Business
Thousands of drivers wrongly fined for speeding since 2021
Thousands of drivers could have speeding fines cancelled after a fault saw some cameras falsely triggered on English motorways and A roads.
And tens of thousands of drivers will have speed awareness courses cancelled as the government orders National Highways to look back at six years of speed camera data.
National Highways said it had found 2,650 wrongful speed camera activations since 2021 due to a delay between cameras and variable speed signs.
Not all camera activations are enforced, so not all of the wrongful activations will have resulted in fines.
Affected drivers will be contacted by police and be reimbursed for any fines while points will be removed from their licences where needed.
More than 36,000 drivers have been told by police their speed awareness courses are being cancelled as a precaution while the speed camera issue is investigated.
Police forces are also thought to be discontinuing thousands of other prosecutions, regardless of whether they were affected by the issue.
Transport minister Simon Lightwood said the government will compensate any affected drivers, refunding speeding fines and rescinding points from licences.
“Steps will be taken to remedy any incorrect prosecutions,” he said in a written statement to parliament.
National Highways apologised for the error.
“Safety is our number one priority,” said chief executive Nick Harris.
“All drivers should continue observing the posted speed limits as normal. Anyone who has been impacted will be contacted by the relevant police force.”
The agency said a temporary fix had been rolled out, providing an extra layer of data from the cameras to police forces so they can filter out any faulty captures.
But the agency gave no clear timeline as to when a permanent fix would be in place.
National Highways, which runs England’s motorways, blamed an “anomaly” in how variable speed cameras were interacting with signs on some A roads and motorways.
It meant a delay of around 10 seconds between cameras and relevant variable speed signs, meaning some drivers were incorrectly identified as speeding after the limit had changed.
So on a road where the speed limit increases, a driver may see a sign saying 60mph, but the camera recording it may still be working on the basis of a previous 40mph speed limit.
National Highways said the 2,650 incidents since 2021 represent fewer than two each day, compared with more than six million activations of speed cameras on the affected roads over the same period.
It said the anomaly has impacted 10% of England’s motorways and major A roads.
The fault affects 154 cameras out of a total of 400 across the entire motorway network – all of the variable speed cameras on smart motorways, and a section of the A14 between Huntingdon and Cambridge plus the A1 approach junction to the A14.
Andy Walpole, 55, from Swindon was one of those who was incorrectly landed with a ticket for speeding on the M25 between junction 9 and Cobham services.
“I was adamant I wasn’t speeding. I drive for a living, so I adhere to the variable speed limits within a mile an hour, so I knew I wasn’t,” he told the BBC.
He opted to pay for a speed awareness course rather than challenge the penalty, because he felt it was difficult to mount a successful appeal.
Though he was refunded the cost of the course, he says: “How can we have trust and faith in the system now?”
He also wonders how many people who chose to take points on their licence would have ended up with higher insurance premiums as a result of an unsafe conviction.
“What if you took your car insurance out the day after you’d taken the points? You declared those points on your insurance — where do you stand then?”
National Highways is working with police to check activations and promised nobody would now be wrongly prosecuted.
Meanwhile, police forces have stopped issuing fines from variable cameras until they have confidence in their accuracy.
National Highways said it will increase the use of traffic patrol officers to enforce speed limits in the meantime.
Lightwood warned drivers that “if you break the law, you can expect to be punished”.
A Department for Transport spokesperson said: “We apologise to anyone who has been affected. Safety was never compromised, and we are working with policing to ensure nobody is incorrectly prosecuted in future.
“Enforcement is still in place, and the public can remain confident that only motorists who break the rules will be penalised.”
After the drop in gold price, Bitcoin price also fell.
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The BSE Sensex is trading higher by 371 points, or 0.47%, at 81,090.24, while the NSE Nifty rises by 70 points to trade above 24,850 at 24,889.25.
Stock Market Today.
Market Updates Today: A day after the market crash following the Budget’s provision to hike Securities Transaction Tax (STT), the domestic equity market on Monday saw heightened volatility. After opening nearly flat, the NSE Nifty rose to the day’s high, then touched the day’s low before sharply recovering to trade at the day’s high of 25,093.
As of 3:16 pm, the BSE Sensex surged by 932 points, or up 1.13%, to 81,641.87 in the afternoon trade and the NSE Nifty rose by 267 points, or up 1.07%, to trade above 25,000 at 25,093.27. After opening nearly flat, the NSE Nifty rose to the day’s high, then touched the day’s low before sharply recovering to trade at the day’s high of 25,093.27.
Among the 30 Sensex shares, 25 stocks were trading in the green. Among the top gainers were PowerGrid, Adani Ports, BEL, Reliance, Mahindra & Mahindra, Larsen & Toubro, and IndiGo, rising by up to 7.91%. The laggards were Axis Bank, Infosys, Titan, TCS, and Trent, falling by up to 1.97%.
After opening nearly flat, at around 9:30 am, the BSE Sensex jumped by 350 points to 81,112.03 in the opening trade, while the NSE Nifty rose 91 points to trade above the 24,900 level at 24,910.85. However, the benchmarks gave up all gains and declined to day’s low amid heavy volatility.
Aakash Shah, technical research analyst at Choice Equity Broking Private Ltd, said, “Near-term sentiment remains cautious despite some support from domestic technical indicators. The broader market direction will largely be influenced by global equity cues, crude oil price movements, and institutional fund flows.”
On Sunday, the Nifty saw an aggressive sell-off after the Budget 2026 announcement to hike STT, plunging nearly 870 points from 25,440 to an intraday low of 24,571, before staging a partial recovery to close at 24,825.
“A strong bearish candle was formed, with the index closing decisively below the 200-day EMA, indicating a deterioration in trend strength. Immediate resistance is placed at 24,950–25,000, while key support lies in the 24,650-24,700 zone. The RSI slipped to 31, reflecting oversold conditions, while India VIX surged 10.73% to 15.09, highlighting elevated market volatility,” Shah said.
On Sunday, February 1, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold equities worth Rs 588 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) also remained net sellers, offloading shares worth Rs 682 crore, adding to the pressure on the market.
V K Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Investments Ltd, said, “Yesterday’s market selloff resulting in 495 point crash in Nifty was a knee-jerk reaction to the sharp increase in STT on F&O trades. This was not a revenue-raising measure, but a decision to discourage retail traders from complex F&O trading, in which 92% of them were losing money. This decision is in the interest of retail investors. But this decision impacted the market sentiments, which were already impacted by the decision to make no changes in the LTCGs tax, which a section of the market was expecting rather unrealistically.”
It is important to understand that the Budget is a growth-oriented Budget with fiscal prudence. The 10% nominal GDP growth projected in the Budget is achievable and has the potential to deliver around 15% earnings growth in FY27. The market will soon start discounting this positive. But it is possible that FIIs may continue to sell impacting the market. Retail investors should keep their cool and remain invested and continue to invest systematically. A significant upturn in the market may take time; perhaps a retreat from AI trade globally. We don’t know when this will happen. But we know that an earnings rebound is imminent in response to this growth oriented Budget. That is a clear positive, he added.
February 02, 2026, 09:34 IST
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