You’ve probably heard of the Pareto principle – the idea that 80% of outcomes come from 20% of causes. A farmer might notice 80% of the eggs come from 20% of the hens. In a pub, 80% of the pints might be drunk by 20% of the regulars. And in speeding fines? It turns out a handful of speed cameras are doing most of the heavy lifting.
I started this story by asking a simple question: which cameras catch the most drivers? The first step was to send Freedom of Information (FoI) requests to police forces across England. I asked for data on the busiest cameras over the past three years. Some provided detailed information on locations and numbers of speeders caught. Others, guarding their golden geese, declined, citing fears of vigilantes vandalising their most active speed cameras.
After combing through all of the responses, the speed camera king could be crowned. Number one in the country was a camera on the M6 in Birmingham, between junctions seven and eight. It caught 36,438 drivers in three years—equivalent to around 250 a week. A few others were close behind, such as cameras in Liverpool, Brighton, and on the M25 near Clacket Lane services, each recording over 30,000 offences.
To get global figures, I turned to a Home Office spreadsheet showing total speeding offences across England. It showed 3.4 million drivers were caught in 2023, a 14% increase from the year before. That breaks down to nearly 10,000 tickets issued every day.
This is far from chump change for the government’s coffers. The Home Office data showed that 883,000 drivers paid £100 fines, while 1.5 million attended driver education courses, which also cost around £100. Together, these added up to almost £250 million in revenue. Another 286,000 drivers ended up in court, either for speeding at very high levels or for repeated offences.
For an expert opinion, I contacted Jack Cousens from the AA, who said that while cameras play a role in catching offenders, they can’t replace traffic officers when it comes to preventing dangerous driving.
The story ran as an exclusive in the Sunday Mirror on January 26th. You can read the full scoop below.
