Health Bill

I am not quite sure how far I can go on this to help the noble Lord. Fixed-penalty notices tend to be at the lowest level, at around £50. They are an expeditious way of dealing with offences and save money on court processes. People always have the option of not paying the fixed-penalty notice and moving into the court arena. People will continue to protest, no doubt in a minority of cases, against the fixed-penalty notice. It is now a well established part of the legal system, accepted by many as a way of stopping the courts being cluttered up unnecessarily with cases that do not justify court appearances. We have tried, as in Scotland, to fix the penalty at a reasonable level with a discount, which I explained at great length, and we shall have to see how things go. Of course, all fixed-penalty notices, if they are not to fall into disrepute, may need enforcement from time to time, so if people do not pay within the 29 days required, some action is taken. If action is not taken in a great number of cases, the fixed-penalty notice system itself starts to fall into disrepute. That is in the nature of the beast. We have provided figures to the noble Lord and the Committee on the costs of the Bill. I cannot give a precise costing of the fixed-penalty notice system under this Bill at this stage. We do not know how many there will be; we hope that people will comply without requiring us to use it very often.