives all the notices - they send one copy to the relevant Court, and log one on the NES system. If it is paid at Court they update the NES system accordingly. If it has not been paid after 28 days then overnight processing is used to indicate how many fines are registered at which courts. A Fine Registration certificate is registered at the CTO. Dundee Court receives an electronic and hard copy of the Fine Registration certificate; Perth and Forfar, and Angus get a hardcopy. From that moment on they do not take the £40 FPN payment, they have to take £60 on a separate system within the courts. The accused has the 28-day period before it is fine registered in which to request a court hearing. If so, it goes to CTO, who amend the system and fire the SMART system case to the officer to submit the case to Procurator Fiscal. It then proceeds down the normal SPR route.
All details of FPNs paid within 28 days remain on the NES system but the case status will show it has been paid (and hence a disposal code is updated on SCRO) and therefore no further action is taken. Information concerning those to be fine registered is sent electronically by Tayside Police to the Courts. The Courts communicate in writing to the offender to the effect he/she has a further 28 days to pay the fine or be subject to Means Court recovery procedures. It is at this stage and all stages of communication by Courts with the offender that a number of people have denied ever receiving a ticket. This has resulted in a change in operational procedures for the issue of tickets to validate identification and has only come to light recently due to the delay in writing to offenders due to IT issues.
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