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Speed camera faults result in fewer speeding penalties
28 March 2022
Government data from the Home Office suggests that more than one in six speeding offences detected by police throughout England and Wales are not followed up with penalties due to faulty speed cameras.
In the year 2020-21, there were 2,426,950 speeding incidents recorded, but 17 per cent (404,335) of these offences were not met with penalties. This is a rise from 13 per cent of speeding offences being ‘cancelled’ in 2019-20 (330,623 cancellations).
There are several factors which could be to blame for ‘cancelled’ offences, such as faulty or incorrectly calibrated speed cameras, cloned vehicles carrying a false number plate, emergency vehicles lawfully breaking the speed limit whilst driving with blue lights, a delay in issuing notices of intended prosecution, or a lack of resources to bring cases to court.
Of the remaining 83 per cent of speeding offences which were followed up in 2020-21, 40 per cent avoided penalty points by opting to undertake a speed awareness course.
RAC Foundation director Steve Gooding said, “It is correct that drivers caught speeding should face the consequences, but it is also important that the systems of detection and prosecution are robust.
“The hundreds of thousands of ‘cancelled’ offences each year indicate they are not. At the very least it is an administrative burden the police could do without. We urge the Home Office to start collecting data from police forces about these cancelled offences so we can understand where the problem lies.”
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