§ Mr. ForthTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prosecutions there have been in the Metropolitan Police Area for violation of bus lanes in each of the last three years. [132840]
§ Mr. Charles ClarkeThe very few court proceedings brought for violation of bus lanes cannot be distinguished, in centrally collected statistics, from other offences connected with neglect of traffic directions or obstruction, waiting and parking.
However, the overwhelming majority of bus lane offences are dealt with by fixed penalty notice, and information obtained from the Metropolitan Police shows that 14,936 fixed penalties were issued by them for driving in a bus lane in 1997, 14,107 in 1998 and 12,527 in 1999 (an estimated figure which includes 3,247 detected using video technology and dealt with by way of conditional offer of fixed penalty).