Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps she is taking to better secure the payment of speeding fines by offenders whose vehicles are registered overseas.

This Government takes recovery and enforcement of financial impositions very seriously and remains committed to finding new ways to encourage payment of impositions and to trace those who do not pay. This is why there has been a year on year increase in the amount of financial penalties collected over the last three years.

When it appears to HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) that an offender is normally resident in another EU country HMCTS can transfer road traffic offence fines, imposed by courts in this country, to other EU jurisdictions for enforcement under the EU Framework Decision on Mutual Recognition of Financial Penalties (MRFP). The Framework Decision obliges Member States to take over enforcement of eligible fines imposed by other Member States’ courts, where the offender is resident or has assets in the enforcing state. All monies collected however are retained by the enforcing Member State.

Where the offender is resident in a non EU country or in one not included in the MRFP Framework there is no mechanism for HMCTS to be able to recover the amounts outstanding.

It is not possible to identify the value of fines outstanding which relate to motoring offences for offenders who live overseas without incurring disproportionate cost as this information could only be obtained by a manual search of all live fine accounts.