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7 Number of FPNs issued

The offence of "Being drunk in a public place in charge of a child" is excluded from consideration in the following tables as no tickets were issued in this regard.

7.1 Total number of FPNs by offence

Table 11

The majority of FPNs were issued in relation to "Urinating or defecating in circumstances causing annoyance to others" (28%) and Breach of the Peace (49%).

7.2 Distribution in terms of Gender

Table 12

After combining "Riotous behaviour whilst drunk in licensed premises" and "Malicious Mischief" (to ensure a valid analysis), there is a significant ¹¹ difference between the offence frequencies in terms of gender. This largely due to the different proportions relating to "Urinating or defecating in circumstances causing annoyance to others" and "Breach of the Peace."

7.3 Distribution in terms of Age

Table 12

There is a consistent reduction in the number of FPNs issued with increasing age, and the great majority (77%) of FPNs are issued to offenders who are between 16 and 30 inclusive.

The majority of offences of "Vandalism" and "Consuming alcohol in a public place" are committed by individuals who are 21 years old or younger (60% and 57% respectively). This age group represents between 33% and 43% for the remaining offences (excluding the very small numbers associated with "Malicious Mischief" and "Riotous behaviour whilst drunk in licensed premises".) The difference between the "16 to 21" age group and the others, when "Malicious Mischief" and "Riotous behaviour whilst drunk in licensed premises are combined, in relation to offence type, is statistically very highly significant. ¹²

On the basis of this, it would be most likely that these two offences, "Vandalism" and "Consuming alcohol in a public place", would be preferentially committed by people under the age of 16. If, in future, a decision is made to extend the criteria of FPNs to include under-16s, then these two offences are likely to disproportionately affected and may provide an early indication of the effectiveness of this introduction.

Conversely, these offences may not be most effectively dealt with solely by interventions targeted at adults, such as the current scheme. Addressing antisocial behaviour before it becomes habitual is important. In the interviews, where interviewees thought that FPNs would have any effect on antisocial behaviour in the long term, it was generally felt to be most influential on the first-time offender.

7.4 Distribution by Locus

Table 13

The majority of FPN tickets were issued on the street (Table 13). Officers stated that they had no problem identifying if it was more appropriate to return an offender to base than to issue a ticket on the street. This was usually due to the offender being drunk and requiring time to become sober, before it became appropriate to issue a ticket.

7.5 Payment rates for FPNs

Table 14

The proportion of fines paid varied by offence ¹³ with payment more likely than average for "Breach of the Peace" and less likely for "Persist to the annoyance of others in playing music on being required to stop" and "Consume Alcoholic liquor in a public place".

7.6 FPNs issued retrospectively

Table 15

Table 15 shows that only a small proportion (4%) of FPNs issued were delayed more than three days.

7.7 Payment Rates

The payment rate at the initial stage is 63% with significant ¹⁴ variation across the Courts. The rates for Dundee, Angus and Perth & Kinross Courts were 65%, 59% and 62% respectively.

Of the 3327 FPNs, 1925 (58%) were issued in the Dundee District Court Area. Of these 1925 (65%) were paid at the initial stage (Table 16). By October 1 ^st 2006 another 262 (14%) had been paid. Hence within six months of the end of the pilot, nearly 80% of the fines had been paid. This is significantly ¹⁵ higher than the reported 70% figure for England and Wales. It should be noted that the Dundee figure is conservative as more fines may be paid in the future.

Table 16 Fine Payment at Dundee Court

Initially the payment recovery rate in respect of registered fines was poor due to a delay in processing the fines as a result of the software not being ISCJIS compliant and requiring an upgrade.

7.8 Repeat Offenders

There were 350 repeat offenders during the twelve-month period. Of these, nine requested a court hearing. The outcomes for these are outlined below.

Table 17

The number of repeat offenders represents a relatively small percentage of the total number of tickets issued. It is too early to tell if FPNs will have a significant long term influence on antisocial behaviour, but the general expectation is that it will and this will be most obvious from the reduction in the number of repeat offenders. Chief Superintendent Harkins stated that the small number of repeat offenders represented an indication that most individuals learn from their experience, and that over time there will be a reduction in antisocial behaviour. He also thought that, as young people were responsible for most of the crime, as a nation we are getting older so over time there would less of this type of crime.

7.9 Fine Collection Process

Figure 2. The fine registration process

Nicola Brown (Dundee District Court Manager) described the Fine registration process. The District Courts have on-line access to the NES system allowing them to view information concerning FPNs issued. Any queries received from offenders as to the validity of the FPN are directed to the police, which may result in the FPN being cancelled. One major issue has been the identity of offenders. All requests for a court hearing are sent to Tayside Police to mark the fine on the system to prevent further recovery procedures. This results in a Standard Prosecution report being generated by Tayside Police to COPFS.

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 large number of people have denied ever receiving a ticket. This has resulted in a reinforcement of guidance relating to the operational procedures for the issue of tickets to validate identification. It only came to light relatively recently, due to the delay in writing to offenders. Those unpaid receive a warning letter from the court to state they have 7 days to pay the registered fine or they will be cited to a Means Enquiry Court. Those unpaid are cited to a Means Enquiry Court.

This process involves sending citations to Tayside Police to cite offenders to Courts. Tayside Police must send the execution of citation, or information as to the offender's whereabouts, to the Court before the scheduled appearance date.

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