FINES for those found to be breaching coronavirus lockdown regulations have ground to a halt over the latest two-week period figures are available for, as life across the country slowly returns to normal following the deadly outbreak.

A total of 787 fines have been dished out across the county since lockdown came into force on March 28 – making Lancashire among the places in the country where the most fines have been issued for breaches.

Only forces in North Yorkshire, Devon and Cornwall, Sussex, West Yorkshire, Dorset, the Thames Valley and the Met dished out more penalties, with the most recent data showing 16,029 fines were issued up to July 20 in England and 2,640 in Wales.

Of those, eight fines were issued by forces across the country in the last two weeks – with none issued to Lancashire’s residents over that period.

In the early days of the lockdown Lancashire issued more fines than other force with 380 given out from March 27 to April 13.

National Police Chiefs’ Council chair Martin Hewitt said: “As expected, the number of fines police forces are issuing continues to fall as lockdown restrictions are further eased.

“However there are still some restrictions in place and they remain important for the protection of the public’s health and wellbeing. Police will continue to engage, explain, encourage and only as a last resort will we use enforcement.

“We all need to continue to be personally responsible and follow the rules, whether that be around face masks in shops or very large gatherings. By following the rules we are all doing our bit to prevent the virus spreading.”

Most of the latest fines were handed out in circumstances of non-compliance while travelling on public transport, such as not wearing a mask.

The remaining one fine was issued to a person for not self-isolating after arriving in England.

The NPCC has also determined that young men were the most likely to receive a fine, with black, Asian and minority ethnic people being issued FPN at a rate of 1.6 times higher than white people.

A spokesman said: “Men, especially those under 45, were disproportionately represented – 70 per cent of FPNs issued went to men under 45 when they comprise 22 per cent of the population. The number of FPNs issued to all black, Asian and minority ethnic people (BAME) across all of England and Wales was at a rate of 4.0 per 10,000 population. This compared with 2.5 per 10,000 population for people who identified as white. Rates per 10,000 were highest for Asian (4.7) and black people (4.6), followed by mixed (3.1) and other minority ethnic people (2.6).”