Police chiefs and charities have appealed to the government to let them spend cash raised through speed camera fines on road safety measures, rather than it going straight to Treasury coffers, as hundreds of people continue to die on UK roads every year.
In 2024, four people were killed each day, and 76 were seriously injured, as a result of highway incidents. Although fatalities dropped by 1% compared with 2023, road safety charities such as RoSPA and the RAC Foundation say that it isn’t enough and that the fi gures indicate a lack of progress in reducing deaths and injuries.
The charities have now teamed up with a number of police forces that have called on the government to use the approximately £100 million a year generated from speed camera fines for more deterrents.
These include expanding the network of average-speed enforcement and red-light cameras, installing speed and traffic-calming measures, delivering additional road safety programmes and running public education campaigns.
The cash would also help to keep current enforcement viable because many run at a loss, Simon Foster, Labour’s West Midlands police and crime commissioner, told Autocar.
Currently, West Midlands’ schemes are running deficits of around £1.8m – something the £2m in fines generated by its speed cameras would rectify.
Council data shows that the schemes work. For example, incidents dropped by more than 30% on some of the roads where average-speed cameras were erected.
Under the current legislation, all money raised is used for general government expenditure and so it is not spent specifically on road-related projects.
“The current system is broken and unsustainable,” said Foster. “We are calling on the government to allow local areas to use road safety-related fixed-penalty fine revenue, to be reinvested into making our roads safer.”
When approached by Autocar, a spokesperson for the Department for Transport said the government has “no plans to change this system”.