Fixed penalty notices for motoring offences – England and Wales, year ending 31 March 2016

This data, published by the Home Office, shows there were 1,016,827 fixed penalty notices (FPNs) issued for motoring offences by the police in England and Wales (including police employed traffic wardens) in 2015.

This represents a fall of less than 1% compared with the previous year and continues a year-on-year downward trend in the number of FPNs issued since 2005. The report says in recent years, this fall may in part reflect the number of people attending a speed awareness course rather than receiving an FPN.

868,066 (85%) of the FPNs issued in 2015 were endorsable, and 148,761 (15%) were non-endorsable. Therefore the vast majority of FPNs were accompanied by points on a driving licence.

Although there have been falls in both the number of endorsable and non-endorsable FPNs issued over the last few years, the number of non-endorsable FPNs has fallen at a faster rate than endorsable FPNs. In 2015, the number of non-endorsable FPNs fell by one fifth compared with 2014, while the number of endorsable FPNs issued rose by 4%. This is the first year since 2005 that the number of endorsable FPNs has increased, having fallen year on year between 2005 and 2014.

In terms of specific offences, between 2014 and 2015, police issued 43% fewer notices for mobile phone offences. Looking at the longer term, the 2015 figure of 16,900 represents a 86% fall since 2011 when 123,100 notices were issued.

The number of FPNs issued for ‘seatbelt offences’ fell by 44% between 2014 and 2015.

Over three-quarters (78%) of FPNs issued in 2015 were for speed limit offences, up 5% on the previous year, to the highest level recorded. The number of FPNs issued for speed limit offences showed a year-on-year fall between 2005 and 2013, after which there have been increases, including an increase of around 48,000 FPNs in the latest year.