Criminal Courts Charge to be scrapped!!!

[Bailiff Advice]

In March I started a thread on here about the introduction by the Ministry of Justice of a Criminal Courts Charge that from May this year was to be added to each Magistrate Court Fine.

 

The charge ranged from between £150 up to a maximum of £1,200. The charge is paid on top of the fine, compensation order, prosecution costs and victims surcharge. As can be seen in the following thread that I started, this charge has lead to the resignation of many Magistrates.

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?443504-Criminal-Courts-Charge-to-be-added-to-all-Magistrate-Court-fines.

 

There has been an intense amount of lobbying from amongst others, the Magistrate's Association and the Howard League for Penal Reform for this charge to be scrapped and I am delighted to hear today that the Justice Minister; Michael Gove has agreed that the Criminal Court Charge is to be SCRAPPED on 24th December !!

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-34993428

[citizenB]

Does this mean that those people who have already paid this charge, will get it refunded ?

[brassnecked]

Does this mean that those people who have already paid this charge, will get it refunded ?

 

Do pigs fly? They will try their best not to repay, but maybe a Human rights case to reclaim might succeed.

[Bailiff Advice]

Does this mean that those people who have already paid this charge, will get it refunded ?

 

One magistrate asked the same question yesterday.....albeit it in a slightly different tone:

 

"Just hope that the poor sods lumbered with this crass and unjust impost get their money back. Ideally, taken from Grayling's paycheque".

[citizenB]

One magistrate asked the same question yesterday.....albeit it in a slightly different tone:

 

"Just hope that the poor sods lumbered with this crass and unjust impost get their money back. Ideally, taken from Grayling's paycheque".

 

Well said that man

 

Meanwhile, quite a few magistrates have left - will they be asked to return or will they replace them so the system is fully staffed ?

[Bailiff Advice]

 

Meanwhile, quite a few magistrates have left - will they be asked to return or will they replace them so the system is fully staffed ?

 

In fact only two weeks ago the Magistrates Courts advertised for new Magistrates.

 

Although the Secretary of State has cancelled the Criminal Courts Charge he nonetheless stated that he is looking at ALTERNATIVE methods whereby those convicted of a criminal offence pay towards the court costs.

 

There is a great deal going on behind the scenes regarding court fines. This is being completely overhauled and in particualr given, that the long awaited privitisation of court fines was cancelled last month.

[caledfwlch]

BA - Combined with what you PM'd the other day, regarding that other stuff in the works, this is fantastic news, and both a triumph and a timely reminder of just how important the existence of an Independent Judiciary is. And another example of how the Tory Government, or at least its senior ministers are continuing to legislate purely on ideological grounds without doing any research into the pro's, con's and indeed awkward things like facts and reality, and how a a particular bit of ideology would actually operate in the real world.

 

I suspect Community Payback is something in need for reform, that could perhaps be transformed into a better way of making Offenders "pay their way" The scheme is supposed to benefit the whole community, yet generally they appear to mainly be benefiting Charities with a very specific specialisation, so only benefiting a very small part of the community, not the community as a whole, and Not for Profit Organisations, but NPO's are not Charities, from what I have seen, a good many are Charities that gave up their charitable status and became NPO's in order to be able to pay senior management a lot more money with a lot less scrutiny, and so that a lot more of the cash being made can be shifted into those managers pockets.

 

Also, several regions CP Schemes are sending Offenders to work in private companies alongside paid staff, which would appear to breach the rules, they aren't supposed to benefit and generate profit for private corporations, and Offenders must NOT be used to replace paid staff, or allow a company to operate with less paid staff, yet if you know you have a steady stream of free staff, like Poundland/Tescos with the Workfare fiasco's, you are clearly not going to have on the books as many paid staff as you actually need.

 

Incidently, my Local Court would appear to be actually assisting people issued with a Court Fine, rather than setting them up to fail, so EA's can be sent after them and generate massive fees - I know a guy who was given a fine a while back, and the other day he showed me a special payment card he has - he said, when the fine was issued, the Court Staff approached him, and offered him the Card, onto which he makes an affordable payment every week out of his benefits, at Paypoints - since this scheme exists, you would think more Courts would be behaving in the same way, rather than washing their hands and letting it progress to Enforcement.

[brassnecked]

We have to watch out for similar charges they may try to bring in by the back door.

[Bailiff Advice]

Well said that man

 

Meanwhile, quite a few magistrates have left - will they be asked to return or will they replace them so the system is fully staffed ?

 

In fact, just this week Michael Gove announced in the House of Commons that he would like to invite all magistrates who had resigned to reconsider and revisit their decision. The following is an extract from a recent article in Law Gazette:

 

 

Last week Michael Gove announced the charge would be scrapped from 24 December and that the Ministry of Justice would review the entire structure of court-ordered financial impositions for offenders.

 

Gove told the House of Commons this morning: ‘Every single magistrate who felt for whatever reason they couldn’t sit on the bench as a result of that policy I would like to invite to reconsider and revisit their decision.’

 

The MoJ introduced the fixed costs under the last government, charging defendants convicted in the magistrates’ court on a guilty plea £150 and £520 for those convicted after a magistrates’ court trial.

 

In the Crown court, a conviction on a guilty plea costs £900, while those convicted at a trial on indictment pay £1,200.

 

When asked if he would review and waive outstanding payments from individuals who had incurred high levels of personal debt because of the charge, Gove said: ‘It is the case that people will have paid penalties under the criminal courts charge. That was the law at the time. It will be the law until 24 December. After that people will not be paying the criminal courts charge.’

 

Responding to a question on what advice he would give to people who were charged before 24 December, Gove said the ministry had ‘sought to take steps as quickly as possible after a proper review of the criminal courts charge and after the spending review to suspend the operation of the charge.

 

’Twenty-one days after the requisite statutory instrument was laid, that is the 24 December, then there will be no further imposition of the charge’.

 

PS: Since it was introduced in May this year, Criminal Court Charges of almost £28 million have been imposed.

[caledfwlch]

I wonder how much of this is down to the Powers that be freaking out at the likely unfillable magistrates shortage they are looking at, in a court system already falling apart due to lack of spending and total chaos from the CPS to Translation Services, and the realisation that with the collapse of the Privatised Fine Admin scheme, the Charge was going to make Gove and others look very, very bad since it would add millions upon millions to cash owed, but not collected...