Speeding Penalties Explained: Points, Fines, and the Speed Awareness Course

Unlike a parking charge, a speeding penalty is not a single fixed amount you either pay or appeal. It is a scale, and where you land on it depends on the speed, your record and your income. Knowing the scale is the difference between a sensible decision and an expensive guess.

The fixed penalty: £100 and 3 points

The standard minimum penalty for speeding is a £100 fine and 3 penalty points, issued as a Fixed Penalty Notice. For many straightforward cases at the lower end of the range, that is where it ends, and the points stay on your licence for the relevant period.

Where the £100 comes from is worth knowing, because it is not written down as a speeding penalty anywhere. Schedule 1 to the Fixed Penalty Order 2000 has no row for speeding. Item 4 of that Schedule reads "Any other fixed penalty offence involving obligatory endorsement £100", and speeding lands there because Schedule 2 to the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988 marks endorsement for a section 89(1) offence as Obligatory, and gives the points as "3-6 or 3 (fixed penalty)". So 3 points on a fixed penalty, and 3 to 6 if a court deals with it.

One number in the same Schedule is worth more of your attention than the £100. Item 3 sets the fixed penalty for a section 172 offence, failing to tell them who was driving, at £200. Not answering the form costs twice what the speeding does, and it is a separate offence.

The speed awareness course: no points, if you qualify

For speeds at the lower end of the range, you may be offered a speed awareness course instead of the fixed penalty. The important points:

• It is offered at the discretion of the police force. It is not an automatic entitlement.
• You can normally only take one course every three years.
• There is a fee, and it takes around four hours. The fee is set by the course provider, not by statute, so it varies by force area and by provider. We are not going to quote you a national figure, because there is not one. The offer letter states the fee.
• Complete it and there is no fine and no points.

Where it is offered, the course is almost always the better outcome than points, because keeping your licence clean matters for insurance and for the totting-up thresholds below.

Court: banded fines and bigger consequences

For higher speeds, or if you contest a ticket and it goes to the Magistrates' Court, the fine is set in one of three bands under the Sentencing Council's definitive guideline, Speeding (Revised 2017), effective 24 April 2017. The band is not a judgement call about how bad it was. It is read off a table, from the limit and your recorded speed:

• Band A: a fine with a starting point of 50% of relevant weekly income, range 25 to 75%, and 3 points.
• Band B: starting point 100%, range 75 to 125%, and "Disqualify 7 - 28 days OR 4 - 6 points".
• Band C: starting point 150%, range 125 to 175%, and "Disqualify 7 - 56 days OR 6 points".

And here is the table itself, which is the part nobody publishes and which tells you where you actually stand:

Recorded speed in mph. Sentencing Council, Speeding (Revised 2017), steps 1 and 2.

Read the 20 mph row again. Band A starts at 21 mph. There is no tolerance built into the sentencing guideline any more than there is one in the offence, and that is worth holding onto if you have read anywhere that 10% plus 2 is a rule. It is not.

The maximum fine is set by the offence, not by the band. The guideline states it on its face as "Level 3 fine (level 4 if motorway)", and section 122 of the Sentencing Act 2020 puts level 3 at £1,000 and level 4 at £2,500. The reason motorway speeding is higher is not that courts take it more seriously. It is a different offence, under section 17(4) of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 rather than section 89(1), and Schedule 2 to the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988 gives that one a level 4 maximum.

Two lines in the guideline that summaries leave out, and both matter. "Must endorse and may disqualify. If no disqualification impose 3 - 6 points", so the points on a court disposal are a range, not a fixed 3. And "Where an offender is driving grossly in excess of the speed limit the court should consider a disqualification in excess of 56 days". The 56 days in Band C is not a ceiling.

The point thresholds that cost you your licence

• New drivers. The Road Traffic (New Drivers) Act 1995 sets a probationary period of "two years beginning with the day on which he becomes a qualified driver" (section 1(1)). Reach six or more points taken into account on a conviction in that period and section 3(1) says the Secretary of State must revoke the licence. Not may. You then re-apply for a provisional licence and pass both tests again, under section 4.
• Totting up. Section 35(1) of the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988: at twelve or more points, the court "must order him to be disqualified for not less than the minimum period" unless satisfied there are "grounds for mitigating the normal consequences of the conviction". The minimum is six months where no previous disqualification counts, under section 35(2)(a).
• The three year rule, which cuts your way. Section 29(2): "If any of the offences was committed more than three years before another, the penalty points in respect of that offence shall not be added to those in respect of the other." So an old endorsement may not count towards twelve. Check the offence dates, not the conviction dates.

This is why a single speeding decision is rarely just about the £100. If you are already carrying points, or you are a new driver, the same ticket can carry a far larger consequence, which is exactly the situation where proper advice pays for itself.

The honest takeaway

If a speed awareness course is offered and you qualify, it is usually the cleanest outcome. A fixed penalty of £100 and 3 points is the standard next step. Court is where the numbers grow, and where contesting and losing can backfire. And because the real cost depends on your existing points and your circumstances, the sensible move for anything beyond a simple fixed penalty is advice on your own case.

One check worth making first: is it even a speeding fine? Many camera penalties are civil, not criminal, with no points at all, and those are often challengeable.

General legal information about the law in England and Wales, not legal advice, and no solicitor-client relationship is created. Take advice on your own circumstances before acting.