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Thank you for your letter dated 10 May to the department in response to the reply to you dated 7 April about speed cameras. I have been asked to reply and should like to apologise for the delay in doing so. As I am sure you can appreciate the issue of road safety has generated a substantial amount of correspondence in recent months which has resulted in us being unable to respond within our normal time scale. The Government takes speeding very seriously. The success of the safety camera programme is measured purely in terms of the number of accidents cameras prevent. The three-year evaluation report of the cost recovery programme that covered 24 partnership areas of the country and included over 2000 camera sites was published on 15 June. It recorded a 40% reduction in death and serious injury at camera sites which equates to 870 fewer people killed or seriously injured per annum. In addition, there was a 33% reduction in personal injury collisions, which translates into a reduction of 4030. I am sure that you will agree that this good news and that the evidence for cameras as a tool for improving road safety is overwhelming. This report is available on the DfT web site at www.dft.gov.uk As stated in Mr Jamieson's reply, there is sufficient flexibility to use cameras in limited circumstances to help allay local peoples' concerns about speeding traffic despite there not having been collisions and casualties. If you have not already done so, I would suggest that in the first instance, you contact the Derbyshire Safety Camera Partnership and put your case to them for installation of a speed camera in your village. Camera requests can be made on the Derbyshire Safety Camera Partnership website. The address for this website is: www.slowitdown.co.uk In response to your first question, the answer is yes, the Government does expect all drivers to observe all speed limits on all roads at all times (except for emergency vehicles). The answer to your second question is, again, yes. The Government permits the police the routine use of covert speed cameras to catch drivers speeding "excessively". This applies whether or not they are part of the safety camera partnership scheme. Speeding is a serious and criminal offence and the police are able to enforce the legal limit using equipment type approved by the Home Office in whichever way they choose. I hope this is helpful. |