Speeding tickets soar to report excessive with 7,400 dished out each single day – as drivers handled like ‘money cows’

The number of speeding tickets handed to motorists has soared to a record high – amid fresh claims drivers are being treated as ‘cash cows’.

Official data showed 2,715,000 fixed penalty notices were issued for speeding in 2023 – the equivalent of more than 7,400 every day.

It was up from 2,496,000, or nearly nine per cent, on 2022 levels.

Last year’s record figure – covering England and Wales – was 1.2million higher than the total number of speeding tickets issued in 2011, the year the current recording system began.

The Home Office data showed 98 per cent of speeding offences were detected by roadside cameras.

Of the 2.7million total, 390,000 took place in the Metropolitan Police area, a three per cent rise year-on-year; and 2.3million in the rest of the country, a 10 per cent increase, the figures showed.

Howard Cox, of motoring pressure group Fair Fuel UK, said car owners were being ‘fleeced’.

‘With tens of thousands of 20mph zones becoming the norm, decent, law-abiding drivers are being caught out for doing a paltry 23mph,’ he said.

‘Cash-strapped police and local authorities are using these new low punitive thresholds to fleece drivers as often as possible to top up their depleted budgets.

‘The new Transport Secretary will continue pushing for cash-grabbing driving restrictions across the UK so that motorists remain the most controllable of cash cows.’

AA president Edmund King said the number of tickets was being driven up by the roll-out of 20mph speed limit areas and confusion over ‘variable speed limits’ on motorways.

‘On the motorway sections with variable speed limits we see the limit change very quickly and it is often unclear whether it has returned to the national speed limit,’ he said.

‘We need more clarity with these signs so drivers know exactly what the limit is, because at the moment many are getting caught out inadvertently.

‘We also believe 20mph zones should be targeted where they are needed – such as outside schools – because you get problems when they are allocated on through roads.

‘Friday’s data also showed that of motorists handed a speeding ticket in 2021, just over 1.3million opted to go on a ‘speed awareness course’ – the highest number since records began in 2011.

Meanwhile, drivers of sub-standard vehicles are less likely to receive a ticket from police.

The number of tickets handed out for MOT issues or the poor condition of a vehicle was just over 48,300, down from 51,700 last year and down more than 40 per cent on 2011, when it was more than 82,000.

It has fallen despite the number of cars on the road in the UK increasing by more than three million over the period to 33million.

It means motorists who break the speed limit are far more likely to be punished while those who drive sub-standard – or even dangerous – vehicles are more likely to get away with it.

Drivers fined for using a mobile while driving were up slightly to 45,600 but still far lower than the 164,400 in 2011.

The number of breath tests carried out by police was up three per cent to 276,914,but still far below the 2009 peak of more than 700,000.

In 2020 it was confirmed for the first time that speed cameras were being deployed to raise money from motorists rather than prevent accidents.

A report by police watchdog HM Inspectorate of Constabulary said some cameras had been installed because their locations were ‘good hunting grounds’ for fines.

Safety camera partnerships had even blocked police from attempting to educate drivers in order to protect their revenue from cameras, it added.

The key admission confirmed many motorists’ long-held suspicions that they were being treated as cash cows.