Drivers caught speeding more than once in a three-year-period can avoid having points added to their licence due to incomplete sharing of speed awareness course attendance data.
According to a report the Chartered Insurance Institute, police authorities in Hampshire, Dorset and the City of London offered courses independently from the National Speed Awareness Scheme offered in most of England and Wales.
Offenders nationwide can only attend a speed awareness course once every three years; if they are caught speeding again during this time, they will receive a speeding conviction. For this reason, details are recorded on the National Driver Offender Retraining Scheme.
However, the CII underwriters’ board found that data from the three regions acting outside of the national scheme was not entered into the database or shared between local authorities.
As a result, it is possible for a driver to attend a speed awareness course and avoid a conviction more than once every three years if they are caught by police exempt from the national scheme.
David Williams, chairman of the CII underwriting faculty board, said: “This begs the question of how many drivers considered ‘unsafe’ by the majority of the public are still on the road, barely admonished and potentially putting lives in danger?
“Are police forces in the City of London, Hampshire and Dorset in danger of undermining efforts to improve road safety, by not sharing data and offering speed awareness courses not in the National Driver Offender Retraining Scheme?”