Raise speed fines to £130 demands top police chief
MOTORISTS who are caught speeding would face bigger fines and higher fees for driver awareness courses under controversial proposals from a policing chief.
Alison Hernandez, who takes the lead on road safety for Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs), is lobbying Ministers to hike the cost of both Penalty Charge Notices and National Driver Offender Retraining Scheme (NDORS) sessions by as much as £30. If adopted, fines could soar from around £100 to as much as £130 and the cost of an average four-hour NDORS course rise from £90 to £120.
Ms Hernandez, who is the PCC for Devon and Cornwall, told The Mail on Sunday: ‘I believe the law-abiding public feel it is wholly appropriate that those who are caught breaking our laws and making the roads more dangerous for all of us should be helping to pay for road safety activities. It is the “polluter pays” principle.
‘An additional £20 or £30 per offender could really make a difference to our communities. We could increase the level of fines that are paid for motoring offences and divert some of that money back into police forces to support work on road safety. That money currently goes straight to the Treasury.
‘We could charge a levy or additional fee on people who take training courses in lieu of a fine and points, a point I recently raised with the Road Safety Minister.’
Challenged that she was effectively advocating another ‘tax’ on motorists to boost Treasury and council coffers, she said: ‘Some may say this is penalising the motorist unfairly and using enforcement to generate money. That is not true. If people stick to the law then it does not affect them. If they routinely break the law and drive in a dangerous way, then why shouldn’t they help fund the additional activity we need to do to keep our communities safe on the roads?’
She added that fines for throwing litter out of a car window or not wearing a seatbelt were sometimes higher than those for speeding.
Punishments for around two million speeding offences were handed out last year. Around half of drivers involved avoided points on their licence by paying to take an NDORS course run by UK Road Offender Education (UKROEd), a private notfor-profit firm which raked in £61million in the year to March.
While speeding fines revenue goes to the Treasury, fees for awareness courses – which are offered to those who marginally exceeded a speed limit – are split between the course organiser and the local police force.
A Department for Transport spokesperson said: ‘Speeding is unacceptable which is why there are tough penalties and enforcement in place for those who do so. Offences and penalties are kept under constant review to ensure the courts have sufficient powers.’