Go Back BACK

Fixed Penalty Notices and Penalty Notices for Disorder

Often known simply as "on the spot fines", these penalties are in fact two separate summary punishments, or "interventions" to use the Home Office's preferred term:

Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) generally deal with "environmental offences" and can be issued by Local Authority officers and by Police Community Support Officers and "other accredited persons".

FPNs can be issued to anyone over 10 years old and are penalties of £50 (or £100 for noise-related offences).

Examples of offences where a FPN may be issued include:

Receiving a penalty notice does not count as getting a conviction. Recipients have 14 in respect of a FPN to pay the penalty or to request a hearing. Failure to pay a penalty may result in a higher fine imposed by the court or imprisonment.

Penalty Notices for Disorder (PNDs) are issued for "more serious offences" and have been issued to naturists using traditionally tolerated naturist beaches. (As in the case of "Operation Crow" at Ainsdale in 2005)

PNDs can be issued by the police and, in a limited capacity by Community Support Officers and "other accredited persons".

PNDs can be issued to anyone over 16 years old and are for either £50 or £80 depending on the severity of the behaviour.

According to the Home Office

"We introduced PNDs in 2001 specifically to tackle low-level anti-social behaviour and to reduce police bureaucracy in dealing with these types of crimes.
Examples of offences where a penalty notice for disorder may be issued include:
  • behaviour likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress to others
  • drunk and disorderly behaviour in a public place
  • destroying or damaging property up to the value of £500
  • retail theft under £200
  • using threatening words or behaviour

A naturist issued with a PND is likely to be told that his behaviour is "likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress" to others.

Receiving a penalty notice does not count as getting a conviction.

If you are issued with a PND, you have 21 days to pay the penalty or to request a hearing or the penalty will be reissued at one and a half times the original amount. Failure to pay a penalty may result in a higher fine imposed by the court or imprisonment.

The legal form of this penalty is an offer by the authorities not to prosecute if you pay it. In this way it avoids being contrary to the prohibition of punishment without trial in both the Bill of Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights. Nonetheless, it can be registered and enforced as if it were a fine.

In order to assert his rights, the recipient must make an application to be tried (and thereby pay substantial amounts in legal costs and risk greater punishment). In essence being isued with FPN or PND means you must be prepared to suffer considerable cost and inconvenience in order to prove (or at least assert) your innocence, because the constable issuing the penalty summarily need not have the strength of case to justify a prosecution.

Penalty notices are a favourite of the Blair government. They dispense with the inconvenient possibility that the non-compliant might escape punishment.

Please Note:
The information given on this page is intended only as a general guide to the the legal position . It was not written by a legally-qualified individual.
It should not be relied upon as a definitive guide to the law , and is only applicable to England and Wales. The law in Scotland and Northern Ireland may be different.
Neither the author nor the publishers of this FactFile can be held responsible should naturism or nudity cause you to be arrested and / or prosecuted for any offence.