This is from our legal affairs correspondent, Owen Bowcott:

The justice secretary, Michael Gove, has scrapped the mandatory criminal courts charge after more than 100 magistrates resigned in protest.

The abrupt U-turn ditches a money-raising scheme introduced by the previous justice secretary, Chris Grayling, that only came into force in April this year. The move is part of a broader Ministry of Justice review of court penalties and fines.

Gove made the announcement in an address to the annual meeting of the Magistrates Association in central London. “The basic principle behind the policy – that those who have broken the law should bear some of the costs of running the criminal courts – is right,” Gove said. “However, as the justice select committee set out in its recent report, there have been concerns raised about how this has worked in practice.”

Critics said the criminal courts charge – ranging from £150 up to £1,200 – was unlikely to be collected in many cases and created a perverse incentive for the innocent to plead guilty.