Motoring offences: 2018

Fixed penalty notices (FPNs)

• In 2018, police and traffic wardens issued 74,500 FPNs in Wales, a decrease of 13% compared with 2017. Speed limit offences accounted for 73% (54,500) of these.
• In recent years FPNs have fallen steadily from over 112,000 in 2012.

Court proceedings

• 56,300 motoring offenders were prosecuted in Wales in 2018.
• The most common groups of offences were 'speed limit offences' (17,300), 'vehicle registration and excise licence offences' (10,700) and 'vehicle insurance offences' (10,400).

Accidents involving drink driving

• In 2017, an estimated 5% of all recorded accidents in Wales involved one or more drivers impaired by alcohol. For accidents resulting in killed or seriously injured casualties the proportion was higher, at 8%.
• 13% of motor vehicle drivers killed in Wales were found to have had a blood alcohol level over the legal limit, compared with 15% in Great Britain.

Screening breath tests

• In 2018, 37,000 screening breath tests were carried out in Wales. 4,500 of these tests (12%) were positive or refused, a fall of 1.6% compared with 2017.

Further information

The reports ‘Motoring offenders’ and ‘Drinking and driving’ have been combined into one report to simplify the user experience.