Almost a quarter of speeding offences cancelled in last year in West Yorkshire

The RAC Foundation said the hundreds of thousands of fines cancelled each year across England and Wales are evidence that the system for catching and prosecuting speeding motorists is not working.

The charity's analysis of Home Office data shows that West Yorkshire Police recorded 180,432 speeding offences in 2020-21.

Of these, 51,800 (29%) were dealt with by fixed penalty notices and 65,695 (36%) by speeding awareness courses, while 18,479 (10%) resulted in someone being taken to court.

A further 41,829 (23%) were dismissed – up from 17% the year before.

Among the reasons why offences could be cancelled are faulty or incorrectly calibrated speed cameras, a lack of resources to bring cases to court, or cloned vehicles carrying a false number plate, according to the RAC Foundation.

Across England and Wales, 17% of all speeding offences were cancelled last year – an increase from 13% in 2019-20.

However, rates varied from 39% in Greater Manchester and Warwickshire, to just 2% in North Wales and Wiltshire – though the RAC Foundation cautioned that Wiltshire has no fixed speed cameras.

Steve Gooding, director of the RAC Foundation, said it is important that the systems of detection and prosecution for speeding are robust.

But he added: "The hundreds of thousands of ‘cancelled’ offences each year indicate they are not.

"At the very least it is an administrative burden the police could do without.