A Fixed Penalty Notice in the UK is a formal offer from the police or a local council letting you pay a set fine to settle a minor offence without going to court. Paying within the deadline discharges your liability, so no prosecution follows. You normally have 28 days to act, and you have three realistic choices: pay the fine, request a hearing in the magistrates’ court, or, for some minor speeding cases, accept a speed awareness course instead. Doing nothing is the option that costs the most.1GOV.UK. Parking Fines and Penalty Charge Notices
Your Three Options and the 28-Day Clock
The clock starts on the date printed on the notice. Within 28 days you need to have either paid, returned the form requesting a court hearing, or (if offered) booked a course. The notice itself sets out how to do each of these and gives the address or portal to use.
Paying closes the matter. Requesting a hearing stops the fixed-penalty process and moves the case into the magistrates’ court, where a summons will follow through the post. Ignoring the notice is treated as a refusal to accept the offer, and the consequences are covered further down.
How to Pay a Fixed Penalty Notice
How you pay depends on who issued the notice. A police-issued FPN, typically for a driving offence, is usually paid online through the portal linked on the notice or by phone to the relevant force’s Central Ticket Office.2Ask the Police. Fixed Penalty Notice – Missed Deadline A council-issued FPN, for something like littering or an anti-social behaviour offence, is paid through the council’s own website or phone line, and some councils also accept payment at post offices or council offices if you bring the notice with its barcode.
Some council FPNs carry a reduced amount if you pay quickly, sometimes within 10 or 14 days. This early-payment discount isn’t universal, so check the terms on your specific notice. Once payment clears, your liability for the offence is discharged. Keep the confirmation or transaction reference in case anything is queried later.
When You Might Be Offered a Speed Awareness Course
For minor speeding, the police can offer a speed awareness course instead of the fine and penalty points. You cannot request it; the offer is at the discretion of the police under National Police Chiefs’ Council guidelines, and it can be withdrawn at any time before you complete it.3Police.uk. If You’ve Received a Speed Camera Activation Letter or Notice
Two conditions apply. Your speed must have only narrowly exceeded the limit, using these thresholds:
- 20 mph zone: up to 31 mph
- 30 mph zone: up to 42 mph
- 40 mph zone: up to 53 mph
- 50 mph zone: up to 64 mph
- 60 mph zone: up to 75 mph
- 70 mph zone: up to 86 mph
And you must not have completed a speed awareness course within the previous three years. The course costs around £95, roughly the same as the £100 fixed penalty, but no points go on your licence. Bookings go through the GOV.UK National Driver Offender Retraining Scheme portal.4GOV.UK. Book a National Driver Offender Retraining Scheme Course Above the thresholds, no course is offered and you’re looking at either a fixed penalty or a court summons.
When to Ask for a Court Hearing
If you didn’t commit the offence, or you have a genuine defence, you can decline the fixed penalty and ask for a court hearing. The notice contains a section for this. Complete it and return it to the address printed on the form, and send it by recorded delivery so you can prove it arrived within the deadline.
Once your request is received, the fixed-penalty process pauses; you’re not expected to pay the fine while the case is transferred to the magistrates’ court. A summons follows with the date, time and location of your hearing. If you request a hearing and then fail to turn up, the court can convict in your absence and impose a fine and costs almost certain to exceed the original FPN.
Be realistic before choosing this route. Contesting makes sense when you have evidence the offence didn’t happen or was wrongly attributed to you. It doesn’t work as a delay tactic, because losing costs significantly more than paying.
What Losing at Court Actually Costs
If you contest and are convicted, the magistrates aren’t limited to the original fine. They can impose a higher fine up to the statutory maximum for that offence. For littering, that maximum is a level 4 fine, up to £2,500.5Legislation.gov.uk. Environmental Protection Act 1990 – Section 87 On top of the fine, the court adds a mandatory victim surcharge; for adults receiving a fine, this ranges from £34 to £190.6Sentencing Council. What Is the Surcharge? The prosecuting authority will also apply for its costs. Those add up quickly, and the total bill on a losing verdict regularly runs well beyond what the FPN itself would have cost.
What Happens If You Ignore the Notice
Doing nothing is the worst outcome. If you accept the FPN but fail to pay within 28 days, the fine is registered with the court and automatically increased by 50%.7Ask the Police. Fixed Penalty Notice The court then enforces the debt, and if you still don’t respond, it can issue a warrant for your arrest. For driving offences, ignoring the notice can also lead to prosecution for the original offence, with a bigger fine and more penalty points than the FPN would have carried.
If you never engage with the notice at all, the issuing authority treats that as refusal and can move straight to prosecution. Either way, you lose the point of the FPN, which was a fixed, predictable cost for closing the matter.
Penalty Points and Your Driving Record
Many driving-related FPNs put penalty points (endorsements) on your licence. Speeding typically adds three to six points; using a handheld phone at the wheel adds six.8GOV.UK. Penalty Points (Endorsements) – Endorsement Codes and Penalty Points For most offences, the endorsement stays on your record for four years from the date of the offence, though it counts for sentencing purposes only during the first three.9GOV.UK. Penalty Points (Endorsements) – How Long Endorsements Stay on Your Driving Record Drink and drug driving endorsements stay for 11 years from the date of conviction.
Points matter because they add up. Reach 12 or more within a three-year period and you face a minimum six-month ban under “totting up” rules.10GOV.UK. Driving Disqualifications – Overview A second disqualification within three years doubles to 12 months; a third stretches to two years. Active endorsements are also visible to insurers and some employers, and typically push premiums up.
New Drivers Have a Lower Threshold
If you passed your driving test within the last two years, six or more penalty points during that period triggers automatic revocation of your licence under the Road Traffic (New Drivers) Act 1995. You’d then need to reapply for a provisional licence and retake both the theory and practical tests. A single mobile phone offence, at six points, is enough on its own.
Does a Fixed Penalty Notice Go On Your Criminal Record?
Paying an FPN is not a criminal conviction. It discharges liability for the offence and doesn’t count as a guilty plea. If the underlying offence is “recordable,” though, the police will log the FPN on the Police National Computer. That entry isn’t a criminal record, but it’s accessible to the police for intelligence purposes.
On a standard DBS check, an FPN won’t appear. On an enhanced DBS check, police forces have discretion to include it under “other relevant information” if they judge it relevant to the role being applied for. That’s most likely when the offence has a direct connection to the type of work. For most people a paid FPN leaves no lasting mark beyond any points on the driving record, but anyone whose work needs enhanced DBS clearance should keep this in mind.
Fixed Penalty Notice or Penalty Charge Notice?
It’s easy to mix up a Fixed Penalty Notice with a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN), and the difference changes what you do next. An FPN attaches to a criminal offence: speeding, using a phone while driving, littering. A PCN is a civil penalty, usually for parking, bus lane contraventions, or unpaid congestion charges, and it’s issued by local councils or Transport for London.1GOV.UK. Parking Fines and Penalty Charge Notices Unpaid PCNs go through the Traffic Enforcement Centre and civil debt recovery, not the criminal courts.
The challenge routes are different too. With a PCN, you make formal representations to the issuing council and can escalate to an independent adjudicator if they refuse. With an FPN, the only route to contest is a magistrates’ court hearing, where a guilty finding results in a criminal conviction. If you’re not sure which type you’ve received, the notice itself will say so, and the contact details printed on it will confirm which process applies.