In the UK it can be met with a £80 fine but I've never heard of anyone (other than the sensationalist news articles in the likes of The Sun) ever getting hit with it. I guess it's not worth the red tape for police to hand out fines.
> I guess it's not worth the red tape for police to hand out fines.
It's not normally police who issue the penalty notice, but local council staff. This means there's a lot of variation across the country. Some councils outsource this to companies who are a bit too vigorous in giving penalty notices. The aim is to prevent litter, not to raise revenue, so they're supposed to give you a chance to pick up your litter to avoid the fine but some don't do that.
> so they're supposed to give you a chance to pick up your litter to avoid the fine but some don't do that.
That seems like an ineffective mechanism. Just litter and pick it up in the very rare cases where you get called out.
If I were council dictator for a day, I would make the fines stiff and immediate but require that 100%^1 of the revenues are refunded to all residents at the end of each year.
That way there's still a stiff disincentive to littering, but no significant incentive for abusive/dishonest enforcement.
[^1]: (perhaps sans some low and more importantly fixed amount to cover enforcement costs)
Although, it's bullshit that so many smokers think it's perfectly OK to throw their butts just about anywhere.