Commentary on Sections Sections 112 to 122: Other Section 119: Use of fixed penalties for leaving litter and dog fouling offences.
364.Section 119 makes provision in response to the commitment made in the Local Government White Paper of December 2001 (Strong Local Leadership – Quality Public Services). Subsection (1) of section 119 allows local authorities to retain any sums which they receive from fixed penalties for leaving litter and dog faeces; these fixed penalty receipts will no longer have to be paid to the Secretary of State (in relation to England) or the National Assembly for Wales (in relation to Wales). Under subsections (2) and (3)(a) & (b) of this section an authority will be able to use its fixed penalty receipts to pay for its statutory functions relating to litter and dog faeces, including the function of giving fixed penalty notices for leaving litter and failing to remove dog faeces.
365.The Secretary of State and the National Assembly for Wales are given the power to make regulations adding to the activities which an authority may finance using its fixed penalty receipts (see subsection (3)(c) of section 119). So, for example, an authority could be given the ability to spend its fixed penalty receipts on specified activities related to improving the local environment which are not carried out under the provisions mentioned in subsections (3)(a) and (b). However, the new regulation making power will be sufficiently wide to give an authority complete freedom as to how its spends its receipts (see subsection (4) of section 119). Note that the regulation making power is referred to in subsection (2)(f) of section 100 (exercise of powers by reference to English authorities’ performance categories).