I am writing to urge you to take a stand against ‘fining for profit’ and the corruption of our justice system, and to remove Clause 4 from the Crime and Policing Bill.

Clause 4 will allow penalties for Public Spaces Protection Orders and Community Protection Notices to be increased from £100 to £500 pounds.

The main result of this change will be to lead to innocent people being given even heftier penalties by private enforcement companies, who are paid per fine.

Manifesto Club FOI research found that 75% of PSPO penalties are issued by private enforcement companies who are paid per fine, meaning they have a tendency to issue as many fines as possible.

The vast majority of the 19,000 penalties issued for PSPO breach in 2023 were for innocuous actions.

Large numbers of fines were issued to cyclists, including an 82 year-old cycling through Grimsby town centre.

Others fined included a busker playing outside a Bruce Springsteen concert and homeless people fined for begging or ‘loitering’.

I am asking you to remove this clause, and also to support an amendment banning incentivised punishment for anti-social behaviour offences.

‘Payment per fine’ contracts have no place in a civilised justice system: enforcement needs to be carried out impartially and in the public interest, targeting the most serious offenders rather than the easy targets.