Safe Speed Forums

Agency copy:

COURTS TO STOP DEALING WITH LOW-LEVEL MOTORING OFFENCES

By David Barrett, PA Legal Affairs Correspondent

The courts are to stop dealing with low-level motoring offences, including
speeding, the Lord Chancellor announced tonight.
Lord Falconer of Thoroton signalled a significant change in the way minor
offences will be handled by the criminal justice system, saying he was
determined to introduce more summary justice.
A new "bulk processing centre" is being set up to deal with motoring
offences as well as TV licence dodgers.
It will be operational within months.
Lord Falconer stressed that he wants to see crime dealt with more "quickly
and directly".
He said it takes an average of 153 days from an offence being committed to
it being dealt with by magistrates.
"In many cases we need to return to a connection between crime and its
disposal in the courts which is much more quick and much more direct," he
said.
Lord Falconer also ruled out dramatic reforms to the criminal justice
system which have been advocated by Home Secretary Charles Clarke.
"I think what we need to do is make the current system work in a much more
efficient way," said Lord Falconer.
"I think that means being willing to divert very low-level cases out of the
magistrates' court and to be more willing to use things like conditional
cautions.
"There is no need to go down the inquisitorial road."
Last week Mr Clarke told MPs that an investigatory justice system like that
in France was "very superior" to the traditional British adversarial
system.
Lord Falconer said of the offences being moved out of the courts: "They
will remain criminal but they will not be dealt with in court.
"That does not include driving without insurance, which is something which
remains a serious offence."
Motorists who deny committing the offences will still get the chance to go
to court.
Lord Falconer added: "We will have a criminal justice system which will be
speedier, simpler and make more use of summary justice.
"This is a fundamentally new way of delivering justice that focuses much
more clearly on proportionality of process.
"It is an approach that rightly will be the subject of discussion, but it
is also an approach where we can and should make progress."
Last September, Britain's top police officer Sir Ian Blair put forward
radical proposals for a new breed of supercop with on-the-spot powers to
confiscate driving licences and issue anti-social behaviour orders.
He admitted the proposals - which were backed by the Association of Chief
Police Officers - allowing officers to impose instant punishments, could
blur the line between police and magistrates.
Metropolitan Commissioner Sir Ian insisted the courts system was often too
slow to deal with some types of problem behaviour.
Director of civil rights group Liberty, Shami Chakrabarti, accused him of
behaving like Judge Dredd, the post-apocalyptic policeman/executioner in
British comic 2000AD, whose catchphrase is "I am the law".
However, Lord Falconer said his new proposals would not go that far.
"That is not embraced in these proposals," he said.
"It does not extend beyond the current powers of police officers."
end

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There's supposed to be a report by Lord Falconer published today, but I haven't found it yet.

WHAT ON EARTH is this REALLY about? It reads exactly like our current fixed penalty system.

Is it in preparation for S172 to fail at the ECHR?

And the crying shame is that it's government self-inflicted damage because they have to do something because they have clogged up the courts with needless 'offences'.

_________________
Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

The way that reads to me is that guilty pleas will no longer be heard in front of a Magistrate, but via some new cheaper and quicker system, perhaps equivalent to the small claims track for dealing with civil cases.

With the collossal rise in speed cameras the courts must also be seeing a lot more cases which can't be dealt with by FPN, ie where the speed is too high or where the lucky recipient is already on 9 points.

Under the present system even if the defendant pleads guilty it still has to go to a full trial hearing before a magistrate, when all they are really doing is looking up the appropriate sentence and applying it.

_________________
CSCP Latin for beginners...
Ticketo ergo sum : I scam therefore I am!

Saw it in the local rag

Looks like call centres are going to be dishing out the fines in future. They make more money that way.

I wonder if the call centre will be in India

_________________
Speed camera policy Kills

Is he fed up with SCP's spending all his money

Redundancies at SCP's???:violin: Especialy Hampshire

_________________
Speed limit sign radio interview. TV Snap Unhappy
“It has never been the rule in this country – I hope it never will be - that suspected criminal offences must automatically be the subject of prosecution” He added that there should be a prosecution: “wherever it appears that the offence or the circumstances of its commission is or are of such a character that a prosecution in respect thereof is required in the public interest”
This approach has been endorsed by Attorney General ever since 1951. CPS Code

I thought of that - but (I understand) magistrates deal with 200 pleas of guilty by letter in a day. Surely that's not sufficient to worry about?

And are we not entitled to judgement for sentencing as well as innocence or guilt?

_________________
Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

You can't plead guilty by letter in either of the circumstances I quoted - you have to appear in person for sentencing. That is perhaps what they want to change, so that you can have your driving ban dished out by fixed penalty instead of just the points.


Of course you will be - simply plead Not Guilty. Expect the penalty to be harsher than if you'd just "assumed the position" of course...

_________________
CSCP Latin for beginners...
Ticketo ergo sum : I scam therefore I am!

Here's the real deal:

http://www.dca.gov.uk/dept/doinglawdiff_print.pdf

I'm reading it now...

_________________
Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

_________________
Speed limit sign radio interview. TV Snap Unhappy
“It has never been the rule in this country – I hope it never will be - that suspected criminal offences must automatically be the subject of prosecution” He added that there should be a prosecution: “wherever it appears that the offence or the circumstances of its commission is or are of such a character that a prosecution in respect thereof is required in the public interest”
This approach has been endorsed by Attorney General ever since 1951. CPS Code

The report I read yesterday on ITV Teletext said driving without a licence would be dealt with on this new system, but driving without insurance would remain a "court" case.

Yet another lack of joined up thinking - if you drive without a licence you're automatically driving without insurance

_________________
That's how Nazi Germany started. They'll be burning books next. (Brian Noble, Wigan coach - updated 20/4/06!!).