Post fines for UK speeders in France

BRITISH-REGISTERED drivers caught by radars speeding in France are to get fines sent in the post to their UK homes – but not until 2017.

It comes as EU transport ministers agreed that an information-sharing scheme will apply everywhere despite the UK, Ireland and Denmark previously opting out.

Speeding, drink driving, not using a seatbelt and going through red lights are included and if a driver commits an offence in another EU state, that state may use their registration number to access data from their home country.

It can then send a letter in the driver’s own language, telling them of the penalty and how to pay any fines due.

The scheme came into force in 2013 in most EU states but the European Commission challenged the legal basis for it as it had been done under police cooperation rules, whereas it was a transport safety issue. This went to the European Court, with several countries, including the UK arguing – unsuccessfully – for the status quo.

A new version is due by next summer (if the EU parliament signs it off in time); in the meantime the current one remains in place. A knock-on effect of the change of legal basis is that the UK no longer has an opt out. However, the Council of Ministers gave it until May 2017 to prepare.

A Transport Department spokeswoman said the UK now backs the plan as “it is not right that foreign drivers go unpunished in the UK”.
She added the main concern previously had been the use of people’s data and that information could have been passed on to “security agencies”.
This would no longer apply.

Ellen Townsend, of the European Transport Safety Council said there had been new data – and publicity – on the “scale of foreign vehicles involved in UK traffic offences” and the government seemed to have “belatedly” realised the benefits.

The scheme means Britons with French holiday homes will no longer go unpunished in France, nor will French residents with French-registered cars get away with offences in the UK.

Britons in France who fail to re-register British cars may fall through the net as details passed to France would be based on DVLA records linked to the former UK address. By law, once France is your home, cars you keep here should be registered with French plates as soon as possible (and as an absolute maximum in six months).