{"id":410401,"date":"2025-09-09T12:21:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T12:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/410401\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T12:21:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T12:21:11","slug":"drivers-in-england-given-allowance-for-driving-over-speed-limit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/410401\/","title":{"rendered":"Drivers in England given &#8216;allowance&#8217; for driving over speed limit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Speed thresholds in the UK are usually 10 per cent higher than the speed limit, plus 2mph &#8211; so in England, the prosecution threshold for 20mph is 24mph.<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/0_cars1.jpg\" alt=\"Drivers in England given 'allowance' for driving over speed limit\" loading=\"eager\"  \/>Drivers in England given &#8216;allowance&#8217; for driving over speed limit<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">As more and more 20mph speed limits are sweeping England, drivers have been given a new &#8216;allowance&#8217; for driving over the speed limit. Speed thresholds in the UK are usually 10 per cent higher than the speed limit, plus 2mph &#8211; so in England, the prosecution threshold for 20mph is 24mph.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">In Wales, the tolerance for 20mph is up to 26mph during a &#8220;transition period&#8221; for motorists in Wales. &#8220;We&#8217;ve got to make allowances for people who are trying to do the right thing and were fractionally over the limit,&#8221; a policeman told the <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.birminghammail.co.uk\/all-about\/bbc\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"BBCLink opens in a new tab.\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">BBC<\/a> this week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">The 26mph threshold has been reviewed by GoSafe &#8211; a body made up of Wales&#8217; 22 councils, four police forces and the Welsh Government.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\"><a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.birminghammail.co.uk\/news\/midlands-news\/uk-prescription-rule-change-means-32371493\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong class=\"Strong_strong__e2x35\">READ MORE UK prescription rule change means households face \u00a3247 charge<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">&#8220;We&#8217;ll see how traffic is behaving, and if we see there&#8217;s an argument to bring it and those speeds down further in March, we will,&#8221; said Teresa Ciano of GoSafe, speaking to the Beeb.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Motoring lawyer Jonathan Wilkins says the difference in tolerance levels between Wales and England can &#8220;cause real confusion&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">But a cop spoke out to the Beeb and said: &#8220;The law is still 20mph regardless of whether it&#8217;s a 4mph or 6mph allowance.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">&#8220;There were nearly 100 deaths on Welsh roads every year, which is far too many,&#8221; said the chief inspector.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">He went on: &#8220;We needed to change something to bring that number down. It&#8217;s early days but the number of collisions has reduced and where there were 35 fatalities in the South Wales Police force area last year, we&#8217;re roughly a third down year-on-year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">&#8220;That&#8217;s 11 or 12 less bereavements, 11 or 12 fewer families who haven&#8217;t had to go through the trauma of losing a loved one. There&#8217;s a significant change and shows slower speeds are safer. It&#8217;s a positive impact.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">The nationwide 20mph speed limit in residential areas was introduced on September 17, 2023 with drivers forced to adhere to slower speeds or pay the price.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Speed thresholds in the UK are usually 10 per cent higher than the speed limit, plus 2mph &#8211;&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":410402,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5008],"tags":[748,393,4884,8955,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-410401","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-england","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-midlands-traffic-and-travel","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115174315444226486","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=410401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410401\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/410402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}