26 May 2006
The National Audit Office has hit out at the way the Department for Constitutional Affairs calculates the so-called 'payment rate' for court fines — its performance benchmark.
This is the value of fines collected in a year as a percentage of the total fines imposed and has soared in recent years, climbing to 80% in 2004/05.
But, the NAO said this week, these results have been helped because since 2003/04 the DCA has included collection of fines imposed in previous years — but compared the total with that imposed in a single year.
'The department does not know how much of the fines imposed in any year is collected, nor does it know the number of offenders who have paid their fines,' the NAO said.
Janice Lawler, the NAO's director of value for money audit for home affairs and justice, told Public Finance: 'The 80% derives from the fact that they've changed the calculation basis.'
The NAO's report on fine collection, published on May 25, revealed that every year £27m is wasted in trying to collect fines from people who are unable to pay.
PFmay2006
