When is a motorway camera not a speed camera?

When it does not give you a fine?

Knowing the difference is vital for the financial well-being of the British motorist.

Not all cameras, it seems, are designed to fine the driver as there are numerous cameras, often with a different role to play.

Here ChronicleLive identifies the ones which catch the speeding motorist and those there to make travelling a bit easier.

Gatso - speed camera, fine

Since the introduction of speed cameras on Britain’s roads in 1992, it’s the Gatsometer BV speed camera which has become the most commonly used camera on the UK’s roads. Now found of course in digital format.

They are found all over the country, particularly near accident black-spots.

Mobile camera - speed camera - FINE

Operated by police officers — these devices are hand-held or mounted in vans that are normally parked in lay-bys. The cameras either use laser or radar technology.

They can appear anywhere at any time.

Highways Agency CCTV cameras - not a speed camera - NO FINE

They are used to mon­i­tor traf­fic flows pri­mar­ily for the pur­poses of traf­fic man­age­ment. They also pro­vide the Highways England with a valu­able appre­ci­a­tion of how road-users make use of the net­work. This knowl­edge helps ensure future public-funded invest­ment is made most effectively.

NOT used to catch speeding motorists, they are found on motorways and major A-roads.

SPECS - speed camera - FINE

These big boys are able to monitor four lanes simultaneously, sets of these cameras are mounted on gantries. These are equipped with Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) and photograph every vehicle that passes beneath them.

The data is then sent to another set of cameras further down the road (a minimum of 200m away).

The time that it takes for the vehicle to travel between these two set points is established, and as a result, a motorist’s average speed between the two points is worked out. Speed fines can result.

Fitted with infra-red illuminators, they work night and day, and in all weathers.

They are found on motorways and dual carriageways all over the country.

Police Automatic Number Plate Recognition - catching criminals - FINE POSSIBLE JAIL SENTENCE

These record number plates of every passing vehicle, then store information to ‘help detect, deter and disrupt criminality at a local, force, regional and national level’.

Records can be accessed for up to two years.

If a vehicle is of interest to police, officers monitoring it can order a patrol car team to stop the driver and, if necessary, make an arrest.

They are found across the country.

Highways Agency ANPR Cameras - not a speed camera - NO FINE

The Highways England utilises Automatic Number Plate Recognition ANPR cam­eras, iden­ti­fi­able by their bright green hous­ings, to sup­port traf­fic man­age­ment by send­ing data to the NTOC from which traf­fic flow infor­ma­tion is cal­cu­lated.

The ANPR cam­eras do not cap­ture individual num­ber plates pass­ing a cam­era instal­la­tion – they are used to determine traffic levels. There are restric­tions, in accor­dance with the Data Pro­tec­tion Act 1998, on the Highways England’s use and stor­age of data from these cam­eras.

The ANPR data is per­ma­nently encrypted at the moment of ‘cap­ture’ into a non-unique text string to pre­vent iden­ti­fi­ca­tion of indi­vid­ual vehi­cles (i.e. full num­ber plate details are not recorded or stored).