Cases at magistrates courts are usually routine insofar as they involve breaches of the law committed by thousands annually. Last year 48% of cars exceeded the limit on motorways; 11% of cars exceeded the limit on national speed limit single carriageways and 51% of cars exceeded the limit on 30mph roads. The proportions of cars complying with the speed limit were 52% on motorways, 89% on national speed limit (NSL) single carriageways and 49% on 30mph roads.On NSL single carriageway roads 11% of cars exceeded the speed limit compared to 51% on 30mph roads and 48% on motorways.The proportion of cars exceeding the speed limit by over 10mph on 30mph roads was 5%, whilst 1% and 10% exceeded the speed limit by more than 10mph on NSL single carriageway roads and motorways respectively. The RAC Report on Motoring 2021 asked users to select up to three reasons why they exceed the speed limit for each road class. The respondents who admitted to exceeding the speed limit on motorways selected a greater number of reasons on average than those who admitted exceeding the speed limit on 20mph roads. Of these five reasons the top reason given was “I drive according to the speed of other road users”, cited by 40% of motorway users and 33% of 30mph road users. On 20mph roads users most often cited the speed limit being inappropriate as the contributor to their exceeding the speed limit (49%). All the above are hard statistics. For those involved there was an 90% conviction ratio for people proceeded against for speed limit offences in England and Wales in 2021 (187,000 were found guilty). In 2021, 33% of motoring convictions were for speed limit offences. It is unlikely that any magistrate on any day is aware of all these numbers and many more concerning the results of these transgressions. As of 2019, the Single Justice Procedure accounted for 57% of the 1.5 million cases passing through magistrates courts in England and Wales. In 2020-21, 2,426,950 speeding offences were detected in England and Wales. These represented 86% of the total number of all motoring offences for all of England and Wales. I have so far been unable to discover the number of speeding offences undertaken through the Single Justice Procedure.
There can be few of us who have not driven past two or more speed cameras on a motorway whilst exceeding the speed limit on that stretch of tarmac. The police must send the actual speeding ticket, i.e. the Fixed Penalty Notice, within six months of the date of the offence. They can only send the speeding ticket if they previously sent the Notice of Intended Prosecution within 14 days. With a six month delay allowed for prosecution those of a nervous disposition are liable to experience a few sleepless nights. A defendant who had the experience of multiple charges for excessive speed on a single journey decided to exercise his right to a court hearing. Personally not once in my time on the Bench did I sit on any situation remotely similar. I would hazard an opinion that my lack of experience in that regard is common amongst JPs. My point in all this statistical overload is the likelihood of so many defendants with a clean license in a similar situation, perhaps with two lapses involving 6 penalty points, or three with 9 points at stake being unable or unwilling to take their case to a full hearing at a magistrates court open to the public and to that diminished coterie of court reporters. Increasingly warranted criticism of the SJP is beginning to move some "movers and shakers" in the direction I have advocated since its inception. It is a carbuncle on the face of British justice and it should be abolished.
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