One in six speeding fines in England and Wales cancelled, says road group

More than one in six speeding offences detected by police in England and Wales is cancelled, new figures show.

Analysis of Government data by the RAC Foundation revealed that 400,000 (17%) of 2.4 million speeding cases in the 12 months to the end of March last year were dismissed.

This is up from 13% during 2019/20.

There are several reasons why offences are cancelled, such as:

• Faulty speed cameras.
• Cloned vehicles carrying false number plates.
• Emergency vehicles lawfully breaking speed limits.
• Delays in issuing notices of intended prosecution.
• Lack of resources to bring cases to court.

The RAC Foundation said some of these issues could have been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The highest proportions of cancelled speeding cases during 2020/21 were in Greater Manchester and Warwickshire, both at 39%.

Wiltshire, which has no fixed speed cameras, saw the lowest proportion of dismissed cases, at just 2%.

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.”

Adam Snow, a lecturer at the law school of Liverpool John Moores University, who worked on the report, said: “Police forces and local authorities are seeing number plate cloning as a growing problem.

“With the increasing reliance on camera enforcement for clean air zones and moving traffic violations, there is some evidence to suggest more motorists are seeing this as an acceptable response even though it is fraud.”

The total number of speeding offences detected was down by only 6% on the previous year, despite traffic volumes falling by more than a quarter due to coronavirus lockdowns.