Penalty Notice success ?

The Home Office insist that the on the spot fines from penalty notices are working, allegedly. Apparently they allow for fast and effective justice and are keen to extend the scheme. When you consider recent media reports that half of the fines are not paid, as high as two thirds in some areas, then the success is clear for all to see. The cost of issuing will be calculated at some point and I dread to think of the costs of chasing the non-payers through the courts to recover the costs. Labour are keen to extend the scheme to include offences like 'wasting Police time', funnily enough. Perhaps this is just a coincidence. Saving Police time and reducing bureaucracy. Now where have I heard that before ?