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Highways England Company Limited | General enquiries: 0300 123 5000
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Our ref: 18744870

Dear Mr William B

Thank you for your email  of 16 May 2018 about speed limits on the M32.

This response has not been carried out under the Freedom of Information
Act as this is information we provide on a regular basis to our customers.

At the time of your journey on the M32 between the Severn Beach Railway
Bridge and the end of the M32 the speed limit would have been 40mph.This
is not a variable speed limit and is in place 24 hours a day. Avon and
Somerset Police are the enforcement agency and can be contacted at this
link -
[1]https://www.avonandsomerset.police.uk/ad...

If you have any further queries, please contact our Customer Contact
Centre on 0300 123 5000 or [2][Highways England request email]

Kind regards,

Gareth Price

Regional Enforcement Co-ordinator

Highways England | Brunel House | 930 Hempton Court | Aztec West |
Almondsbury | BS32 4SR
Web: [3]http://www.highways.gov.uk

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Highways England Company Limited | General enquiries: 0300 123 5000
|National Traffic Operations Centre, 3 Ridgeway, Quinton Business Park,
Birmingham B32 1AF |
[4]https://www.gov.uk/government/organisati... |
[5][Highways England request email]

Registered in England and Wales no 9346363 | Registered Office: Bridge
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Gareth Price
SW Emergency Planning and Events Officer

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Highways England Company Limited | General enquiries: 0300 123 5000
|National Traffic Operations Centre, 3 Ridgeway, Quinton Business Park,
Birmingham B32 1AF |
[2]https://www.gov.uk/government/organisati... |
[3][Highways England request email]

Registered in England and Wales no 9346363 | Registered Office: Bridge
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Dear Mr William B

Thank you for your email, in reviewing the information you have given me, you are referring to Variable Message Signs on the M32 prior to the Railway Bridge which you mention in your initial email. You are quite right, these do show different speed limits in reaction to the speed of the traffic or set due to an incident however they are not mandatory speed limits.

Kind Regards,

Gareth Price
Regional Enforcement Co-ordinator
Highways England | Brunel House | 930 Hempton Court | Aztec West | Almondsbury | BS32 4SR
Web: http://www.highways.gov.uk

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Dear Mr William B,

Are there any reference numbers on the NIP you have received or any description of the location of the alleged offence. You are correct, there are 2 different enforcement sites, one that has a fixed mandatory 40mph speed limit at the Bristol city end of the M32 and a mandatory variable speed limit on the M4 J20 -19.

Highways England records some signal data for operational purposes; however our database is not certified or calibrated to enforcement standards, and it is not connected to the variable speed cameras. It may contain errors, particularly in the times at which particular speed limits were recorded, since (unlike the enforcement cameras) it was not designed to provide 100% accuracy. This means that the records we hold do not constitute legal proof of what speed limit was displayed, and could not be relied on in court for the purpose of challenging a speeding ticket.

In case your NIP refers to the M4 J20-19 and in order to progress your query, I consulted the information available to me in this database; this indicates that on the 21/04/18 at 13:51:50 hrs a 50 mph speed limit was in place and at 13:51:57 hrs a 40mph speed limit, at 13:55:11 a 50mph speed limit and at 13:56:11 a 60mph speed limit due to congestion.

The electronic signals on the M4 have been installed as part of the J20-J19 smart motorway scheme. The aim of this scheme is to actively control traffic flow and reduce congestion, using variable speed limits set in response to conditions on the road, as well as by opening up the hard shoulder as a running lane at busy periods. Existing smart motorways have successfully reduced congestion without compromising safety, at a significantly lower construction cost to the taxpayer than traditional road widening.

Enforcement is one of a number of measures which are used to encourage compliance with speed limits, so that the benefits of the scheme can be delivered to road users. Camera warning signs are used to ensure drivers are aware that enforcement is in operation on these sections. Variable speed enforcement cameras are operated by the Police, and the information generated by them is not held by Highways England; this means that I do not have access to any details of offences recorded.

However, I can tell you that the cameras are certified by the Home Office, to ensure that they operate fairly and provide legal proof of what speed limit was displayed. This involves strict design requirements which mean that they can only enforce a reduced speed limit if it is correctly displayed and the system is working properly; they are not capable of enforcing a different limit to the one which is displayed. Because of this, confirmation of the speed limit can only come from the information held by the Police, which is used to generate the enforcement notices.

I hope that the information I have provided helps to explain why this system is needed, and that there are safeguards in place to ensure it operates fairly.

If you have any further queries, please contact our Customer Contact Centre on 0300 123 5000 or [Highways England request email]

Kind regards,

Gareth Price
Regional Enforcement Co-ordinator
Highways England | Brunel House | 930 Hempton Court | Aztec West | Almondsbury | BS32 4SR
Web: http://www.highways.gov.uk

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