Fixed penalty notices were brought in over 50 years ago for police and traffic wardens to deal with minor parking and motoring offences. Sixt has listed some information for you to read about fixed penalty notices below.
The use of fixed penalty notices has been extended over the years to include anti-social behavioural offences, public disorder offences and environmental offences such as littering.
Fixed penalty notices are not fines or criminal convictions and recipients can take the matter to court instead of paying.
Parking and in London, many moving traffic offences have mainly been decriminalised and are now mostly dealt with as by local authority Civil Enforcement Officers who issue penalty charge notices.
For drivers, fixed penalty notices are commonly used to enforce ‘moving traffic offences’ such as speeding and traffic light offences, restricted turn, no entry and box junction contraventions.
Fixed Penalty Notices can also be used to enforce parking restrictions where parking enforcement has not been decriminalised as well as for parking offences on red routes and zig zags.
A fixed penalty notice is a conditional offer so if you accept it, pay the fine and take the points then no further action is taken. But you can also choose to reject the offer and then you will be summoned to appear in court.
A Fixed Penalty Notice may either be endorsable or non-endorsable.
Endorsable means that it will be issued by the police at the time of the offence. You will need to hand in your licence at the scene (or within 7 days) for it to be endorsed and you will also need to pay the fine.
Non-Endorsable means that you will receive no penalty points and a lower fine for minor traffic offences.
A police officer can hand out up to three fixed penalty notices for one offence but only one of those can be for an endorsable offence.
Appealing against a Fixed Penalty Notice
Unlike Penalty Charge Notices you don’t have the option to appeal the decision of a Fixed Penalty Notice.
If you pay the fine within 28 days then authorities dealing with your case will take no further action in the matter. If you don’t agree that you committed the offence that you have been accused off then you will need to request a court hearing.
If you lose your court case for your fixed penalty notice you could end up paying a much higher amount than you were originally requested to pay.
Check out the website of your local Police or local authority to get more detailed information about an offence committed in the area.
From 16 August 2013, the police have got new powers to issue fixed penalty notices for careless driving offences which have previously only been dealt with in court. These are less serious offences such as tailgating and middle lane hogging.
