'All fines operative under current statutes shall be automatically adjusted in line with inflation each year, and be rounded down to the appropriate £10 unit, with the date of coming into force of this section as the base line for calculation.'.—[Mr. Allen.]

Brought up, and read the First time.

Motion made, and Question proposed, That the clause be read a Second time.

If the hon. Gentleman is talking about individual fines, I think that what he proposes is unnecessary, because within the scope of the fining scales, the court can exercise its discretion to reflect inflation anyway. He may be referring to changing the scales of fines annually, rather than by statutory instrument. They are changed fairly regularly, but there may be intervals of some years, so the hon. Gentleman may have a point. Perhaps we should review the scales more frequently. However, with low inflation rates, such as those that this country has had recently, that is probably not very significant.

This is about the fourth relevant point that has come up in relation to fines. The

Minister has already talked about such issues, and we all know that the difficulty is not just the tariff and adjusting the tariffs, but getting maximum fines right and ensuring that they are relevant for the corporate sector, so that they affect it and are noticeable. We must also ensure that fines are relevant to the private individual and are paid. We have talked about the reversal of or changes in trends. Above all, we must ensure that we reverse the reduction in the use of fines from, I think, 35 per cent. a decade ago to 24 per cent. now, and pick up the point that the Home Affairs Committee made strongly, and to which we have referred, about the more than 40 per cent. of uncollected fines. There is a package of responses to the under-use of fines, and the provisions might be a way of dealing with one bit of that package. However, it would be helpful if Ministers reflected on how to pick up on the issue and on the Home Affairs Committee recommendations, and on how to make fines more credible, useful and effective.

The principal arguments in response to the proposals were made eloquently by the hon. Member for Beaconsfield. There would be practical difficulties in an annual review for a number of reasons. One thinks not least of the signs that one sees that warn of penalties for parking or dog-fouling. The proposals might be good for the signwriters, but it would not necessarily be a sensible use of local authority resources to have to change those annually.

Magistrates are currently not fining to the maximum, so that is not the issue. The average fine is £134. In part that is a consequence of the up-tariffing that we have been discussing. Fines are being used less, community sentences and custody are being used more, and there is the rate of inflation, to which the hon. Member for Beaconsfield drew attention. However, the real issue in relation to fines, which we have discussed three or four times, is about greater effectiveness in collecting those that are handed down.

When the same crushing arguments are put from both Front Benches, I realise that I have probably stumbled on something important. However, provided that the hon. Member for Witney has another look at the amendment that was on the Floor of the House last night, I am happy not to prolong this any further, and I beg to ask leave to withdraw the motion.

Motion and clause, by leave, withdrawn.