It’s interesting to read that the higher speeding fines introduced in April 2017 still haven’t had a huge effect on slowing drivers down. The fines, which saw drivers being hit by fines up to 50% more than in previous years, have cracked down on speeders to the extent that even the 10% grace has been removed and anyone caught doing even 1mph over the speed limit will be fined and punished accordingly.
A 2017 study carried out by CarFinance247 showed that car drivers do still knowingly break the law; out of the 2002 drivers who took part, those that admitted to breaking the law said they did it on average 3 times each car journey, despite the threat of higher fines and harsher sentencing for severe speeds/related accidents.
The speeding banding system means that any drivers’ need to be very aware of their speeds – the same study by CarFinances247 also highlighted that, on average each driver has paid £307 per speed related incident, so it’s a costly business if you can’t stay on the right side of the law. That doesn’t even consider the impact of points on your licence, the knock-on effect on your insurance premiums, and how the fine and points may impact your job prospects.
It could be that drivers see the increased fines as a “payment” – they can break the law if they pay the fine, or it could be that we as a nation are more reckless than we’ve been before. Whatever the reason, the increased fines don’t seem to be having the intended effect on slowing down Britain’s roads. You only need to look at the news to see reports of crashes across the country due to speeding, and even more so at this time of year with hazardous road conditions due to rain and ice.
It could also be that the Highway Code is not being fully understood; 33% of drivers don’t know what the National Speed Limit sign means! 7% of drivers also thought that an urgent need to go to the toilet would constitute as a legitimate reason for speeding, along with running late for a meeting (3%) and if children were running late to school (3%).
Whatever the reason, it’s clear that our speeding laws aren’t the threat the government hoped they would be, and with half of the UK speed cameras turned off at present, it doesn’t make for a good combination. Figures released from the Department for Transport showed that a record number of motorists were caught speeding in 2016, the highest figure on record since 2004.
2024 update
Speeding stats in 2024 sadly don’t show a huge amount of change from when we originally wrote this piece in 2017. Figures from transport data experts Agilysis and Basemap in 2023 showed that speeding is still a major contributory factor in road collisions and, in the past 30 years, 81,315 people have been killed and 7,245,833 reported injured due to accidents on the roads.
5 key areas have been identified as being the least compliant for speed limits; these are:
| Drivers speeding, by police force area | Percentage of drivers exceeding the speed limit |
| Grampian, Scotland | 12.65% |
| Strathclyde, Scotland | 12.34% |
| London (Metropolitan Police area) | 11.38% |
| Merseyside | 10.39% |
| Cleveland | 9.75% |
This data was collected between April 21 and March 22.
Current speeding fines
Speeding fines haven’t changed since April 2017 so as it stands, there are three Bands for speeding – A, B and C.
- If you fall into the bracket of Band A which is between 1 to 10 mph over the set limit of a road, the earnings-related fine is 50% of a driver’s gross weekly income (capped at £2500 for motorway offences and £1000 for all other roads). and 3 points on your licence. A speed awareness course may also be offered but only once in a 3-year period.
- If you fall into Band B, which is anywhere between 11 and 20mph over the speed limit, then the earning related fine is 100% of a driver’s gross weekly income (capped at £2500 for motorway offences and £1000 for all other roads). and 3 points on your licence. and 4-6 points on your licence OR 7-28 days disqualification.
- If you fall into the most severe category, Band C, then the fine is set at 150% of a driver’s gross weekly income. The fine is capped but, in this case, a driver will need to earn a gross annual salary of £46.5k (or £145k for motorway offences) before the caps are triggered.
- If you fall into Band C, which is anything from 21mph over the speed limit, 6 points will be applied OR there will be a 7–56-day disqualification period.
In the period since 2017 to current, more strategies to tackle speeding have been put into place, alongside the fine/penalty system. These include:
- Black boxes – these are given out by insurance companies and track every second a driver is operating their vehicle. They track speed and also routes, so will know if a driver speeds in a given area and wilk send warnings/penalties (depending on policy). They will also hike premiums for drivers who consistently speed, and in serious cases, cancel the policy.
- Increased deterrents on the roads and in new estates – this includes speed humps, raised platforms, roundabouts and chicanes.
- Smart motorways – whilst we no longer have an active scheme in the UK to build new smart motorways, current stretches of smart motorway in this country do operate average and variable limit speed cameras to ensure traffic flows smoothly and to deter speeders.
- In car technology – newer cars all have anti-speed devices built in such as speed limit warnings and some cars will even slow you down when you breach a certain limit. In addition, technology such as cruise control helps to reduce accidental speeding by keeping the car at a constant speed.
Have speeding fines affected you/your business? Do you think they’ve acted as an effective deterrent? Let us know in the comments!
