On-the-spot penalties issued for offences including swearing, shouting, idling, loitering and begging, known as “busybody” fines, jumped 42% in 2023, according to a report.
The majority of the 19,162 penalties in England and Wales – up from the previous record high of 13,433 in 2022 – were issued by private enforcement companies contracted by councils, the research found.
These companies are paid for each fine and, argue civil liberties campaigners, therefore have an incentive to issue as many as possible.
“These busybody fines are clearly not fit for purpose,” said Josie Appleton, the author of the report by The Manifesto Club, which campaigns against “the hyper-regulation of everyday life”.
“This is a blank-cheque power that allows single council officers to write their own laws – and now these laws are being enforced by private wardens who are paid per fine. This is a recipe for catch-all crimes and rampant injustice.
“This power should be scrapped, or substantially reformed, to ensure that it is used proportionately and fairly and does not intrude upon people’s right to use public spaces.”
The report used freedom of information legislation to ask councils about penalties for breach of public spaces protection orders (PSPOs), powers that allow councils to ban activities in public spaces.
The report found that the 39 councils that employed a private enforcement company for PSPOs issued a total of 14,633 penalties, while the 261 councils that did not employ a private company issued 4,529.
“Private enforcement companies are becoming very efficient at catching large numbers of people for relatively anodyne actions, which would not be punished in other council areas,” Appleton said.
“These fines make up the vast majority of PSPO penalties but almost anyone could potentially fall foul of broad laws banning activities such as ‘excessive noise’, ‘nuisance’, ‘reckless behaviour’ or ‘gathering in a group’,” she said.
The report comes as the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) issued a confidential consultation stating that it wanted to make it illegal for councils in England to raise revenue by using fixed-penalty notices for littering, the threat of a criminal record and fines of up to £2,500 on conviction.
In the consultation, seen by the Guardian, Defra states that it wants to put a “clear and explicit duty” on councils to ensure they, or any private companies they employ, use “proportionate and appropriate enforcement action” when dealing with littering.
The government department said it was concerned that “disproportionate enforcement activity undermines legitimate messages against littering and other environmental offences”.
Defra says it wants to ensure that under “no circumstances should councils use fixed-penalty notices or civil-penalty notices as a means to generate income”.
It also says it wants to mandate that where councils choose to use a third-party enforcement service, they ensure the enforcement service “fulfils all the requirements set down for the authority itself and that private firms should not be able to receive greater revenue or profits just from increasing the volume of penalties”.
In 2013, Defra bolstered the enforcement powers of litter authorities by raising the upper limit on fixed-penalty notices from £150 to £500. But it now says its consultation has been generated, in part, “due to reports of councils using such penalties to raise revenue, despite the 2019 guidance making clear this should never happen”.
The Manifesto Club report into PSPOs found the highest issuing councils were Harrow, Redbridge and Hillingdon.
Harrow issued 3,919 penalties, with fines for amplification, feeding the birds, failing to produce a dog fouling bag, drinking and handing out leaflets.
Redbridge issued 3,550 penalties, including 3,016 for spitting, 142 for drinking alcohol in public, eight for leaflet distribution and three for gambling.
Hillingdon issued 3,060 penalties, including 2,335 penalties for “idling” (leaving the engine running for more than two minutes), 342 for spitting and 115 for motorised electric vehicles.
The report includes case studies of a musician, David Fisher, who was fined for busking outside a Bruce Springsteen concert, and a Colchester cyclist who says he was fined for locking his bike to a bike rack.
