CRIMINAL COURTS CHARGE TO BE SCRAPPED!

It has been announced that the Criminal Courts charge for convicted Defendants is to be scrapped from the 24th December 2015.

The controversial charge was introduced in April 2015 by Lord Chancellor Michael Gove.

The Court would impose the charge on any person convicted of an offence committed on or after the 13th April 2015, on any person who had appealed unsuccessfully against conviction and/or sentence and on any person who was found to have breached the terms of a Community Order or Suspended Sentence Order.

The amount of the charge would vary from £100 for those who had breached the terms of the Community or Suspended Sentence Order to £1,200 for those convicted after trial in the Crown Court of an “either way” or “Indictable only” offence.

The charge would be payable in addition to any fine and/or compensation and/or Victim surcharge, regardless of whether the Defendant was legally aided or paying their own Legal fees.

The charge would be higher for a person convicted after trial than for a person who had pleaded guilty and this led to the argument that the charge acted as an incentive for an innocent person to plead guilty rather than risk having to pay a higher charge if convicted after trial.

Some said the charge was doomed from the start.

Over 50 Magistrates' resigned as they felt it unjust to place a further financial burden on those who were already struggling financially and many MP’s called for the charge to be scrapped.

In his recent statement to Parliament, Mr Gove said the Ministry of Justice would review the entire structure of Court ordered financial impositions for offenders.

But he went on to say: “This review will seek to achieve three goals: giving the Judiciary greater discretion in setting financial impositions, making financial penalties a more effective tool in delivering improved non-custodial sentences and ensuring that money raised through financial penalties plays an appropriate and sustainable role in supporting tax payers to meet the costs of running the Courts”.

He concluded that “Whilst the intention behind the policy was honourable, in reality that intent has fallen short”.

The decision to scrap the charge from the 24th December 2015 has been made following robust arguments from many quarters, which led to the intervention of the Justice Committee of the House of Commons. The Committee called for the immediate abolition of the charge, referring to “grave misgivings” about the operation of the charge as it was not means tested and created serious problems.

The announcement that the charge would be scrapped from the 24th December 2015 followed mounting pressure since its introduction.