To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) why the drivers of vehicles with overseas registration plates cannot be traced to enforce penalties and prosecutions after they are caught on cameras committing speeding and red light offences; (117309)

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) for what reasons the drivers of vehicles with overseas registration plates cannot be traced to enforce penalties and prosecutions after they have been caught on camera committing offences; (110862)

There are a number of practical problems in taking enforcement action against the drivers of foreign registered vehicles. We have taken a number of measures to improve the situation. These include a provision in the Road Safety Act 2006 which will allow the exchange of driver licensing and vehicle registration information with other countries. Further help will be provided by the European Framework Decision on the Mutual Recognition of Financial Penalties, which will allow penalties imposed by courts in one member state to be enforced in another and by the International Convention on the mutual recognition of driving disqualifications. The growing use of Automatic Number Plate recognition cameras, which check passing vehicles against various databases, is also helping enforcement against foreign offenders detected speeding and jumping red lights, since a person who succeeds in leaving the country without being dealt with for such an offence can have their vehicle’s number-plate recorded on a database and so be detected and dealt with on return here.

The information requested in respect of foreign registered vehicles detected by camera in the infringement of speed limits or jumping red traffic signals is not collected centrally.