Is a Speeding Ticket a Criminal Offence in the UK?

Have you received a speeding ticket in the UK? This can be a worrying and confusing time. But you’re not alone. Each month, more than 32,000 people visit this site for advice on tickets and fines.

In this article, we’ll walk you through:

Understanding if a speeding ticket is a criminal offence in the UK
Knowing what is classed as speeding
How to appeal against your speeding ticket
The standardised speeding fines and how they are given
Where to find more help if you need it

We know how big a concern it can be to get a speeding ticket and the fear of not being able to pay it; some of us have been in your shoes. We’re here to make things clearer for you.

Do You Have to Pay?

In some circumstances, you might have a legitimate reason not to pay your fine.

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Is Speeding a Criminal Offence?

Speeding itself is not a criminal offence per se. As long as you pay the speeding penalty within 28 days, there will be no criminal record for speeding. However, if you don’t pay the fine within this timeframe, a criminal prosecution could follow.

Whether you are prosecuted criminally or not, you are still going to get a civil conviction for speeding. The penalties for these civil convictions will depend on where you were when you were speeding, how much over the speed limit you were travelling, and your income level. I will explain the standard structure of speeding fines in a later section of this post. If you are lucky, and this is your first speeding offence in some time, you might be offered the chance to attend a speed awareness course instead of getting a driving conviction. Obviously, if you are offered this choice, you would be a fool to turn it down.

I have added a table below that lists all of the UK driving conviction codes that relate to speeding when driving a car, or riding a motorcycle. It shows how many points you will get on your licence, as well as how long it will be before the conviction is considered spent.

Conviction Code	Driving Offence	Penalty Points	Spent After
MR39	Driving/riding faster than the legal speed limit.	–	4 Years
SP50	Speeding on a motorway.	3 – 6	4 Years
SP40	Speeding in a passenger vehicle.	3 – 6	4 Years
SP30	Speeding on a public road.	3 – 6	4 Years

What Is Classed As Speeding in the UK?

Every road in the UK has a standard (statutory) speed limit. If you don’t see any sign that modifies this speed limit (such as a school warning sign lowering the speed limit to 20mph) you are free to travel at this limit, if safe to do so. The table below shows statutory speed limits for the different types of roads we have in the UK.

	In a Built-up Area	On Single Carriageway Roads	On Dual Carriageways	On Motorways
Speed limit when driving a car or riding a motorcycle.	30mph	60mph	70mph	70mph

Successful Appeal Case Study

Situation

Initial Fine	£100
Additional Fees	£171
Total Fine	£271

The Appeal Process

Scott used JustAnswer, online legal service to enhance his appeal. The trial of this cost him just £5.

Total Fine	£271
Cost of legal advice	£5

JustAnswer helped Scott craft the best appeal possible and he was able to win his case.

Scott’s fine was cancelled and he only paid £5 for the legal help.

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Isn’t There Some Wiggle Room When Accused of Speeding?

Yes, there is some wiggle room when it comes to the speed you are travelling, and whether you will get a speeding ticket or not. This extra speed buffer is in place to make allowances for issues such as a slightly inaccurate speedometer, making a minor slip in judgement for a few seconds, and inaccuracies with speed measuring equipment. How much buffer you get, depends on how you are caught speeding. I will explain this below.

When stopped by a police officer – the officer will have allowed you an extra 10% over the speed limit. For example, if they caught you speeding on a single-carriageway road, they would not have pulled you over as long as you didn’t travel at over 66mph.
When caught speeding by a traffic camera – the camera will have measured your speed, and then only automatically flagged you as speeding if you are travelling at 10% over the speed limit, plus an additional 2mph (added to allow for camera inaccuracies). Using the same example, if you were measured by a traffic camera on a single-carriageway road, you would not have automatically been issued a speeding fine as long as you were not travelling faster than 68mph.

How Will You Be Given a Speeding Ticket?

I have already explained that how you are caught speeding will have an impact on how much of a speed buffer you are granted. But it also has an impact on the process you need to follow to deal with the speeding ticket. Let me explain this a little better, below.

If you were caught by a speed camera, you will get a notice of the speeding fine in the post, and you will be sent this within 14 days of the date you were caught speeding. You will be sent:

A Notice of Intended Prosecution (NIP).
A Section 172 notice.

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You have to fill in and return the Section 172 notice to the police within 28 days, giving details of the person who was driving the car. Depending on the seriousness of the speeding offence, once you have returned the Section 172 notice, you will be sent either:

A Fixed Penalty Notice (FPN).
A letter telling you that you must appear in court.

The situation is a little different if you are stopped by the police for speeding. A police officer will decide how best to deal with the offence, on the spot. It will pay to be polite and respectful at this time, as the officer’s decision will have a vast impact on the severity of the punishment you will face. One of three things will happen next.

The officer will give you a verbal warning (thank them profusely, apologise, and walk away with a win).
You will be issued an FPN on the spot, or be told that one will be posted to you (still a marginal win as only the most minor speeding offences are punished via an FPN).
You may be told that you are going to have to appear in court and that full details of this court hearing will be sent to you by post (this is the worst-case, and you can expect to be paying a hefty fine).

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Are Speeding Fines Standardised?

For some time now, speeding fines in the UK have been standardised. In much the same ways that FPN for parking tickets and other minor motoring offences have been. The minimum fine for speeding in the UK is £100, and you will also get 3 penalty points. Unless you can appeal the speeding ticket, this is the very rock-bottom amount you will pay. However, in reality, you are likely going to end up paying more than the minimum.

Speeding fines are calculated on how much over the speed limit you were travelling, and on what type of road. There are three bands of severity, A through to C, with A being the lowest and C the highest. These bands dictate the maximum level of the fine, but it is your income that will drive the actual total you have to pay. I made the table below, which visualises the different levels of speeding fines across the different bands.

Legal Speed Limit (mph)	Your Speed (mph)
	Band A	Band B	Band C
20	21 to 30	31 to 41	Over 40
30	31 to 40	41 to 50	Over 50
40	4 to 55	5 to 65	Over 66
50	51 to 65	66 to 75	Over 76
60	61 to 80	81 to 90	Over 91
70	71 to 90	91 to 100	101 and above
Penalty points and punishment	3	4 – 6 points.Disqualified for 7-28 days.	6 points.Disqualified for 7-56 days.
Fine	25-75% of your weekly income.	75-125% of your weekly income.	125-175% of your weekly income.

Appealing Against a Speeding Ticket

It probably will come as no surprise to learn that appealing against a speeding fine is a little trickier than appealing against a parking fine, or an FPN for driving in a bus lane. Speeding is a far more serious offence. There is no simple appeal process in place for disputing a parking fine. The only way to challenge the fine and potentially have it overturned is to appear in court.

If you do go to court, you will need legal representation, a lawyer to help you prepare your defence, etc. This will obviously cost money. Pleading not guilty in court means if you lose the case, you have to pay this lawyer. You will also have to pay court costs. On top of this, it is typical for judges to hand out much larger fines in court than the initial fine you would have been given, and hoped to get out of paying.

What I am trying to say here, is that in a lot of cases, it just makes sense to pay the original fine and not risk having additional costs to pay if you are found guilty of speeding in court. Especially if the fine is at the lower end of the scale.