I wish to inform the House about a technical anomaly that has impacted how some variable speed cameras interact with signs on a limited number of A roads and motorways for a number of years. I would like to apologise to all who have been affected.
On 10 September, National Highways informed the Department for Transport of an anomaly on the M5 following a challenge to a speeding offence. Ministers were informed of the anomaly and that National Highways was expanding its analysis to additional sites. On 13 October, Ministers were informed that National Highways had identified that this was a national issue, whereby a technical anomaly with the way some variable speed cameras interact with signs was affecting some enforcement on parts of England’s strategic road network.
National Highways identified that on rare occasions there can be a slight delay between the two systems, meaning drivers had not been given sufficient time to respond to a change in speed limit, or were detected as speeding when the variable speed limit had already changed. This issue began when cameras were upgraded under the previous Government.
This issue has led to incorrect enforcement action being taken in a small number of cases, which I recognise will have been frustrating for those involved. National Highways confirms that this technical anomaly has occurred approximately 2,650 times on the impacted cameras over four years since 2021. To place this in context, during the same period there were approximately 6 million camera activations in total on the affected cameras, meaning that fewer than 0.1% of activations were impacted. Not all of the erroneous activations will have resulted in enforcement action, so the numbers of those actually impacted will be smaller still. These cameras are used on only 0.2% of roads in England.
National Highways has provided data to the police to enable them to begin to contact those impacted, and to allow the process of redress for cases affected by this issue to get under way. I understand that the police will prioritise the most serious cases. I can confirm that the Government will provide financial redress. Anyone who has been wrongly fined will be refunded, and where points on licences have been incorrectly applied, these will be removed. Steps will be taken to remedy any incorrect prosecutions.
A Home Office approved solution to this issue has now been agreed. National Highways will be working with the police to allow them to implement this solution as a priority. Interim measures, such as increased traffic patrol officers, will be put in place by National Highways. The police have a range of tactics to enforce speed limits on the strategic road network, including mobile camera deployments, roads policing patrols and average speed sites.
I have instructed National Highways to continue its investigations back to 2019, when the upgrade of cameras began. This will ensure that we can be fully confident that anyone who has been impacted is identified.
As soon as I was alerted to the issue on 13 October, I worked to ensure that there would be no further incorrect fines, points, or prosecutions. On 17 October, National Highways’ executive was able to instruct its camera supplier to pause the transfer of variable speed data to police forces, in order to ensure that no further individuals were incorrectly prosecuted.
Independently, the National Police Chiefs’ Council took action to instruct all affected police forces to cancel wider prosecutions related to infringements in progress, regardless of whether they were impacted by this issue. As a result, tens of thousands of people’s speed awareness courses are being cancelled, and thousands of historical fixed penalty notices and criminal justice prosecutions are being discontinued.
Throughout this process, I have been clear with all partners that we must ensure that our road network remains safe. We therefore took the decision, following a safety assessment from National Highways, not to undermine public confidence in enforcement and risk impacting driver behaviour before we had a solution to this issue approved and ready to roll out.
We will ensure that there is an independent investigation into how this technical anomaly came about, to ensure that lessons can be learned. Compliance with the law is being enforced in a variety of ways across our roads, as has always been the case. If you break the law, you can expect to be punished.
We have provided further information online at:
I will keep the House updated on this issue where necessary.
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