Compliance Toolkit

Courts link up with DWP database

Kable

Published: 30 Nov 2004 15:15 GMT

Magistrates' courts are to be given access to databases held by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) as part of an effort to crack down on criminals who avoid paying fines, ministers announced on Tuesday.

The links are to become operational during the summer, allowing the courts to track people who refuse to pay court fines and gain information on those who have money deducted from their benefits payments following prosecution for offences.

The move follows magistrates' access to credit reference agency databases and to the Police National Computer (PNC), which is also aimed at supporting more effective tracking of offenders.

The national rollout of access to the PNC for magistrates' courts is now under way and should be completed by July 2005. A total of 10 courts will have access to the system by Christmas following a seven month pilot project in Staffordshire earlier this year.

The new links between the DWP and the courts will allow officials to gather together, view data and ensure that deductions in welfare payments are a "credible" method of punishment, an official statement said. At the moment more than 20,000 people have money automatically deducted from their benefits to pay off fines.

Benefits minister Chris Pond said that the new measures would ensure that offenders receiving state benefit would be penalised even if they attempted to avoid paying fines. He said that the Department for Work and Pensions and the Department for Constitutional Affairs would be working closely on the new measures.

"The right to state benefit must be matched by a responsibility to the society which is paying for them," he said.

"The two departments will strengthen their cooperation from next July when magistrates' courts will be able to trace 'hard to find' defaulters by accessing Department for Work and Pensions data -- cutting our costs and ensuring offenders pay up."