Thousands of drivers may have their speeding fines cancelled after a fault caused some speed cameras to trigger incorrectly on English A roads and motorways.
National Highways confirmed that since 2021 there have been 2,650 wrongful camera activations. The issue was caused by a delay between variable speed limit signs and the cameras that enforce them.
Drivers affected will be contacted by the police. Any fines will be refunded, and penalty points will be removed from licences where necessary. However, not every camera activation leads to a fine, so not all of these cases will have resulted in penalties.
National Highways apologised for the mistake and said the problem has now been identified and fixed. Chief executive Nick Harris said safety remains the organisation’s top priority and urged drivers to continue following posted speed limits. He added that anyone impacted will be contacted by the relevant police force.
The problem was described as a technical anomaly that caused a delay of around 10 seconds between a speed limit changing on signs and the cameras recognising the new limit. This meant some drivers were wrongly flagged for speeding after the limit had already changed.
National Highways said the 2,650 incidents amount to fewer than two per day, compared with more than six million camera activations on the affected roads over the same period. Around 10% of England’s motorways and major A roads were affected.
The fault involved all variable speed cameras on smart motorways, as well as two cameras on the A14, which links the Midlands and the North with East Anglia. National Highways is working with police to review cases and has promised no one will be wrongly prosecuted going forward.
In the meantime, police forces have paused issuing fines from variable speed cameras until they are confident the systems are fully accurate.
A Department for Transport spokesperson apologised to those affected and said safety was never compromised. They added that enforcement remains in place and drivers can be confident that only those who break the rules will be penalised in future.
