Blair defends speeding levy plans
The Prime Minister has insisted that a final decision has not been taken on the Home Office’s controversial proposals for levying an extra £5 from speeding fines to support victims of crime.
Speaking on a phone-in on LBC radio this morning, Mr Blair promised to listen to the public’s views on the plans, but he insisted that funding must be found from somewhere to compensate victims of crimes that are never resolved.
The Home Office plans, published yesterday, would see motorists caught speeding or driving without insurance fined an extra £5 to £10 and those sentenced to imprisonment or a suspended sentence fined £30 for the new fund.
Asked by a caller about the plans, Mr Blair replied, “The decisions have not been taken yet and we are obviously going to listen carefully to what people say.”
“The problem is that in the circumstances where you get a crime where you either cannot identify or convict a criminal or you simply do not know how that person came about being injured, for example.
“In those circumstances the public pays compensation to that person. You cannot get the compensation from the criminal because you do not have someone who is actually convicted.
“The question is how do you fund such a scheme.”
The plans have come in for criticism from a number of quarters. The Conservatives have attacked the proposals as illogical, and drivers’ groups have condemned them as likely to alienate generally law-abiding citizens.
Anthony Forsyth of Victim Support told the BBC that his group is “uncomfortable” with the idea of victims being supported through the use of fines.
“Our position has always been that services for victims should come out of core [government] funding.
“We are uncomfortable with the idea of linking this extra income with these sorts of minor offences.”
