§ Dame Elaine Kellett-BowmanTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many speeding offences in which no other offence was alleged were proceeded against either by fixed penalties or through the courts by the Lincolnshire police in each of the last five years for which statistics are available; and what was the average for England and Wales in these years.
§ Mr. John PattenThe available information on all speeding offences dealt with by court proceedings or fixed penalty notices is published annually by police force area in "Offences relating to motor vehicles, England and Wales, Supplementary tables" (tables 16 and 20 of the issue for 1987); copies are in the Library. Information on how many of these offences were the only ones alleged on a particular occasion is not available. However, Home Office guidelines are that a fixed penalty notice should not be issued where an officer is also reporting other offences for consideration of summons, and it is believed that in the vast majority of cases a prosecution for speeding is not accompanied by a prosecution for another offence.