Common questions
Every answer here is traceable to the source it rests on, and where the honest answer is “that is not stated anywhere”, it says that instead of guessing.
Questions
What this market actually asks
The first five questions below are the ones this market types, in the words it types them in. The rest are the ones that decide whether the rest of a page makes sense.
Two habits run through every answer here. The first is that a figure appears only if a source states it, and the source is named on the page the answer belongs to. The second is that where the honest answer is “nothing in our sources says”, the answer says that instead of reaching for the most repeated version circulating online. Both habits cost us some clean, confident sentences. They are the reason the rest can be trusted.
Two questions in particular come back with a number attached, and they are the two this site will not supply: what a speed awareness course costs across Great Britain, and what proportion a guilty plea takes off a fine. Neither figure exists in the sources this site is built on. Both are explained below rather than quietly skipped.
- How much is a first-time speeding fine?
- If the case is dealt with out of court, the fixed penalty is £100 and 3 penalty points. That amount is set by order as a flat figure: it does not go up or down with your income, your speed or whether it is your first time. If the case goes to court instead, the fine is worked out as a percentage of relevant weekly income inside a band, capped by the statutory maximum for the offence — so there is no single "first-time" number for that route. Nothing in our sources sets a lower amount for a first offence, and nothing sets a higher one for a repeat: what changes with history is the points total and what a court may do about it.
- Will I get a fine for 71 in a 70?
- 71 mph in a 70 mph limit is inside band A of the sentencing guideline’s own table — band A at that limit runs from 71 mph to 90 mph. So on the guideline, yes: that speed is an offence and it sits in the lowest of the three bands. What our sources do not contain is a tolerance. There is no statutory margin above a posted limit, this site models none, and whether a particular force acts on a particular reading is force practice rather than law — we cannot tell you, and neither can any other site.
- Will I get points for 31 in a 30?
- 31 mph in a 30 mph limit falls in band A. Through the fixed-penalty route that is 3 penalty points; if a court deals with it in band A the guideline gives 3 points. Endorsement is obligatory for this offence either way — the schedule says so — which is why "just a fine, no points" is not an outcome the sources describe. Being offered a speed awareness course instead is a separate matter, run by forces and providers rather than by statute, and no threshold on any site turns it into a promise.
- Do fixed penalty notices go on your record?
- Two different records, and the distinction matters. Paying a fixed penalty for an endorsable offence puts an endorsement and its penalty points on your driving record — that is what "endorsable" means. It does not produce a criminal conviction: the notice discharges liability to conviction by payment (RTOA 1988 s.52(1)), so no court convicts you and there is no sentence. In the ordinary case where no disqualification is ordered, the endorsement runs for 4 years from the date of the offence. How long points are counted for a totting-up calculation is a different clock again, and the penalty points page sets the two out side by side.
- How long do police have to issue a fixed penalty notice?
- The question usually means the notice of intended prosecution, which is the first clock and the shortest: for the offences the Act flags, a warning at the time, a summons, or a notice of intended prosecution must reach you within 14 days of the offence (RTOA 1988 s.1), with stated exceptions — including where there was an accident, or where your address could not be found with reasonable diligence. That is not the same clock as the 21 days on the notice itself, which is a suspended enforcement period, nor the 28 days a conditional offer runs for, nor the 28 days you have to say who was driving. Four periods, four starting events, and merging them is the most common mistake made about these notices.
- Is a speeding fine a fixed amount or a percentage of my income?
- Both exist, and which applies depends on the route your case takes. The out-of-court fixed penalty is a flat amount with a flat points figure and it is NOT means-tested. The court-tier fine is priced as a percentage of relevant weekly income inside a band range, capped by the statutory maximum for the offence. Conflating the two is the most common error in this market.
- Is there a discount for paying a fixed penalty early?
- No. There is no early-payment discount on a fixed penalty in Great Britain. The period stated on the notice is a suspended enforcement period — proceedings may not be brought while it runs, and paying within it bars them permanently — not a window in which the amount is lower. Readers arriving from a European system where a reduced early rate exists should note the difference.
- Does the victim surcharge get added to a fixed penalty notice?
- No. The victim surcharge is a duty a COURT owes when it deals with an offender by sentencing them (Sentencing Act 2020 s.42(1) — the duty formerly in Criminal Justice Act 2003 s.161A, which was repealed on 1 December 2020). A fixed penalty notice is an out-of-court disposal that discharges liability without a conviction ever occurring (RTOA 1988 s.52(1)), so there is no sentence for a surcharge to attach to. This is a real, cited absence, and it is one competitor pages routinely get wrong.
- Does this site cover Northern Ireland?
- No, and that is a deliberate limit rather than an omission. The Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988 does not extend to Northern Ireland (s.99(7)); Northern Ireland runs a separate Road Traffic (Northern Ireland) Order regime that is not in this site’s sources. This site answers for England and Wales and for Scotland.
- Are the rules the same in Scotland?
- Not everywhere. England & Wales and Scotland share Westminster statute for most of this, but they diverge in several stated places — most consequentially, Scotland’s prescribed alcohol limits are LOWER. Where the sources diverge, this site shows both readings side by side and does not pick one for you.
- Is speeding on a motorway a different offence?
- Yes. Motorway speed limits are imposed by regulations made for a special road, and speeding there is contravening those regulations (RTRA 1984 s.17(4)) — a different offence, with a higher statutory maximum, from exceeding a speed limit (RTRA 1984 s.89(1)). There is no statutory “level 4 if motorway” variant of s.89(1); the guideline’s wording and the schedule’s rows describe two offences, not a conflict.
- What does a speed awareness course cost?
- Unknown at national level, and this site will not invent a figure. The course is run by police forces and providers, and the power to charge for it is statutory — RTOA 1988 ss.90G–90I, with regulations in S.I. 2025/238 — but those regulations deliberately set no standard fee and no ceiling, and no primary source publishes a national fee or a national fee range. The amount is set by the provider and the force that offered the course, and your own notice or booking page is the only authority on what yours costs.
- Can I check my penalty points here?
- No, and deliberately so. This site never asks for a driving licence number, a National Insurance number, a notice reference or a date of birth, and it renders no lookup form. The official service is the DVLA’s “View your driving licence information”; the relevant pages here link straight out to it.
- Are the rules different in my first two years of driving?
- Yes, and it is a separate mechanism rather than a lower rung of the same ladder. Under the Road Traffic (New Drivers) Act 1995 a driver who reaches the Act’s points threshold during the probationary period has their licence REVOKED by the Secretary of State — the Act’s word is “must” — which is a different thing from a court disqualification.
- Does pleading guilty reduce the fine?
- The fines guideline points at a separate guideline for that, and that separate guideline is not among this site’s sources. So no proportion, percentage or figure for a guilty-plea reduction appears anywhere on this site. That is a gap in what we can cite, stated plainly, rather than a number borrowed from somewhere unverified.
Two answers you will not find here
Because we cannot cite them
There is no guilty-plea reduction percentage anywhere on this site. The fines guideline says the fine “should be reduced by the appropriate proportion” and points at a separate guideline for what that proportion is — and that separate guideline is not among our sources. Printing a percentage from memory would be the exact failure this site exists to avoid.
And there is no national speed awareness course fee, because no primary source publishes one. The scheme is run by police forces and providers; legislation gives the charging regime a statutory basis (RTOA 1988 ss.90G–90I), but the regulations made under it deliberately set no standard fee and no ceiling, so providers set their own and the only authority on what yours costs is the letter or booking page you were sent. Both of these are gaps in what we can cite, stated as gaps, rather than numbers borrowed from somewhere unverified.
Where this applies. This site answers for England and Wales and for Scotland. It does not answer for Northern Ireland: the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988 does not extend there (s.99(7)), and Northern Ireland runs a separate Road Traffic (Northern Ireland) Order regime that is not among this site’s sources. Figures here are Great Britain figures, not UK-wide ones.
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