Dear Ministry of Justice,

I have the following questions in respect to fines enforcement. For the purposes of these questions I refer to the collections unit in Auckland District Court.

1. When enforcement action is taken, for example, on a $40 fine. You have a court cost of $30 and an enforcement fee of $102 so that makes the fine balloon to $172. Does the ministry of justice receive enforcement fees and court costs first before forwarding the rest to the issuing authority, or does the ministry of justice pay the issuing authority first before collecting enforcement fees and court costs?

2. Are there any plans to increase the strength of the collections unit in the future to combat the large amount of unpaid fines. The public rely heavily on the MOJ to ensure fines defaulters are held to account in that fines cannot be simply ignored. How many collections staff currently work?

3. When a fine is lodged at court, does the issuing authority have to pay a court cost? If so, does the collected court cost through fines enforcement get returned to the issuing authority? Or is it kept by the MOJ?

4. The form of how an attachment order is made, e.g, Describe what is sent in the message to the employer? Is it electronic or by post?

5. The frequency of deductions in an attachment order or deduction notice, including what is collected first, the fine or the enforcement fees.

6. The amount of fines still being collected by the MOJ on behalf of the legacy Auckland City Council?

7. A letter is sent giving defaulters 28 days to pay, how come nothing usually happens on the 29th day if no payment is made??

8. Is the enforcement fee added when the fine is overdue? Or when enforcement action is taken?

9. The amount of fines collected on behalf of Auckland Transport from 2020 to present?

10. Were fines being enforced during lockdown?

11. Do fines go away when they are ignored?

12. Is it true that the MOJ pay more attention to those with large amounts of outstanding fines, i.e $50 compared to about $3000?

Yours faithfully,

Joe

Dear Easton, Paul,

Any updates?

Yours sincerely,

Joseph