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Fines: Surcharges

Answer

The surcharge (often referred to as the victim surcharge) was first introduced in April 2007 and changes were introduced on 1 October 2012, 1 September 2014, 8 April 2016, 28 June 2019, 14 April 2020 and then again on 16 June 2022.

When a court passes a sentence, it must also order that the relevant surcharge is paid. The amount of the surcharge depends on the sentence and whether at the time the offence was committed the offender was an adult or a youth (under 18 years of age), or if the offender is an organisation.

Revenue raised from the surcharge provides a contribution towards Ministry of Justice-funded victim and witness support services.

HMCTS accounts for the amount of victim surcharge imposed and collected in the annual HMCTS Trust Statement. The Trust Statement was introduced in 2010-11 prior to that the data was not collated centrally. The table below illustrates the amounts imposed and collected each year since April 2010. The amounts collected will include receipts for amounts imposed in prior years.

Financial Year	Victim Surcharge Imposed £000	Victim Surcharge collected £000
2010-11	12,552	10,516
2011-12	11,234	10,165
2012-13	14,331	10,518
2013-14	30,970	19,548
2014-15	35,203	24,569
2015-16	37,866	28,307
2016-17	44,785	31,029
2017-18	46,603	35,022
2018-19	45,521	33,529
2019-20	44,424	39,689
2020-21	36,647	35,039
2021-22	46,654	37,852
2022-23	65,270	41,314
2023-24	104,032	65,496

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

HL6926

Session

2024-26

Subjects

Fines Surcharges Victim support schemes

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.parliament.uk