29 May 2017

More than £5 million in unpaid fines have been effectively written off by the Scottish Courts Service, new research has revealed.

Fines which have been outstanding for longer than three years are “archived” by the organisation, with no realistic expectation they will ever be paid.

And between 2008 and 2013 – the most recent juncture for which a fine can be officially archived – £5,547,358 remains unaccounted for.

That figure does not include unpaid fines accumulated since that date, which the SCS still hopes will be recovered.

In 2012/13 alone, nearly £2 million worth of fines were issued, but have now been written off as more than three years have passed.

The statistics emerged following a Freedom of Information request by the Scottish Conservatives, who said the unpaid penalties were placing additional financial strain on the courts.

The sums are also left out of official unpaid fines statistics, which most recently showed the SCS was waiting for £32.3 million to be paid in penalties, £4.3 million of which was deemed to be “in arrears”, from the last three years.

Scottish Conservative Central Scotland MSP Margaret Mitchell, convener of the Scottish Parliament’s justice committee, said:

“These figures show courts have effectively written off more than £5 million in unpaid fines.

“That sends a completely wrong message to criminals, and creates an impression that if they evade the law for long enough, they’ll get away with it.

“The SNP is increasingly urging courts to turn away from custodial sentences and pursue other options.

“But as it stands, these offenders don’t seem to think they have to comply with alternative punishments, and millions of pounds in fines have gone unpaid.

“This is also having a negative impact on public finances, and amounts to a huge loss of revenue for the UK taxpayer.”

Labour is today
(Monday 29 May 2017) calling on Theresa May to come clean with the British
people and answer the most pressing questions she has failed to be straight
about in this campaign. 

The Conservative
manifesto has betrayed Britain’s pensioners, threatened unspecified tax rises
for tens of millions of working people and set out a grim future of
underfunding and understaffing for our vital public services.

Given that the
Conservative leader has already broken her flagship manifesto pledge on social care,
we are challenging Theresa May to be straight with voters and give clear
answers to the crucial questions she has continued to duck.

 Questions
Theresa May must answer today:

1.     Will Theresa May confirm that ten
million pensioners will lose their winter fuel payments if the Conservatives
are re-elected? And if not ten million, how many will it be?

2.     At what level will the cap be set on
social care costs that those with conditions such as dementia will have to pay
under Conservative plans?

3.     Will Theresa May match Labour’s pledge
not to raise personal National Insurance contributions, and not to raise
income tax for 95 per cent of taxpayers?

4.     Will the Conservatives confirm they are
planning another five years of austerity for public services, as the Institute
of Fiscal Studies (IFS) stated last week?

5.     The Conservatives have warned they will
scrap free school meals for 5-7 year olds if they are re-elected. Will they now
spell out a realistic costing for their school breakfast proposal now they have
withdrawn their discredited 6.8p figure?

6.     Will Theresa May confirm she is
proposing not a single penny of extra funding for the NHS, as the IFS has
stated?

 Theresa May has
a track record of breaking her promises, flip-flopping and going back on her
word. Ahead of tonight’s live televised interview and Q&A, Labour is
calling on the Conservative leader to be straight with people and set out
exactly what she’s planning for our pensioners, working people and school
children.

Andrew Gwynne, Labour’s National
Election Coordinator, said:

“The Tory manifesto
has plunged pensioners and working people into insecurity, and left our public
services facing the risk of further crisis. Meanwhile, Theresa May refuses to
answer even the most basic questions on her policies.

“Today, Labour sets
out some of the most pressing questions the Tories keep dodging. So if you get
a knock at the door from the Tories or are one of the few people who isn’t a
Tory party member to meet Theresa May or Philip Hammond, ask them to provide
answers.

“Failure to do so will
lead people to draw their own conclusions. But ultimately it proves that voting
for the Tories at this election is a dangerous roll of the dice for working
people and pensioners.

“Their manifesto threatened
to take away winter fuel allowances, ditch the triple lock and leave pensioners
facing the loss of control of their homes because of social care costs. It
makes clear the Tories are planning five more years of austerity for our public
services, with no guarantee to not raise taxes for 95 per cent of taxpayers.

“Having broken her
flagship pledge on social care just days after she launched her manifesto,
Theresa May needs to give clear answers to these crucial questions and be
straight with the British people about what the Tories are actually planning.”