Police penalties: speeding, red lights and penalty points

Road charging and policeLaw checked 25 October 2026

Speeding, going through a red light, using a hand-held phone while driving and careless driving are criminal offences, dealt with by the police. This page explains the process and when to get legal advice. It is not a guide to contesting a police penalty: with points, a possible ban and a court case at stake, get advice before you fight one. For a council penalty, such as for parking, a bus lane or a yellow box junction, start at fight your ticket. This page covers England and Wales.

How police penalties differ

• Criminal, not civil. A council Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) is a civil penalty with no penalty points, and you appeal to an independent tribunal. Police penalties are for crimes: a disputed case goes to the magistrates' court.
• Penalty points. Speeding, red light, phone and careless driving offences all add points to your driving record, and enough points can lead to a ban.
• Paying is not a conviction, but the points count as one. Paying a police fixed penalty discharges "any liability to conviction", so there is no court case. But the points are treated as if you had been convicted when they are counted towards a ban, and for the rules on when past offences become "spent".
• No discount and no tribunal. There is no discount for paying early. If you think a fixed penalty is wrong, the place to argue is court.
• Who deals with what. Speeding and red lights stay with the police, not councils: see moving traffic penalties. For road charges such as the congestion charge, see road charging penalties.
• Parking. Where the council does not enforce parking, the police can put a fixed penalty notice on the vehicle instead: £30 outside London, with no points. The councils page names the areas where the police still enforce parking. Leaving a vehicle in a dangerous position is a separate offence, with 3 points.

What happens after you are caught

Stopped by the police

An officer can give you a verbal warning or a fixed penalty notice, or report you. If you are reported, a letter follows, offering a course or a fixed penalty, or about going to court. A fixed penalty with points is only possible if your driving record shows it would not take you to 12 points or more. If you were warned at the time that you might be prosecuted, no Notice of Intended Prosecution has to follow.

Caught by a camera

1. The Notice of Intended Prosecution goes to the vehicle's registered keeper, with a request to name the driver (a section 172 notice).
2. The 14-day rule. For speeding, red lights, careless driving and some other offences, you cannot be convicted unless you were warned at the time, or within 14 days of the offence a summons was served on you or a notice on you or the registered keeper (section 1 of the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988). The law assumes this was done unless you prove otherwise, and the rule does not apply after an accident, or if neither you nor the keeper could be traced in time. It does not apply to phone offences. Because the 14 days apply to the keeper, the driver of a company or hire car may get a notice later.
3. Naming the driver. The keeper must name the driver within 28 days (section 172 of the Road Traffic Act 1988). Failing to do so is an offence: 6 penalty points (code MS90) and a fine of up to £1,000, more points than a speeding fixed penalty. A keeper who could not have found out who was driving, using reasonable diligence, is not guilty, but has to show it.
4. Next, the driver gets an offer of a course, a fixed penalty offer by post (a "conditional offer"), or a letter about going to court.

Your choices: a course, a fixed penalty or court

A course

• The police decide. A course is an alternative to prosecution for speeding and some other offences, offered at the police's discretion. There is no right to one, however low your speed.
• Once in 3 years. You cannot be offered a course if you completed a similar one in the 3 years before the new offence.
• The result. You pay a fee. Complete the course and there is no fixed penalty to pay, no points and no conviction. It cannot remove points you already have, and you cannot have the course once you have paid the fixed penalty.

The National Police Chiefs' Council's 2025 guidance suggests what the police should offer, by speed: a course where you are eligible, otherwise a fixed penalty, and court at the highest speeds.

Below these speeds, such as 22 mph in a 20 mph limit, the guidance suggests neither a course nor a fixed penalty. That does not make the speed allowed: approved speed devices may read no more than 2 mph too high (3% above 66 mph), each force sets its own policy, and the police can still prosecute, case by case. If they do, the notice says what you are offered.

A fixed penalty

• The amounts. Speeding or going through a red light: £100 and 3 points. Using a hand-held phone: £200 and 6 points. Careless driving: £100 and 3 points.
• Time to pay. The notice gives the date: at least 21 days for a roadside notice, and at least 28 days for a conditional offer by post. You give your name, date of birth and driving licence number when you pay. Use only the payment methods on the notice: websites offering a discount are not official.
• At 12 points. If the points would take you to 12 or more, a fixed penalty is not available and the case goes to court.
• If you do nothing. For a roadside notice, the fixed penalty plus half (£150 instead of £100) can be registered against you as a fine, and the points still go on your record. After a postal offer, the police can prosecute.
• If you dispute it. Ask for a court hearing, as a roadside notice explains, before its deadline; or leave a postal offer unpaid, and the police decide whether to prosecute. A court fine can be more than the fixed penalty, with costs and more points.

Court

• The notice. Speeding, red light, phone and naming-the-driver cases can be decided under the Single Justice Procedure. You get a single justice procedure notice and have 21 days from its date to respond. Plead guilty and a magistrate can decide on the papers, with your fine reduced by up to a third. Plead not guilty and you go to a hearing. If you do not respond, a magistrate decides without hearing from you.
• Fines. Courts follow the Sentencing Council's guidelines, which set fines as a share of your weekly income. For speeding the starting point is 50%, 100% or 150% of weekly income, by how far over the limit you were: in a 30 mph limit, 31 to 40 mph, 41 to 50 mph, or 51 mph and above (speeding guideline). The maximum is £1,000, or £2,500 on a motorway; for using a phone, £1,000, or £2,500 in a lorry or bus. Give the court details of your income when asked, or it can assume you can pay.
• Points or a ban. For speeding the court must add 3 to 6 points or ban you. In its two higher bands the guideline gives a ban of 7 to 28 days, or 7 to 56 days, as the alternative to points.
• Costs and surcharge. If you are convicted, the court can also order you to pay the prosecution's costs, and must order a victim surcharge.
• Special reasons. A court can decide not to add points for "special reasons": circumstances of the offence itself, not your personal situation. Arguing special reasons is a point to get legal advice.

Penalty points and losing your licence

• How long they last. Points stay on your driving record for 4 years from the date of the offence, and count towards a ban for 3 years. Insurers and employers may be able to see them for the whole 4 years. View your driving licence record to check your points.
• 12 points ("totting up"). If points from offences committed within 3 years of each other reach 12 or more, the court must ban you for at least 6 months, unless it finds grounds to shorten or avoid the ban. The minimum is a year if you have had a ban of 56 days or more in the 3 years before the latest offence, and 2 years if you have had more than one.
• Exceptional hardship. The court cannot take into account ordinary hardship, or a claim that the offences were not serious. Exceptional hardship can count, but you must prove it, usually with sworn evidence. Losing your job is not enough on its own, and grounds accepted in the last 3 years cannot be used again.
• New drivers. If you reach 6 or more points within 2 years of passing your first driving test, your licence is revoked, even when the points come from a fixed penalty. Points on a provisional licence count. To drive again you must pass the theory and practical tests again. One phone offence is enough.

If you think you should not have been penalised

These situations often need advice:

• You were not the driver. Name the driver within the 28 days. If you do not know who it was, still reply, saying what you did to find out.
• The details are wrong, such as the vehicle or the place. Write to the police at the address on the notice, keep a copy, and still reply in time.
• The notice seems late. The 14-day rule has exceptions and is presumed to have been met, so get advice before relying on it.
• The camera. A camera's record can be used as evidence only if the device is of a type approved by the Secretary of State, used under the conditions of its approval: a question for a solicitor.

When to get legal advice

Get advice from a solicitor who deals with motoring offences if:

• the points would take you to 12 or more within 3 years, or you could be banned;
• you passed your test less than 2 years ago and the points would take you to 6 or more;
• you do not know who was driving, or the driver will not be named;
• a Notice of Intended Prosecution arrived more than 14 days after the offence;
• you want to plead not guilty, or to question the camera or other evidence;
• you think special reasons apply, or a ban would cause exceptional hardship;
• your job depends on driving;
• you have a court notice for a more serious offence, such as careless driving.

The Law Society's Find a Solicitor lists solicitors by area of law: choose "Crime - motoring". Citizens Advice explains finding free or affordable legal help (in Wales), including free or fixed-fee first appointments and legal cover that may come with your car insurance or a motoring organisation. While you get advice, reply to every notice within its time limit.

Wales

• The same law. The offences, penalty points, fixed penalties, courses and courts are the same in Wales as in England.
• 20 mph. Since 17 September 2023 the default speed limit on restricted roads in Wales, usually roads with street lights no more than 200 yards apart, has been 20 mph instead of 30 mph (the Welsh order). Restricted roads have no 20 mph repeater signs. Since July 2024 highway authorities have been reviewing which roads should go back to 30 mph, so follow the signs (Welsh Government).
• Cameras. Speed and red light cameras in Wales are run by GoSafe, a partnership of the four Welsh police forces, the 22 councils and the Welsh Government. Its mobile cameras also detect phone and seat belt offences. GoSafe asks for questions about a Notice of Intended Prosecution to be put in writing.

This page was checked against the law in England and Wales on 25 October 2026. It is general guidance, not legal advice: see the legal disclaimer.