FOI 545/25 Speeding Fines

Date: 11/06/2025

Enquiry Reference:  545- 25                                                             

I write in connection with regards to your Freedom of Information request. Below is your request and our response.

• The number of successful prosecutions secured for exceeding the speed limit on the roads with reference specifically to TRACTORS and/or agricultural vehicles (as opposed to any other vehicle type)

Answer

Having made enquiries within the Force please contact the courts for data on prosecutions.

• Please provide tractor/agricultural vehicle speeding prosecution figures for 2022-23, 2023-2024, 2025 so far.
• Answer
• Having made enquiries within the Force please contact the courts for data on prosecutions.

• Can you please identify the HIGHEST illegal tractor/agricultural vehicle speed (in mph) recorded by the force, and what the speed limit of the road was at the time of the offence.

Answer

Section 1 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) places two duties on public authorities. Unless exemptions apply, the first duty at Section 1 (1) (a) is to confirm or deny whether the information specified in a request is held. The second duty at Sec 1(1) (b) is to disclose information that has been confirmed as being held. Where exemptions are relied upon s17 of FOIA requires that we provide the applicant with a notice which: a) states that fact b) specifies the exemption(s) in question and c) states (if that would not otherwise be apparent) why the exemption applies.

Having made enquiries within the Force we can confirm we have the information you requested. However to identify the highest illegal tractor/agricultural vehicle speed (in mph) recorded would require a manual investigation into hundreds and thousands of incident logs. This process will take approximately three minutes per record. This is estimated that this would take in excess of the appropriate time stipulated by the Secretary for Constitutional Affairs, Lord Falconer on the 18th Of October 2004, that is, eighteen hours.

This falls under the exemption of 'Compliance exceeding the appropriate limit' covered by Section 12 (1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and as such this work could not be undertaken.

Therefore, please treat this as a refusal notice under S17 of the Freedom of information Act. Once one part of the request is over the time specified the whole request is.  However, In accordance with Section 16 of the Act I have a duty to provide advice and assistance in relation to your request and on this occasion I’m unable to offer an alternative solution.

If you are not satisfied with this response or any actions taken in dealing with your request, you have the right to request an independent internal review of your case under our review procedure. The Freedom of Information Code of Practice (see below link) states that a request for internal review should be made within 20 working days of the date on this response or 40 working days if extenuating circumstances to account for the delay can be evidenced. Public authorities are not obliged to accept internal reviews after this date.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/freedom-of-information-code-of-practice

Yours sincerely

Information Rights Decision Maker