POLICE across Scotland are to be given the power to issue on-the-spot fines in an attempt to curb antisocial behaviour.

Officers will be allowed to hand out the £40 fixed penalties for offences such as breach of the peace, vandalism, drunkeness and playing music too loudly.

The move is to be announced by the Scottish executive later this year after ministers and police officers judged a Tayside pilot scheme to be a success.

Tayside officers issued 72 fixed-penalty notices for antisocial behaviour in the first week of the trial scheme, which began in March, and have since imposed a total of 603 fines.

Ministers and police regard the powers as an effective way to deliver instant justice in communities affected by antisocial behaviour while freeing up police time for frontline duties and crime detection.

Officers are currently required to spend up to an hour on paperwork for each nuisance offence before prosecutors decide whether to take court action. In future they will simply serve penalties on offenders before returning to their patrols.

It is hoped that the new powers will also ease pressure on the country’s overloaded courts, which are struggling to process minor crimes. Offenders will still have the option of going to trial but the Tayside experience indicates that this is rare. Only one person chose to take this course of action.

Ministers and police believe the new fines will also act as a deterrent as people realise they will pay an immediate financial penalty if they commit a crime. Cathy Jamieson, the justice minister, is said to be delighted with the progress of the pilot in Tayside and keen to extend it across the country soon.

“We believe there is a role for fixed penalties and we want to give police as much flexibility as we can,” said an executive source. “We are very pleased with the trial, and the police are fully behind it. It appears to be a successful way of making people aware of what they have done very quickly rather than having to go through a drawn-out court process. At the same time fewer cases going through the courts will allow us to speed the courts up.”

More than 40,000 fixed-penalty notices have been handed out in England since they were introduced last year.

Last month, Malcolm Dickson, the deputy chief constable of Lothian and Borders, called for fixed-penalty notices to be extended because he does not believe prison works for minor offenders.

He said the fines showed offenders the “immediate consequences” of their actions. The Association of Scottish Police Superintendents also supports the idea.

Superintendent Arron Duncan, of Tayside police, said officers were very happy with their new powers because they reduced the need for form-filling and left offenders in no doubt about the consequences of their actions.

“By reducing the time officers are off the street, it gives officers more time to detect crimes and concentrate further on reducing antisocial behaviour by maintaining visible policing.

“I can’t see any reason why it should not be rolled out throughout Scotland because of the number of advantages right across the criminal justice system,” he said.

Jack McConnell, the first minister, has made combating antisocial behaviour a crusading policy.

Central to McConnell’s fight against ned culture and nuisance neighbours has been the use of antisocial behaviour orders (Asbos). However, official figures, released in April, reveal that only 69 out of the 213 Asbos served in the previous year were successful. In one case a nuisance neighbour in Aberdeen breached the terms of an Asbos 55 times before being rehoused.

Last year local authorities were given the power to hand out the orders to children under the age of 16. However, no child orders have yet been imposed and two thirds of councils are unwilling to use the new powers.

The Scottish executive said last night that it would make an announcement on the introduction of on-the-spot fines later in the year.

Kenny MacAskill, the Scottish National party shadow justice minister, said he had no objection to extending the scheme to other parts of Scotland. “It is an additional power that in many instances will be beneficial,” MacAskill said. But he added that the executive should place more emphasis on the rehabilitation of young offenders.

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