The Penalties for Disorderly Behaviour (Amendment of Minimum Age) Order 2004

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Order)

Article 2 of this Order changes from 16 to 10 the minimum age at which a penalty notice for disorderly behaviour under Chapter 1 of Part 1 of the Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001 (the 2001 Act) can be given. Article 3 of the Order provides that, where a penalty notice is given to a person under the age of 16, such parent or guardian as the chief officer of police thinks fit is to be notified of the giving of the penalty notice. Article 4 deals with the situation in which it transpires that a notification has been sent to a person who is not a parent or guardian of the person who received the penalty notice or that the notification would have been more appropriately sent to someone else, giving the chief officer of the police power to cancel the original notification and send out a fresh notification.

Article 5 provides that a parent or guardian notified of the giving of a penalty notice to a person under 16 is to be liable to pay the penalty under the notice. Article 6 makes consequential modifications to the 2001 Act, providing amongst other things that the 21 day suspended enforcement period for payment of a penalty notice runs from the date the parent or guardian was notified of the giving of the penalty notice, rather than from the date on which the penalty notice was given.