The best practice regime introduced in August 2011 in the PFRA Rule Book (Street F2F) and October 2011 in the PFRA Rule Book (Door F2F) brings in a system of penalty points for transgression of the new rules.
Infringements of the rules attract penalties of 20, 50 or 100 points, depending on the seriousness of the rule breach.
20 point penalty – for a discretion that is considered minor (such as standing to close to a cashpoint).
50 point penalty – for a discretion that is considered major (such as obstruction).
100 point penalty – for a discretion that undermines a PFRA-agreed SMA or causes severe public distress or anxiety (such as having too many fundraisers on a site).
Penalty points are issued for any substantiated rule breaches.
Penalty points are issued against the organisations carrying out the fundraising – agencies or charities running in-house teams. Once the points total passes a 1,000 threshold, the points are converted into a financial fine at the rate of £1 per point, which is levied at the end of each four-week diary allocation period.
At the start of each financial year, all PFOs' penalty point totals return to zero.
The penalty points regime is currently being tested and will go live in August 2012.