‘The Victim Surcharge Fee was first introduced in 2007 in order to: ‘ensure that offenders hold some responsibility towards the cost of supporting victims and witnesses’. All offenders being sentenced pay a fee (which varies depending on the nature of the crime and the age of the offender), and the recent 2020 Amendment would see the current fees increase by roughly 5%. The monies raised from the fee go directly to a specific grant budget, that then funds local support services for victims across England and Wales. It also funds national services including: 94 Rape Support centres across England and Wales, the Court Based Witness Service and the National Homicide Service.
‘While on the surface this might seem like a reasonable idea, the Surcharge Fee does very little to mitigate the problems that come with an offender-focused criminal justice system. Many crimes that have the most impact on victims need to be given more priority – domestic violence in London tripled from 2018 to 2019; in 2019 rape charges, prosecutions and convictions in England and Wales dropped to their lowest since 2009 – the state has an obligation to tackle these issues and make victims a priority. The disastrous incompetence of the Met’s Sapphire Unit, centrally disbanded due to a number of failures, suggests that victim-centred policing approaches need to be prioritised. Charging offenders to cover rape support centres and witnesses services is undoubtedly appealing if rapists and murderers were paying the majority of these fees, but the reality is that the majority of offenders are indicated for non-violent offences.
‘In fact, the system penalises the most impoverished, who are forced to pay far more than they can, and more than they should. The most glaring issue with the Victim Surcharge Fee is that while there is some recognition that young offenders have less financial resources to draw on to pay fees and fines, there is no means-testing for other offenders. Sex workers, homeless populations, and other vulnerable groups are often subject to fees and fines that result in a spiral of debt they cannot pay – and in many cases effectively become imprisoned for poverty. Poor women and mothers are particularly disadvantaged by fees for petty infringements.
‘According to Government statistics, in 2017 TV license evasion accounted for 30% of all female prosecutions, while shoplifting accounted for 38% of all female indictable prosecutions. Older people and ethnic minority populations are also more likely to be living in poverty, will undoubtedly be adversely affected by any increase to the Victim Surcharge Fee. The irony that a policy introduced to assuage the psychological and financial penalties paid by victims disproportionately affects those most financially marginalised, which results in what is effectively a criminalisation of poverty and disadvantage should not escape our attention. Not only should the 2020 amendment be scraped, the entire scheme should be dissolved immediately.’
Dr Erin Sanders-McDonagh is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Kent’s School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research. As a feminist public scholar with a commitment to radical and engaged pedagogic practices, Erin’s research explores inequality in different forms. She has a strong commitment to working with scholars from across disciplinary boundaries and to moving research findings beyond academia into the public arena. Erin is currently working with Medway Council on violence reduction initiatives, and sits on the Leadership Group for violent crime reduction task force in Medway.