Fixed Penalty Notice

Fixed penalty notices (FPNs) were introduced in Britain in the 1950s to deal with minor parking offences. Originally used by police and traffic wardens, their use has extended to other public officials and authorities, as has the range of offences for which they can be used.

In recent years, this has taken the form of using them to give police and public authorities in England, Scotland and Wales a realistic weapon against anti-social behaviour. They are designed to reduce paperwork on police and council officers by allowing low-level anti-social behaviour to be dealt with on the spot. Newer types of notice exist for disorder, environmental crime, truancy and noise. A fixed penalty notice is not a fine or criminal conviction and the recipient can opt for the matter to be dealt with in court instead of paying. However, if the recipient neither pays the penalty nor opts for a court hearing in the time specified, the penalty may be increased by 50% and registered against the recipient as a fine. It may then be enforced by the normal methods used to enforce unpaid fines, including imprisonment in some circumstances.

In Hong Kong, fixed penalty notices are issued for minor offences such as smoking, littering, parking, idling engine, etc.

This was the original use for FPNs, currently continuing in Great Britain under powers provided by the Road Traffic Act 1991 as well as in Northern Ireland; in many areas this style of enforcement has been taken over from police by local authorities. Some other motoring offences (other than parking) can also be dealt with by the issue of FPNs by police, VOSA or local authority personnel. FPNs issued by local authority parking attendants are backed with powers to obtain payment by civil action and are defined as "penalty charge notices", distinguishing them from other FPNs which are often backed with a power of criminal prosecution if the penalty is not paid; in the latter case the "fixed penalty" is sometimes designated as a "mitigated penalty" to indicate the avoidance of being prosecuted which it provides.

If a charge is paid within 14 days of the 28-day period, the charge is decreased by 50%. Appealing against or contesting this notice, requires going through courts and hearings: if lost, the 50% period pay could be extended.

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