How many people in St Albans were fined for breaking COVID rules?

A Freedom of Information request submitted by this newspaper has revealed that fewer than five people across St Albans have been fined for breaching coronavirus restrictions since the summer.

We asked Herts police: How many people have been fined for COVID-19 rules violations since the first lockdown lifted in July?

Herts police confirmed that just three rule breakers were fined in St Albans as of January 6 across three isolated areas of the district.

Set out under the government's coronavirus legislation, the new laws stipulate that you could be fined for breaking stay at home or social distancing rules or, if you're a business owner, trading at non-essential business premises when ordered to close.

The rules have changed over the course of the year, with restrictions tightening and easing in lieu with rising and falling case rates and deaths in the area. 

The perpetrators were given a fixed penalty notice (FPN) across three different areas of St Albans; Boleyn Drive, London Road and the city's railway station.

Further afield, seven fines have also been issued in Stevenage, with Welwyn Hatfield seeing 47 people slammed with FPNs -12 of which issued at the University of Hertfordshire's campuses.

Although the number of fines administered in our area seems low, a further 67 warnings were given by Herts police in St Albans for rules violations. Stevenage had 88 warnings, with 288 warned in Welwyn Hatfield.

In England, fines start at £200. The BBC have reported that there have been 32,000 fixed penalty notices issued since March in England and Wales.