County police hand out 243 fines for lockdown breaches
FINES TOTALS
POLICE in Derbyshire have handed out more than 240 fines for breaking lockdown.
Officers were given powers to break up gatherings and fine people for breaching restriction of movement rules under the Health Protection Regulations 2020, from March 27.
The fines carried penalties of £60, reduced to £30 if paid within two weeks, with the fine doubled for each repeat offence up to a £960 maximum.
Higher fines were brought in England – £100, reduced to £50 if paid within 14 days, and rising to a maximum of £3,200 for subsequent offences – from May 13.
And in Derbyshire, between March 27 and May 25, 243 fines were issued.
In the East Midlands, Northamptonshire issued the most fines, with 384, followed by Leicestershire with 365. Neighbouring Staffordshire fined just 53 people while Nottinghamshire fined 188. South Yorkshire, which borders Derbyshire to the north, fined 391.
The number of fines for breaches of lockdown rules has plunged since measures were eased, with 841 handed out across England, new figures show.
A total of 16,947 fixedpenalty notices, including 15,552 in England and 1,395 in Wales, were recorded by forces up to
May 25, according to provisional data released by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC).
There were 1,019 issued in England during the latest twoweek period, between May 12 and 25 –although the figure is likely to be revised upwards as more fines are reported – compared with 4,967 during the previous fortnight. Measures were eased on Wednesday, May 13 with the highest number of fines (178) during the latest period given out the day before.
The NPCC said penalties had been given to people for driving with others who are not members of their household, house parties, large gatherings and camping, since restrictions were relaxed. NPCC chairman Martin Hewitt said: “As restrictions are carefully eased, the public have been able to go about their business in greater numbers and with greater flexibility. The collective public effort over the past two months has meant police officers have only rarely had to step in to enforce regulations and even less so in the past few weeks.
“I am confident the vast majority will continue to act responsibly. We will be issuing guidance to officers on how to approach new changes to the regulations in the coming days.
“The overarching aim of the police response has always been to keep people as safe as possible, and encourage them to follow the regulations, thereby reducing the transmission of the virus. We will continue to play our part and are grateful for all of the positive engagement we have had with the public to date.”
HERE are the total number of fines issued by police forces in alphabetical order, in England between March 27 and May 25 for alleged breaches of the coronavirus lockdown laws:
Avon and Somerset Bedfordshire British Transport Police Cambridgeshire Cheshire
City of London Cleveland Cumbria
Derbyshire
Devon and Cornwall Dorset
Durham
Essex Gloucestershire Greater Manchester Hampshire Hertfordshire Humberside
Kent Lancashire
Leicestershire
Lincolnshire Merseyside Metropolitan
MoD Police Norfolk
North Yorkshire Northamptonshire Northumbria
Nottinghamshire
South Yorkshire
Staffordshire
Suffolk
Surrey
Sussex
Thames Valley Warwickshire
West Mercia
West Midlands West Yorkshire Wiltshire
Total
325 302 331 132 193 70 303 436
243
906 737 155 227 245 309 261 269 126 125 765
365
221 519 1,035 36 368 1,032 384 243
188
391
53
261 632 757 878 40 177 442 881 189
15,552