Government Proposal to Increase Fixed Penalties to £90 and Introduce Fixed Penalties for Careless Driving

The Government is considering increases across the board for road traffic fixed penalties from £60 to £90.  It has also proposed to increase the fixed penalty for no insurance from £150 to £300.

Additionally, the Government has proposed to make careless driving a fixed penalty notice offence (£90 and 3 penalty points) or, as with speeding, open to the offer of remedial training.

Careless driving

Careless driving is an offence related to general poor driving and includes a variety of behaviours, such as tailgating, failing to look properly and sudden braking.  It is defined, under s.3ZA of the Road Traffic Act 1988, as driving that “falls below what is expected of a competent and careful driver” and “driving without reasonable consideration for other persons only if those persons are inconvenienced by his driving”.

The offences for careless driving include driving “without due care and attention” and “without reasonable consideration for other persons” (s.3 of the Road Traffic Act 1988).

Examples of careless driving cases include:

  • Injudicious overtaking;
  • ‘Tailgating’;
  • Turning into too small a gap in traffic;
  • Inappropriate speed;
  • Being in the wrong lane on a roundabout;
  • Attempting to pass a vehicle on the nearside.

Current options for enforcement of careless driving

At present, the police can enforce careless driving offences by either:

  1. Issuing a warning, with no further action; or
  2. Issuing a summons to court.

The offence attracts 3-9 penalty points, a fine of up to £5,000 and discretionary disqualification.

What is the apparent problem?

The Government believes that the current process of charging drivers for a careless driving offence is paperwork intensive and expensive. The Association of Police Chief Officers (ACPO) has indicated this can deter the Police from charging drivers with lower level instances of careless driving in the first place.

In 2010, 322 deaths had ‘careless, reckless or in a hurry’ recorded as a contributory factor. This may be an underestimate as there are other contributory factors (e.g. failing to look properly) that could be included as careless driving. This confirms that careless driving is a serious road safety problem.

The proposal

The Government is considering increases across the board for road traffic fixed penalties to £90, but with a fixed penalty for no insurance increasing to £300 (from £150).

There is also a proposal to make careless driving a fixed penalty notice offence (£90 and 3 penalty points) or, as with speeding, open to the offer of remedial training.  However, the option of going to court would still be retained should the driver wish to contest the offence.

The Government believes the new approach has several benefits:

    1. It would provide the police with a less resource intensive alternative of dealing with less serious careless driving offenders.
    2. It should reduce costs and pressures for courts, as cases which might have ended up there will be dealt with by way of FPN’s or training.
    3. It should reduce the frequency of careless driving. When driving whilst using a mobile phone was introduced as a fixed penalty in 2003, the proportion of drivers observed using phones reduced. After the penalty became an endorseable offence and increased from £30 to £60 in 2007, there was an immediate drop in the proportions using mobile phones.
    4. Remedial training should offer benefits to the driver, such as improvements in driving behaviour.

Potential problems

One downside to the introduction of fixed penalties is that it may encourage innocent drivers to just accept the fine, rather than make the effort to successfully defend their matters in court.

For advice on any transport law issues, please contact Jared Dunbar at Dyne Solicitors on 01829 773 100.

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