Baroness McIntosh of Pickering – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness McIntosh of Pickering on 2016-04-19.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what was the average financial penalty issued for a breach of the Highway Code in each of the last three years.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

Enforcement of cycling offences and collection of data on such offences is a matter for the Ministry of Justice and Home Office.

Based on information provided to the Department for Transport, the number of defendants proceeded against at Magistrates’ courts and found guilty and sentenced for some cycling (non- motoring) offences in England and Wales from 2012 to 2014 (latest available) can be viewed in the attached table. This includes the average fine given at all courts for the specific offences listed in the table.

The Home Office collects data on the number of fixed penalty notices issued for motoring offences only and these data are published by the Home Office in the annual ‘Police Powers and Procedures’ publication. Data on fixed penalty notices issued to cyclists are not held centrally.

We are not able to provide an overall average financial penalty figure for all cycling offences. Many of these cycling offences are recorded under a miscellaneous offence grouping. The information required to split this miscellaneous grouping at offence level is held in individual court files, which can only be inspected at disproportionate cost.