Thousands fined over ‘unclear’ lockdown laws

LONDON: Britons are being fined for breaches of coronavirus lockdown regulations that are “unclear and ambiguous”, a parliamentary committee has warned.

The Joint Committee on Human Rights said it was “unacceptable” that “many thousands” were receiving fixed penalty notices (FPN) despite evidence the police did not fully understand their powers, according to a Sky News report yesterday.

It added that the way regulations were being enforced by the police was having a “disproportionate impact” on different ethnic backgrounds.

Currently, there is no realistic way for people to challenge FPN, which could result in fines in excess of £10,000 (RM53,024) in England.

“This will invariably lead to injustice as the public who have been unfairly targeted with an FPN have no means of redress and police will know that their actions are unlikely to be scrutinised,” the committee said.

Many of the regulations were “confusingly named,” the committee warned, which makes it difficult for people to establish what they can and cannot do. The committee advised the government to call for greater clarity on the rules and “distinguish between advice, guidance and the law” as regulations change on average once a week.

“In particular, more must be done to make the up to date regulations themselves (not only guidance) clearly accessible online, particularly as the law has changed, on average, once a week,” the committee said.

“It ought to be straightforward for a member of the public to find out what the current criminal law is, nationally and in their local area, without having to trawl through multiple sets of confusingly named regulations.”