Recommendation 21

HM Government Not Addressed

The £10k FPNs were introduced for people who organised a gathering contrary to the regulations, that is for those who were committing a more egregious breach of the rules, thereby causing a significant risk to the public’s health. At the time these measures were introduced it was considered important that the penalty for this offence communicated the public health risk known to be associated with the activity, and also acted as an appropriate deterrent. The vast majority of forces will undertake a discretionary initial force-level review before referring to the Association of Chief Police Criminal Records Office, ACRO, (the body that administers the FPN regime) where it is reviewed, ensuring compliance with regulations before the formal FPN is issued. An individual can decide to not pay an FPN, if, for example, they did not consider that they had in fact committed an offence, or felt that the penalty was not appropriate. An individual can ask the issuing police force to review the case and it is at the discretion of the relevant force to consider whether to withdraw the FPN. If the force does not withdraw the FPN and the recipient opts not to pay it, the force will then consider whether to pursue a prosecution. It is made clear in the letter issued to those who receive an FPN that they can contest the penalty. If the police prosecute the case, the defendant’s rights remain untouched. Where a request to review an FPN is made, the police have no power to enforce payment, and so there are no consequences for the recipient against which they might appeal. A person can also judicially review the decision to issue an FPN. There are therefore a number of routes through which the penalty can be challenged.