Police powers and procedures, England and Wales, 2018

This release contains statistics on the use of various police powers in England and Wales. The release is broken down into seven main sections, two of which relate to road traffic offences.The Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) and other outcomes for motoring offences section contains data from the national fixed penalty processing system (PentiP), on a calendar-year basis. It includes statistics on the number of endorsable and non-endorsable FPNs issued for a range of motoring offences; FPNs issued as a result of camera-detected offences, cases where the penalty was paid; and motoring offences that resulted in a driver retraining course, or court action.

Key results
In the year ending December 2018, there were:
– 2.5m motoring offences recorded (excluding 354,705 cancelled cases), which resulted in a Fixed Penalty Notice or another outcome, an increase of 3.8% compared with the previous year.

– Over four-fifths (85%) of recorded motoring offences were for speed limit offences (2,105.409), up 1% on the previous year (2,013,830). The number of speed limit offences has increased gradually year-on-year since 2011, and now stand at the highest level recorded.

– 45% of driving offences resulted in driver retraining, a fine was paid in a further 40% of cases and 15% of cases involved court action.

The breath tests section contains data from the 43 police forces in England and Wales on a calendar-year basis. It includes statistics on the number of alcohol screening breath tests carried out by police and tests that were positive or refused.

Key results
In the year ending December 2018 there were:

– 320,988 breath tests carried out by police, a 2% fall compared with the previous year (when comparing data for 39 forces who were able to provide full data in both years). This fall continues the downward trend seen since the peak of 670,023 breath tests in 2009.

– 15% of breath tests were positive or refused, the highest proportion since 2007.

– As in previous years, more breath tests were undertaken in December than any other month, followed by June, coinciding with police drink and drug driving campaigns.