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Thank you, that’s my concern

This all seems very phishy?  What force is involved?

The SJPN was dated about 5 months and 28 days post the date of the offence.

Does this pre-date or post-date the written charge attached to the SJPN?

The police appear to be saying that the second COFP doesn't count as they had their fingers crossed behind their back when they issued it.

Sorry I meant the CoFP (doh).

Was the SJPN/written charge written after the CoFP?

Ah right.

I think the issue really is, as Andy suggests, do the police think this latest COFP means they can still go ahead and issue proceedings whilst it remains "live".

I’ve read back through this post to remind myself exactly what has happened.

It seems the OP was issued with a COFP, accepted it by paying he penalty and submitting his DL details, but the details either didn’t arrive or were not acted upon. Meanwhile the police returned his £100 and told him he would be prosecuted.

Since then he has received a second COFP and the 28 days he has to respond to that do not elapse until about 6months and two weeks after the offence. Just for good measure, the police have now raised a SJPN, two days before the six month deadline.

I cannot understand why the police have done this. It may be for “administrative reasons” but the fact remains that he has a COFP and whilst its “suspended enforcement period” had not elapsed, they raised an SJPN. It seems they have taken court proceedings speculatively and my understanding they are not permitted to do that. Section 79 of the Road Traffic Offenders' Act:

78 General restriction on proceedings.

(1)Proceedings shall not be brought against any person for the offence to which a fixed penalty notice relates until the end of the suspended enforcement period.

(2)Proceedings shall not be brought against any person for the offence to which a fixed penalty notice relates if the fixed penalty is paid in accordance with this Part of this Act before the end of the suspended enforcement period.

However, I note the OP says this:

if there’s a slight risk of being in front of a magistrates, I’d rather not take it.

There is now a live SJPN which must be responded to so effectively he is already "in front of a magistrate". I think his decision is whether he wants to plead not guilty in response to that SJPN on the basis of RTOA s79(1) or pay the penalty and take advantage of s79(2).

Finally the OP receives a SJPN and an explanation that the second COFP had no significance other than that it had been sent for administrative reasons to allow him to pay the COFP out of time

If what was sent was a CoFP, then it's not just 'for administrative reasons' it IS a CoFP and has a suspended enforcement period associated with it, that is significant.

@ManxTom it doesn’t seem to be clear as the police’s actions / information provided by them have been contradictory and I’ve received contradictory information throughout by them.
The summary above is correct.
Thanks for your reply.

For the sake of completeness, the suspended enforcement period for a COFP is 28 days (or such longer period as may be specified on the notice) from date of issue.

There appears to be a question mark over whether or not proceedings were statute barred in relation to compliance with the first COFP (if you provided the required identification details to the relevant person). The fact that a second COFP was issued too late to lawfully instigate proceedings suggests that they dropped the ball as regards the first COFP and know that they dropped the ball. Whether you can prove this is another matter, but essentially irrelevant.

There is no such thing in law as an administratively issued COFP. A COFP issued for the purposes of enabling points to be endorsed on your licence is a COFP.

For the sake of sanity, check your COFP against the stipulations in section 75 Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988 (and have a read of Part III in general).