Question 12
Question by Dr. the lon. Henrietta IP
in LegCo on 7 August 1985 for written reply
Question: Will Government make a statement on the working of the fixed penalty system and whether public money is being saved by adopting such system?
Secretary for Transport
Sir,
The fixed penalty system for parking and moving offence is working satisfactorily. The intended objective of reducing the burden on the police and on the courts of taking summons action
against relatively less serious traffic offences is being fulfillled. It is also generally regarded as a convenient form of enforcement by the road users as
well.
Public money is being saved by adopting such system instead of issuing summons, although it is not possible to quantify the exact amount. Perhaps the following statistics provide an indication of the efficiency and effectiveness of the system
Fixed penalty tickets issued
(1984)
Parking offences
1,052,635
Fine collected
(1984)
Collection
rate
(1984)
$136,040,030
92%
Moving offences
406,837
77,126,670
96%
The potential savings of the scheme are evident when one considers that only 8% of the parking offences involve processing by the courts and only 2% of the moving offences.