9,000 jailed for not paying a fine

There were almost 9,000 committals to prison last year for failure to pay fines — almost five years after laws were enacted making imprisonment for defaulting a "last resort".

It now accounts for more than half of all committals — placing a considerable burden on the prison system in terms of processing fine defaulters into prison and, within a couple of hours or at most overnight, discharging them again.

The 10% increase in committals — to 8,965 — in 2014 marks a return to rising numbers after cases fell, for the first time, in 2013.