A GROUP of cross-party MPs and peers have called for an urgent review of all Covid-19 fines and prosecutions, alleging that the laws have been enforced in a “discriminatory fashion.” 

In a letter to Justice Secretary Dominic Raab sent on Wednesday, more than 40 politicians, including Tory MPs, along with 15 rights groups and human rights lawyers, argue that decisive action is needed to “safeguard the public’s trust in the justice system.”

Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, police in England and Wales have issued 118,963 fixed penalty notices for breaches of coronavirus regulations and 369 people have been hit with fines of £10,000. 

The letter highlights figures from ongoing reviews showing that 30 per cent of all charges under Covid-related laws were unlawful. All of those made under the Coronavirus Act 2020 were found to be unlawful. 

“We are not aware of any law in history that has an accompanying 100 per cent unlawful prosecution rate,” says the letter, signed by Labour peer Shami Chakrabarti, former Tory minister David Davis and rights groups Big Brother Watch and Fair Trials. 

“Overall, this is a significant and unacceptable amount of unlawful charges and demonstrates serious systemic failings in the criminal justice system.”

The signatories also point to evidence that black and ethnic minority people have been disproportionately targeted under coronavirus legislation. 

Fair Trials legal and policy officer Griff Ferris said: “It is deeply unjust that so many people have been criminalised and financially penalised by racist and inconsistent policing and unlawful, opaque and unchecked prosecutions.”

Big Brother Watch director Silkie Carlo said: “This government has thrown the country into a rule of law crisis and urgent action is needed to protect justice.”

The letter calls for the victims to receive redress through the refunding of wrongly issued fines, withdrawal of prosecutions and deletion of criminal records.