Campaigners have called for a review of fines issued to the public for breaking lockdown rules after Boris Johnson’s apology for attending a ‘gathering’ in Downing Street.
The party, attended by 40 people with around 100 invited, has eroded the credibility of the Prime Minister and led to questions over whether it was fair for members of the public to be fined if politicians and civil servants are not.
Police issued thousands of fines to people for social gatherings that were made illegal when restrictions were imposed during the pandemic. Hundreds of cases were also sent to court for breaching rules against socialising.
Campaign group Fair Trials, along with others rights organisations, say prosecutions should be reviewed because current processes are 'unjust' and 'unfit for purpose'.
“The criminal justice response to the pandemic has been extremely heavy-handed, with police forces across the country criminalising thousands of people and dispensing significant financial penalties at what is a time of extreme hardship for many,” legal and policy officer at Fair Trials, Griff Ferris, told The National.
“It is also deeply unjust that so many people are being criminalised and financially penalised while those in power appear to receive immunity for the same behaviour. No one should be fined, prosecuted, or given a criminal record for Covid-related offences while those in power have impunity.”
How many Covid-related offences have there been in the UK?
Data provided to The National by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) showed that a total of 2766 offences were prosecuted under the Health Protection Regulations and Coronavirus Act from when restrictions and legislation came into force on March 2020 until December 2021. A review by the CPS found that third of those prosecutions were unlawful.
The other more widely used forms of penalising Covid breaches, namely Fixed Penalty Notices (FPN) and the Special Justice Procedure (SJP), are not reviewed by the CPS.
Between March 2020 and June 2021, police in England and Wales processed a total of 117,213 fixed penalty notices for breaches of coronavirus restrictions, including 366 fines of £10,000 for holding gatherings of more than thirty people and 3,440 fines of £800 for participating in gatherings of more than 15 people.
It was during this peak period of restrictions, on 15 May 2020, that the Prime Minister met his wife and up to 17 staff in the Downing Street garden. The police have resisted repeated calls to investigate this alleged breach of Covid restrictions.
Nevertheless, another more controversial system of penalising Covid breaches, called the Single Justice Procedure (SJP) continues to be used. SJPs allow the police to serve a notice in a magistrate’s court without the accused’s attendance for certain summary-only and non-imprisonable offences.
According to the Ministry of Justice, there have been 7,234 cases using the SJP between March 2020 and September 2021. Data reviewed by The National reveals that between March 2020 and March 2021, nearly 800 cases were brought against people for breaching rules against indoor and outdoor gatherings in England and Wales.
Fears over miscarriages of justice
The high error rate of cases that were reviewed by the CPS led to concerns from MPs, lawyers and campaign groups who have been calling for a full review of all Covid-related offences.
A Justice Committee report published in September found the use of closed hearings under SJPs to be “problematic” and recognised issues over its “transparency".
The parliamentary committee also raised concerns over people’s inability to challenge fines of up to £10,000 without ending up in court and called for the government to conduct a review of the wider Covid fine scheme but the recommendation was not followed. Recent new restrictions, including for face coverings and Covid passes, are still enforced using fixed penalties and special justice procedures.
Fair Trials as well as several other rights groups have repeatedly called on the government to suspend the use of the Single Justice Procedure. They say misunderstandings of the law coupled with a lack of oversight and review system is leading to hundreds of wrongful charges and prosecutions.
Mr Griff told The National that evidence gathered and reviewed also suggests discriminatory application of the law with Black, Asian and minority ethnic people fined disproportionately more than white people.
Concerns about the system were raised officially as early as September 2020, when parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) said the absence of formal process for appealing fines would “invariably lead to injustice”.
In April 2021, the JCHR said there were “real concerns about fairness” of using SJPs for an area of law “whose enforcement has been riddled with errors”.
The issue was again raised in parliament late last year by the shadow courts minister Alex Cunningham who said the high error rate of prosecutions was “certainly is not justice at its best".
When concerns over law enforcement were first raised early on in the pandemic, Martin Hewitt, chairman of the National Police Chief’s Council, also welcomed the CPS’ reviews as an important safeguard noting the “unprecedented circumstances in which officers were presented with new powers within days of them being announced”.
Nevertheless, the CPS’ remit is still only relevant to a small minority of Covid-related offences. Meanwhile the police are facing increasing scrutiny for not wielding their power equally across society.
Concerns over double-standards
As the public dismay and anger rises at the string of allegations of partying and socialising in No 10 while Covid restrictions were in place, a legal justice organisation has decided to take matters into its own hands.
Good Law Project is now suing the Metropolitan Police for its refusal to investigate the alleged Christmas party at Downing Street during lockdown in December 2020.
The Met has said it will not investigate the gathering because it had a policy of not retrospectively investigating alleged breaches of coronavirus laws but the campaign group believes it has evidence to suggest the Met’s “refusal to investigate the alleged No 10 parties was unlawful,” and will be “issuing formal legal proceedings to force the Met to revisit their decision”.
In a statement released on the non-profit group’s website, lawyers said the police seemed to “be operating a two-tier system, with one rule for those in power and one rule for everyone else”.
Given how the government has continued to resist calls for the review or existing Covid-related fines and offences while repeatedly evading penalties for its own seeming contraventions, the feeling of double standards is permeating public perception.
The campaign group’s decision to launch a Judicial Review against the Metropolitan Police was made before the latest Downing Street gathering came to light. As Mr Johnson withstands calls to resign and remains supported by his peers, critics will say it is ironic that this legal challenge to law enforcement may yet give the public a sense of equality and justice.
