§ Mr. Atkinsonasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department on how many occasions, and by what percentage, the courts have quashed fixed penalty fines issued for parking offences; and on how many occasions the court involved has ordered the police to compensate the defendant for legal costs and loss of earnings.
§ Mr. CarlisleA fixed penalty is not a fine imposed following a conviction, but a means whereby the recipient of a fixed penalty notice may, if he so chooses, discharge his liability to conviction for the offence alleged in the notice. If he pays, no proceedings can then be taken in respect of that offence. If he does not pay, and is prosecuted, the prosecution proceeds on the same footing as one in which no fixed penalty notice had been issued, and no separate statistics are kept of the outcome of such prosecutions.