You've probably heard various tales about how far you can go above the speed limit before you actually get done for it.
It's ten per cent over, you might be told; or it's 3mph, according to someone else.
Well, the truth has now been revealed - which is that these 'tolerances' are used by many police forces around the UK, for both normal fixed cameras and average speed cameras.
Auto Express sent Freedom of Information requests to all 45 police forces in the UK to ask them what their official policy on tolerances was.
Of these, 33 forces responded. And while eight forces would either not reveal whether they used a threshold (including Nottinghamshire), or would not say what that threshold was, 24 forces said they did have a threshold in place.
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These included Derbyshire, which said drivers were given a tolerance of 10 percent plus 2mph.
This means that, in a 30mph zone, you wouldn't get a ticket unless you were going above 35mph. Or in a 60mph zone, that limit would be 68mph.
Essex was the only force which categorically said it did not use thresholds.
The full responses are as follows:
Police force |
Number of cameras |
Camera activation threshold |
| Avon and Somerset | 41 | 10% + 2mph |
| Bedfordshire | 38 | Would not reveal threshold |
| Cambridgeshire | 32 | Would not reveal threshold |
| Cheshire | 15 | 10% + 2mph |
| Cleveland | 4 | 10% + 2mph |
| Derbyshire | 18 | 10% + 2mph |
| Devon and Cornwall | 98 | 10% + 2mph |
| Durham | 0 fixed | 10% + 2mph |
| Essex | 63 | Don't use a standard threshold |
| Greater Manchester | 235 | Would not reveal threshold |
| Gwent | 21 | 10% + 2mph |
| Hampshire | 36 | 10% + 2mph |
| Hertfordshire | 53 | Would not reveal threshold |
| Kent | 109 | 10% + 2mph |
| Lancashire | 34 | 10% + 3mph |
| Leicestershire | 30 | 10% + 2mph |
| Merseyside | 18 | 10% + 2mph |
| Metropolitan Police/TfL | 805 | 10% + 3mph |
| Norfolk | 26 | 10% + 2mph |
| North Wales | 28 | 10% + 2mph |
| Northumbria | 55 | 10% + 2mph |
| Nottinghamshire | 48 | Refused to confirm if threshold exists |
| Police Service of Northern Ireland | 12 | 10% + 2mph |
| Scotland | 173 | Refused to confirm if threshold exists |
| South Wales | 137 | 10% + 2mph |
| South Yorkshire | 25 | 10% + 2mph |
| Staffordshire | 286 | Would not reveal threshold |
| Suffolk | 4 | 10% + 2mph |
| Thames Valley | 294 | 10% + 2mph |
| Warwickshire | 28 | 10% + 2mph |
| West Mercia | 23 | 10% + 2mph |
| West Midlands | 33 | Would not reveal threshold |
| West Yorkshire | 402 | 10% + 2mph |
Auto Express said a number of forces which wouldn’t reveal their camera thresholds had argued that knowledge of these would encourage drivers to speed.
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