Changes to the treatment of careless driving and fixed motoring penalties

In May 2011 the government published its ‘Strategic framework for road safety’, which sets out a package of policies that would continue to reduce deaths and injuries on our roads. The road safety framework recognises the importance of targeted enforcement to tackle those behaviours that represent a risk to road safety. The measures announced in the road safety framework focus on making the enforcement process more efficient, ensuring that penalties are set at the right levels, and making educational training more widely available for low level offending.

This consultation seeks views on proposals announced in the road safety framework that support these objectives, namely making careless driving a fixed penalty notice (FPN) offence and increasing the penalty levels for some motoring FPN offences. Both measures are linked in that the penalty level for the proposed careless driving offence will be set at the level being proposed for motoring fixed penalty offences, but are dealt with separately in the consultation document.

Following consultation in 2012, the government is introducing legislation to allow the police to issue fixed penalties for careless driving. Careless drivers put lives at risk and are also a major source of concern and irritation for law-abiding motorists.

The changes will give the police the power to issue fixed penalty notices for careless driving and allow them greater flexibility when dealing with less serious careless driving offences - such as tailgating or middle lane hogging - as well as freeing them from resource intensive court processes.

In addition, fixed penalties for a range of motoring offences - including using a mobile phone at the wheel and driving without insurance will increase. Full details of the changes in penalty levels can be found in the table of changes to penalty levels for most motoring fixed penalty offences which can be downloaded from this page.

The new penalty levels will be brought in during July 2013 once legislative changes have been made.

Fixed penalties for parking are not affected by these changes.

• Fixed penalty levels for motoring offences, written statement by the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Transport, 5 June 2013
• New penalties to tackle tailgating and middle lane hogging, press notice, 5 June 2013
• New penalties to tackle careless driving, press notice, 14 June 2012
• Written ministerial statement: fixed penalty notices for careless driving