There is quite a lot of interesting information coming out of the Government since the Freedom of Information Act. In particular I stumbled upon the Department for Transport web site and found the following:

1. The last audited 12 month period is the 2003/04 financial year that ended on 31 March 2004. The total fine receipts for speeding and red light offences detected by fixed and mobile cameras was £113,549,240.
2. Of this amount, £91,848,844 was reinvested in road safety as payments back to the partnerships including the police, local highway authorities and magistrates’ courts who operate within the safety camera programme.
3. The amount retained by the Treasury was £21,700,396 which is the difference between 1) and 2) above.

Wow – over £113 million raised in a year just from speed camera fines and £22 million of that was kept by the Treasury as pure profit.

There is also a request for information about a report on the effectiveness of safety cameras, presumably from a road safety perspective rather than the potential for blatant profiteering. The DfT response was:

1. Yes. A 4th year report on the effectiveness of the first four years of the safety camera programme is being prepared.
2. The lead authors of the report are PA Consulting and University College London.
3. The planned publication date is in the Autumn of this year.
4. The report does not currently exist.

I look forward to reading the outcome!