Reduction in road offences may be due to Police cuts say MPs

A fall in the number of recorded motoring offences may be due to a decline in traffic officer numbers according to MPs.

The Transport Select Committee warned that police cuts would stop some motoring offences being detected. Over a decade the number of specialist road policing officers in England and Wales fell by almost 39% - from 7,104 in 2005 to 4,356 in 2014. Over almost the same period reported motoring offences more than halved - from 4.3 million in 2004 to 1.5 million in 2014.

The Select Committee said that the government was right to focus on the 'fatal four' - drink-driving, speeding, using mobile phones; and not wearing seat belts. It urged the Department of Transport to ensure that detection rates for those offences were high.