§ Mr. KeyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the costs and benefits of equipping(a) Home Office constabularies and (b) Highways Agency traffic management staff with hand-held GPS card readers for on-the-spot payment of fixed penalty fines. [156723]
§ Caroline Flint[holding answer 3 March 2004]: No such assessment has been made. There is no requirement to pay fixed penalty fines on the spot.
The provisions of the fixed penalty system for road traffic offences are set out in Part III of the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988, as amended by the Road Traffic Act 1991, The recipient of a fixed penalty notice has the option of paying the penalty within 28 days or requesting a court hearing if the issue of the notice is disputed.
Provision for Highways Agency traffic officers is included in the Traffic Management Bill, currently before Parliament. The Bill does not seek to give the traffic officers a power to issue fixed penalty notices.