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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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