Cannabis clampdown on hold as on-the-spot fines are withdrawn

Under a scheme that was due to be introduced next Monday, when cannabis is upgraded to a class B drug, people caught with the substance for a second time were meant to be facing instant £80 penalty notices.

The fines were intended to be one of the key parts of a three-strikes-and-you're-out penalty system that ministers hoped would curb the use of the drug amid growing fears about its impact on users' health.

In an embarrassing hitch, however, the fines have now been put on hold after the Ministry of Justice decided to withdraw a Parliamentary order that would have given police the power to issue penalty notices for 21 offences, including possession of cannabis.

The retreat follows a decision to abandon the introduction of £80 on-the-spot fines for bogus mini-cab drivers - the powers for which were also contained on the same Parliamentary order - and to reconsider whether instant penalties should be used for 19 other offences.

These include a wide range of crimes, including the sale of cigarettes to under 18s, making off without payment and the sale of alcohol to the intoxicated.

Although ministers insist that they remain determined to introduce the cannabis fines and will return to Parliament rapidly to seek the necessary authorisation, a lack of time means that the penalties are unlikely to be in place in time for next Monday's regrading of cannabis.

That will raise fears that the police, who are meant to be enforcing the drug's tougher classification, will not be able to begin their new approach - and their more robust message will be lost.

Meanwhile, campaigners were celebrating the Government's decision to abandon on-the-spot fines for mini-cab "touting" - claiming it would water down punishment for the offence.

Eight cab-related sex offences are recorded in London each month, and the Government's plan had been opposed by Transport for London, the London Private Hire Car Association and the Suzy Lamplugh Trust, set up in the name of the 25-year-old estate agent who was last seen getting into a car in Fulham in July 1986.

A spokesman for the trust said: "We are absolutely delighted because these fines would have been utterly inappropriate and absolutely ridiculous. An £80 fixed penalty would not be a deterrent at all. These moves would have meant that potentially dangerous and illegal cab touts would have been treated no more severely than a motorist committing a parking offence."

London's cab enforcement team made 4,500 arrests for touting in the past five years and dealt with 2,000 offences with summonses. Most cases went to magistrates' courts, where offenders were fined £135 each.

There are 54,000 licensed private hire drivers in the capital but there are thousands of bogus cab drivers and tens of thousands across Britain.