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Speeding | |
Frequently
Asked Question - Speed Cameras
What
is the change to the National Safety Camera Programme?
Where
does the income from safety camera fines go?
How do you ensure the accuracy and reliability of
cameras?
What is the law governing safety cameras, speed limits
and safety camera signs?
What happens if I am caught speeding by a safety camera?
What is the Department's guidance on the deployment
of safety cameras?
Who should I contact if I have questions or concerns
about an alleged speeding or red light offence?
What is the history of safety cameras?
The Road Safety Strategy
Tomorrow's Roads: Safer for Everyone - sets out the framework for
delivering further improvements in road safety up until 2010. It
contains more than 150 measures across ten key themes focusing on
better education, better engineering and better enforcement. Safety
cameras are one part of the much broader road safety strategy and
of the Government's policy for addressing speeding.
What is the change to the National Safety Camera
Programme?
On 15 December 2005 the Secretary of State for Transport announced
the ending of the National Safety Camera Programme and netting off
funding arrangement for cameras in England and Wales, which had
enabled safety camera partnerships to recover the cost of speeding
and red light enforcement from fine revenues.
Camera funding, activities and partnerships were integrated into
the wider road safety delivery process from 1 April 2007. The move
gives local authorities, the police and other local partners responsibility
for the future deployment and operation of cameras. This allows
them greater freedom to enforce in response to community concerns
about speeding or at sites where there are speeding problems and
a high risk that casualties will occur.
Where does the income from safety camera fines
go?
The fine income from safety cameras is not retained by local
partnerships. They therefore have no incentive to place cameras
other than to improve road safety. All fine income goes to the Treasury's
consolidated fund in the same way as other fines.
How do you ensure the accuracy and reliability
of cameras?
Sophisticated traffic law enforcement devices require type
approval by the Home Secretary before evidence from them can be
used in court proceedings (Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988). The
Road Traffic Act 1988 sets out equivalent requirements for type
approving speed enforcement devices. The type approval process provides
a public assurance of any equipment's accuracy and reliability.
Home Office type approval is only granted to devices that have a
high degree of accuracy and reliability to satisfy rigorous testing
by the Home Office Scientific Development Branch (HOSDB) and the
police in the field. Testing ensures that all devices are robust,
reliable and can produce accurate readings or images under a variety
of extreme conditions. Type approval is granted to a particular
kind of device with each individual device required to be manufactured
to the same high standard.
There are two stages of the type approval system which all speed
measuring devices must successfully complete before they can be
used by the police for enforcement. The equipment is initially tested
by the police as if in full operational use although no prosecutions
are brought during the testing period. Once the police are satisfied
that devices are of a sufficient standard to meet their needs the
responsibility for testing passes to the HOSDB.
HOSDB's requirements cover such issues as storage, operating temperatures,
portability, durability, weather proofing, and electro magnetic
compatibility as well as matters such as accuracy and reliability.
Independent scientific test houses carry out the testing. Only when
a device has passed all these tests will a type approval Order be
signed so that the police can use it for prosecution.
All cameras must have a current calibration certificate which can
be submitted to a court if necessary. Partnerships are under obligation
to ensure that cameras are correctly calibrated and meet all necessary
guidelines issued by the Home Office and ACPO.
What is the law governing safety cameras, speed
limits and safety camera signs?
The law does not require drivers to be warned about the presence
of safety cameras. However, the Government wants drivers to know
both the speed limit on any given stretch of road, and also that
camera enforcement is taking place.
Drivers sometimes think that a speeding penalty is not valid if
the route is not signed correctly with safety camera warning signs.
This is not the case. The only signing that is required in law for
a speeding offence to be valid is that the speed limit of the road
must be properly signed. The placing or visibility of speed camera
warning signs has no bearing on the enforcement of offences detected
by safety cameras and does not provide any mitigation of or defence
for an alleged speeding offence.
What happens if I am caught speeding by a safety
camera?
It is a legal requirement that a Notification of Intended Prosecution
should be received by the registered keeper within 14 days of an
alleged offence. One exception is where the registered keeper is
not the driver. For example, if the vehicle is registered to a car
hire company or is a company car. In these circumstances the registered
keeper is required to name the driver of the vehicle and there are
no legal requirements stating that a notice must be sent to such
a nominated driver within a certain time limit.
Under section 172 of the Road Traffic Act 1988, the keeper of a
vehicle is required to provide the police with information on who
was driving when an offence was committed. It is an offence not
to provide the police with such information unless the keeper can
show that he/she did not know and could not with reasonable diligence
have found out. These provisions are commonly used for offences
detected by police speed cameras.
As an alternative to attending Court, most speeding offences can
be dealt with by Fixed Penalty Notice. A fixed penalty ticket gives
the alleged offender an opportunity to settle the matter without
going to Court. It is a legal document that requires a written response
and should not be ignored. In the unlikely event that a fixed penalty
notice does not arrive at the address it was sent to, and a court
summons issued, the matter should be taken up with the relevant
safety camera partnership ticketing office.
What is the Department's guidance on the deployment
of safety cameras?
The primary objective for camera deployment is to reduce deaths
and injuries on roads by reducing the level and severity of speeding
and red-light running.
Evidence from the independent evaluations of the National Safety
Camera Programme (2000-2004) has continuously shown that the use
of cameras has been effective when deployment was based upon locations
where a specific level of Killed or Seriously Injured collisions
and excessive speed had occurred.
The Department’s guidance on the future deployment of cameras encourages
local partnerships to continue to use the deployment criteria that
operated under the national programme. However, partnerships are
free to develop their own local deployment criteria to help demonstrate
locally that a systematic approach to site selection is in place.
What is the Department's guidance on the visibility of cameras?
The National Safety Camera Programme was based on visible speed
enforcement, ensuring maximum opportunity for drivers to keep to
speed limits. The Department’s guidance on the deployment of cameras
recommends that road safety partnerships continue to follow this
approach.
This element of the Department's guidance has no bearing on the
enforcement of offences and non-compliance does not provide any
mitigation of, of defence for, an alleged offence. Neither does
it restrict or fetter the police's discretion to enforce covertly
anywhere, at any time.
Who should I contact if I have questions or concerns
about an alleged speeding or red light offence?
The Department is unable to comment on individual cases of
alleged speeding. If you have received a notice of intended prosecution
you should contact the relevant central ticket office. If you believe
your fixed penalty is unsafe you should ask to have your case heard
in court.
If you have concerns about the conduct of the partnership or its
staff, you should contact the Partnership Manager. This person will
ensure the necessary and appropriate steps are taken. He/she will
provide details of the relevant partner should you need to seek
further assurance.
What is the history of safety cameras?
The Road Traffic Act 1991 makes provisions relating to the
use of automated cameras to detect speed and traffic light offences.
This includes a power for highway authorities to install and maintain
the equipment and enables Courts to accept evidence of speeding
from type approved photographic equipment accompanied only by a
certificate signed on behalf of the relevant police force.
A key barrier to rapid deployment of cameras was one of resource.
As a result, in 2000, a system was introduced that allowed eight
pilot areas to recover the costs of operating speed and red-light
cameras (safety cameras) from fines resulting from enforcement (the
netting off arrangements). In 2001, the vehicle crimes act legislation
was introduced to extend the system to other areas. To facilitate
these arrangements, and ensure that the safety camera programme
operated in the most effective way, the enforcement of speed and
red-light offences was delivered through safety camera partnerships.
The National Safety Camera Programme was rolled out to 38 safety
camera partnerships in England and Wales between 2001 and 2004 and
had a distinct function - to strengthen detection, enforcement and
deterrence of speeding and red light offences at places on the road
network with particular problems. The table below shows the number
of cameras in place during the lifetime of the National Safety Camera
Programme:
 2006 is the number
in the national programme as at 30/3/06.
The programme was dependent on highly visible enforcement meeting
specific criteria which were established to ensure that the placing
of cameras was justified in terms of road safety and cameras deployed
where they were most likely to reduce excessive speeding and the
numbers of people being killed and seriously injured.
As explained, the National Safety Camera Programme has now ceased.
The Department has issued guidance and best practice advice on the
deployment of speed cameras from 1 April 2007 (DfT Circular 1/07
- Use Of Speed And Red-Light Cameras For Traffic Enforcement: Guidance
On Deployment, Visibility And Signing). This sets out the Government’s
intention of continued high visibility enforcement.
The guidance does not however restrict or fetter the police’s discretion
to enforce covertly anywhere, at any time. The purpose of this activity
is both to act as a general deterrent and specifically to catch
and prosecute more persistent speeding drivers and riders.
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