Motoring offences go out of Courts

https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4862162.stm

The BBC wrote:

The courts will no longer deal with low-level motoring offences such as speeding, the lord chancellor has announced.

Lord Falconer said there would be more summary justice to deal with minor offences - a major change to the current system.

There will be a new "bulk processing centre" to deal with motoring offences and TV licence dodgers.

Motorists who deny the offences will still get the chance to go to court.

'Faster'

Lord Falconer said he wanted to see crime dealt with more "quickly and directly". He said the offences would remain criminal charges but would not be dealt with in court.

It currently took an average of 153 days from an offence being committed to it being dealt with by magistrates, he said.

"In many cases we need to return to a connection between crime and its disposal in the courts which is much more quick and much more direct," he said.

"We will have a criminal justice system which will be speedier, simpler and make more use of summary justice," he added.

The new processing centre is due to be up and running within months. It will not deal with driving without insurance, which Lord Falconer said remained a "serious offence".

Britain's top police officer, Sir Ian Blair, last year put forward radical proposals for a new breed of policeman with on-the-spot powers to confiscate driving licences and issue anti-social behaviour orders.

Lord Falconer said his new proposals would not go that far.

"That is not embraced in these proposals," he said. "It does not extend beyond the current powers of police officers."

French system

Lord Falconer ruled out far-reaching ideas for reforming to the justice system which are supported by Home Secretary Charles Clarke.

Last week Mr Clarke told MPs that an inquisitorial system like the one used in France was "very superior" to the traditional British adversarial system.

But Lord Falconer argued: "What we need to do is make the current system work in a much more efficient way.

"I think that means being willing to divert very low-level cases out of the magistrates' court and to be more willing to use things like conditional cautions.

"There is no need to go down the inquisitorial road."

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