No place to hide from court penalties with National Enforcement Service
15 Mar 2005
The National Enforcement Service (NES) will focus on a hardcore of offenders in England and Wales. One in ten offenders have more than one court fine or summons still outstanding. Magistrates courts impose around a million fines every year - some 13 per cent of offenders account for nearly a third of all the monies still owed.
Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs and Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer declared the offensive during a visit to Southwark Crown Court in London with Attorney General Lord Goldsmith QC and courts minister Christopher Leslie.
The 4,000 enforcement officers employed by the NES will:
- Make sure fines are paid
- Make sure other court orders are obeyed
- Track down hardcore offenders
- Work hand-in-hand with other agencies
They will achieve this through:
- New powers - e.g. of arrest, of entry to premises
- Improved intelligence - e.g. access to the Police National Computer
- Increased professionalism - e.g. training programmes, common standards
The new service will building on work done by the Department for Constitutional Affairs, which has seen fines enforcement increase from 55 per cent to 80 per cent over the past two years. The NES will offer a uniform approach to court enforcement across England and Wales. Enforcement officers will operate with new powers and improved intelligence gathering to get the job done and the authority of the courts be more respected. Later this year, they will be able to search offenders and gain entry to premises, and have access to benefits information and police records.
Lord Falconer said:
"Much has already been achieved to drive up enforcement performance but we need to do better.
The National Enforcement Service will provide a much more professional, consistent and effective enforcement regime.
Working with other criminal justice agencies the NES will be in a better position to tackle hard core offenders and increase compliance by persistent defaulters.
This will help increase public confidence in the criminal justice system and satisfy victims that criminals will have to pay for their actions."
Home Secretary Charles Clarke said:
"People who don't pay their fines or turn up at court clog up the criminal justice system and are a drain on our police resources.
By targeting the hard core of problem offenders the National Enforcement Service will ensure that justice is done and that criminals pay for their crimes."
Lord Goldsmith, ministerial champion for Operation Turn-up, a blitz cracking down on people who skip bail, added:
"We are cracking down on bail bandits. We will not tolerate people who skip bail. Turning up at court is not an option - it is an obligation. Operation Turn-up is currently underway across England and Wales. We are already seeing an immediate localised impact - 78 bail bandits were arrested in one January weekend alone in West Yorkshire, for example.
Operation Turn-up shows that co-operation between the criminal justice agencies increases effectiveness. We will build on that experience to enable the National Enforcement Service to improve enforcement across the board."
Christopher Leslie said:
"Fines and community penalties are a credible sentencing option but unless they' re properly enforced they will not be taken seriously by victims, the public and those who work in the criminal justice system.
Many regions have responded positively to the challenge of improving enforcement by the courts since 2003. For example, West Yorkshire's payment rate has gone up by a fifth to 75 per cent, while the rate of payment in Devon and Cornwall has almost doubled. Two years ago, only a third of fines in Merseyside were collected - the figure is now 69 per cent."
Significantly, the NES will have a distinct and clearly identifiable body of enforcement professionals - like the police - with high community visibility in the form of uniforms, specialist equipment and standard vehicles and livery. Enforcement Officers will also be given specific training to accompany their new powers to enforce criminal and civil penalties.
The National Enforcement Service will be piloted in a regional location from April 2006 and national rollout should be complete by April 2007.
The NES, led by Neil Ward, will be an arm of Her Majesty's Courts Service (HMCS) which starts next month.
The service will also improve:
- The fines payment rate. The new national target will be 81 per cent for 2005/06. It is currently 78 per cent.
- Sentence compliance.
- Systems - e.g. allocation of warrants by risk, priority and expertise rather than type.
- Special assistance to areas of greatest need.
- Asset recovery, with seven centres of excellence.
Responsibility for enforcement is currently split between civilian enforcement officers employed by magistrates' courts, police, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and the National Offender Management Service (NOMS).