Criminal Justice Act 1982

38 General increase of fines for summary offences under Acts of Parliament

(1) Subject to subsection (5) below and to section 39(1) below, this section applies to any enactment contained in an Act passed before this Act (however framed or worded) which, as regards any summary offence created not later than 29th July 1977 (the date of the passing of the [1977 c. 45.] Criminal Law Act 1977), makes a person liable on conviction to a fine or maximum fine which—

(a) is less than £1,000 ; and

(b) was not altered by section 30 or 31 of the Criminal Law Act 1977 ; and

(c) has not been altered since 29th July 1977 or has only been altered since that date by section 35 above.

(2) Subject to subsection (7) below, where an enactment to which this section applies provides on conviction of a summary offence for a fine or maximum fine in respect of a specified quantity or a specified number of things, that fine or maximum fine shall be treated for the purposes of this section as being the fine or maximum fine for the offence.

(3) Where an enactment to which this section applies provides for different fines or maximum fines in relation to different circumstances or persons of different descriptions, they are to be treated separately for the purposes of this section.

(4) An enactment in which section 31(6) and (7) of the Criminal Law Act 1977 (pre-1949 enactments) produced the same fine or maximum fine for different convictions shall be treated for the purposes of this section as if there were omitted from it so much of it as before 29th July 1977 had the effect that a person guilty of an offence under it was liable on summary conviction to a fine or maximum fine less than the highest fine or maximum fine to which he would have been liable if his conviction had satisfied the conditions required for the imposition of the highest fine or maximum fine.

(5) This section shall not affect so much of any enactment as (in whatever words) makes a person liable on summary conviction to a fine or maximum fine for each period of a specified length during which a continuing offence is continued.

(6) The fine or maximum fine for an offence under an enactment to which this section applies shall be increased to the amount at the appropriate level on the standard scale unless it is an enactment in relation to which section 39(2) below provides for some other increase.

(7) Where an enactment to which this section applies provides on conviction of a summary offence for a fine or maximum fine in respect of a specified quantity or a specified number of things but also specifies an alternative fine or maximum fine, subsection (6) above shall have effect to increase—

(a) the alternative fine ; and

(b) any amount that the enactment specifies as the maximum which a fine under it may not exceed,

as well as the fine or maximum fine which it has effect to increase by virtue of subsection (2) above.

(8) Subject to subsection (9) below, the appropriate level on the standard scale for the purposes of subsections (6) and (7) above is the level on that scale next above the amount of the fine or maximum fine that falls to be increased.

(9) If the amount of the fine or maximum fine that falls to be increased is £400 or more but less than £500, the appropriate level is £1,000.

(10) Where section 35 above applies, the amount of the fine or maximum fine that falls to be increased is to be taken to be the fine or maximum fine to which a person is liable by virtue of that section.