RAC Foundation: UK drivers receive 12 million penalties annually

Up to 12 million driving license holders receive a penalty notice each year – the equivalent of one every 2.5 seconds; meaning as many as a third (30%) of Britain's 40 million drivers now receive a penalty notice annually. The findings come from the Automated Road Traffic Enforcement: Regulation, Governance and Use - for the 4961 RAC Foundation by Dr Adam Snow, a lecturer in criminology at Liverpool Hope University.

The penalty notices include the Fixed Penalty Notice (a criminal penalty issued for contravention of motoring law) and the Penalty Charge Notice (a civil penalty often issued by councils for contravention of things like parking regulations).

This total figure is broken down broadly into 8 million local authority parking penalties; 2.5 million local authority bus lane and box junction penalties; 500,000 late licensing and insurance penalties and; 1 million speeding and red-light penalties.
 
Findings from the report do not include the 1.2 million drivers now undertaking a speed awareness course instead of receiving a penalty and points on their license. A further 200,000 drivers a year attend other types of courses for committing similar offenses. In addition, the report highlights that these figures do not include the five million parking penalties issued to drivers on private land each year.

Cameras are now routinely used to catch speeding motorists and those who enter bus lanes or make illegal turns at junctions with 90% of all speeding offences captured on camera in 2015.

Dr Snow stated: “Perhaps the main driver for the increase in the importance of automation has been the real-terms reductions in police budgets”.

Between 2010 and 2014 the number of dedicated police traffic offers fell by 24%, which coincided with a period of a fall in the cost of automatic enforcement technology. In 2000, it cost £1.5 million ($1.9 million) for a set of average speed cameras to cover a mile of road. Today it is around £100,000 ($132, 000) per mile.

Steve Gooding, director of the RAC Foundation, said: “While wrongdoing should be punished and not excused, a decline in frontline policing risks an imbalanced approach to enforcement. Millions of motorists are being caught by camera, often for arguably minor misdemeanours, whilst more serious and harmful behaviour goes undetected.

When it comes to civil enforcement of bus lane and parking infringements authorities should constantly be asking themselves whether the number of notices issued suggest a different method is needed: some bus lanes and box junctions have become renowned as money spinners. If thousands of drivers a day are getting tickets this is a clear indication of a system that is failing.”

Dr Snow said: “Automated enforcement promises much in terms of speed and cost efficiency for financially-squeezed police forces and councils. However, the driving public are entitled to ask for more weighty principles such as fairness and justice to be taken into consideration when confronted with potential wrong doing.

Cllr Martin Tett, the 6932 Local Government Association’s transport spokesman responded to the report: “Effective parking control is one of the most frequent and important demands of local residents from their councils. Parking controls are essential to help keep the roads clear, pedestrians, motorists and cyclists safe and to make sure people can park near their homes and local shops.

“Income raised through on-street parking charges and fines is spent on running parking services and any surplus is only spent on essential transport projects, such as tackling the £12 billion roads repair backlog and creating new parking spaces.”

“A clear appeals process is in place for anyone who feels they have been fined unfairly, including the ability to ask for an independent review”, he added.

More information on the report on available on the <%$Linker:2External<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary />000link-external websiteRAC Foundation website linkfalsehttp://www.racfoundation.org/media-centre/drivers-receiving-12-million-penalties-annuallyfalsefalse%> and a full copy of the report can be found <%$Linker:2External<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary />000link-external hereRAC Foundation report pdffalsehttp://www.racfoundation.org/assets/rac_foundation/content/downloadables/Automated_Road_Traffic_Enforcement_Dr_Adam_Snow_October_2017.pdffalsefalse%>