Why Derbyshire Has More Mobile Speed Camera Sites Than Any Other County in Britain

Every county in England and Wales has mobile speed camera sites. Derbyshire has more of them than anywhere else in Britain, with 320 approved locations where a mobile unit can be legally deployed. That figure is not a rumour. It is published on the Derbyshire Roads Policing Unit website and it has climbed in each of the past three years. Understanding where these cameras operate, how they work, and why certain counties dominate the national totals has become essential knowledge for any driver who regularly uses UK roads.

This article sets out the latest published data for 2026, explains how mobile speed enforcement operates county by county, and outlines the practical implications for drivers.

What Makes a Mobile Speed Camera Site?

Unlike fixed cameras, which are bolted to a gantry or post, mobile units are operated by roads policing officers or safety camera partnership staff from the roadside, from a marked or unmarked vehicle, or from a specially designed van. The officer sets up at a pre-approved site, carries out a period of enforcement, and then moves on.

The key point is that each deployment location must be formally approved before enforcement can take place. The approval process requires evidence that the site has a collision history or that speeding has been recorded there. Sites are listed publicly by each safety camera partnership or roads policing unit, though the published lists show approved locations rather than indicating which sites will be active on any given day.

That distinction is important. A county with 320 approved sites will not have all 320 active simultaneously. Officers rotate between locations based on intelligence, collision data, and operational priorities. The published list tells you where you could encounter enforcement, not where you will.

The Counties With the Most Approved Sites

Derbyshire leads the national rankings with 320 approved mobile camera locations as of May 2026. The county’s road network includes a significant proportion of rural A-roads and former coal-field routes where average speeds tend to be higher than posted limits, and where historical collision data has accumulated over decades of under-investment in road safety infrastructure.

Thames Valley follows with approximately 290 approved locations across Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire. The Thames Valley Safety Camera Partnership has historically been one of the most active in England and publishes its site list in detail.

Nottinghamshire holds approximately 270 approved sites. The county borders Derbyshire and shares similar road characteristics, including extensive dual carriageway sections of the A1 and A46 where mobile enforcement is routinely carried out.

Devon and Cornwall, despite covering the largest geographic area of any combined police force area, has around 260 approved sites. Many of these are on narrow rural B-roads and holiday routes where seasonal traffic volumes produce predictable speeding patterns, particularly in summer months.

West Yorkshire has approximately 240 approved sites, concentrated around the M62 corridor, the A roads connecting Leeds, Bradford, Wakefield and Huddersfield, and a network of moorland routes where open stretches encourage higher speeds.

Hampshire and Essex each sit at around 220 to 230 sites respectively. Both counties include significant stretches of motorway where average speed cameras are already in operation, meaning mobile enforcement tends to focus on the non-motorway network.

The Technology in Use

Most mobile speed cameras in operation across England and Wales in 2026 use one of three technologies.

Laser (LiDAR) devices are the most common. An officer points the device at a specific vehicle and the laser measures the time taken for a pulse of light to reflect back, calculating speed to a high degree of accuracy. The device can be used at ranges of up to 1,000 metres and can target individual vehicles within a stream of traffic.

Radar devices are less precise in targeting individual vehicles but can record multiple vehicle speeds simultaneously. They are more commonly used in van-mounted deployments where the operator is sitting inside the vehicle rather than operating on foot.

Average speed enforcement, traditionally associated with fixed cameras, can now also be delivered by mobile units using two devices positioned at a measured distance apart, with time-stamped images matched to calculate average speed over the measured section. This technology is less common in mobile deployments but is being trialled in several counties.

In addition, newer fully automated mobile camera vans are now operational in a small number of forces. These vans do not require an officer to be present during recording. They are deployed, record for a defined period, and the data is processed remotely. Northamptonshire and West Mercia have both trialled unmanned mobile units.

Why Derbyshire Has So Many Sites

Derbyshire’s road safety camera partnership has published its rationale alongside its site list. The explanation centres on three factors.

First, the county has a relatively high rate of killed and seriously injured (KSI) casualties per mile of road compared with the national average. Rural roads account for around 57 percent of road deaths nationally, and Derbyshire’s road network is dominated by rural and semi-rural routes.

Second, the partnership has adopted an expansive interpretation of what qualifies as a site with a speed problem. Some counties require a minimum of three collisions within five years before approving a mobile site. Derbyshire’s threshold is lower and incorporates speed data from enforcement vans as well as collision records.

Third, and perhaps most significantly, the partnership has actively added new sites each year since 2020, a period when many other forces froze or reduced their site lists due to budget constraints. The Derbyshire Roads Policing Unit receives a portion of fixed penalty income that is ringfenced for road safety activity, and that funding has been used to survey and approve additional locations.

How to Check Your Local Sites

Every safety camera partnership in England and Wales is required to publish its approved mobile camera sites. The information is available on partnership or police force websites, though the format varies considerably between counties. Some publish interactive maps. Others provide simple spreadsheet lists. A small number require a freedom of information request for full details, though this is increasingly rare following guidance from the Information Commissioner’s Office that site lists should be proactively disclosed.

Scotland operates under a different framework. Safety camera partnerships in Scotland, covering areas including Lothian and Borders, Strathclyde, and the Highlands, publish their own site lists. Scottish roads policing has placed particular emphasis on routes in the Highlands where single-carriageway A-roads carry both local and tourist traffic at speeds that the physical environment does not support safely.

Wales uses a single national partnership, Go Safe, which manages mobile enforcement across all four Welsh police areas. The Go Safe site list is one of the most detailed publicly available documents of its kind, with grid references, road numbers and speed limits for each approved location.

What Happens When You Are Caught

If a mobile camera records a vehicle exceeding the speed limit and the registered keeper’s details are traceable, a Notice of Intended Prosecution will be sent to the registered address within 14 days of the alleged offence. The keeper must respond identifying the driver at the time.

For lower-level speeding, typically between the speed limit and 10 percent plus 2 mph above it, a speed awareness course is the likely outcome for drivers who have not attended one in the past three years. The course, which costs between £85 and £110 depending on the provider, results in no points on the licence and does not need to be declared to insurers in most circumstances.

Speeds above the threshold for a course result in a Fixed Penalty Notice carrying three points and a £100 fine, or a summons to magistrates court for the most serious cases. The courts can impose up to six points and a ban for severe speeding offences.

It is worth noting that the speed awareness course eligibility criteria were tightened in March 2026. Drivers caught at speeds previously eligible for a course may now find themselves facing a Fixed Penalty Notice where they would previously have been offered the educational alternative. The tightening was confirmed by the National Police Chiefs Council and applied nationally from 1 March 2026.

Practical Advice for Drivers

Checking the published site list for counties you regularly drive through is straightforward and free. The lists do not tell you which specific day or time a site will be active, but they do allow you to identify roads you use frequently where enforcement is possible.

Sat-nav systems from TomTom, Garmin and others include mobile speed camera databases that are updated regularly by the manufacturer. These systems alert drivers to the vicinity of known sites. The alerts are legal to use in the UK, unlike radar detectors, which can alert to the presence of speed detection equipment in operation and are illegal to use on public roads.

The most consistent advice from roads policing officers is straightforward: drive at a speed appropriate for the conditions, not simply at or below the posted limit. Mobile camera sites are approved because something went wrong there. Understanding why a limit exists on a given stretch of road, and responding to conditions rather than simply watching for cameras, remains the best approach to both safety and avoiding a penalty.

Sources:

• https://www.derbyshire.police.uk/advice/advice-and-information/rs/road-safety/mobile-speed-cameras/
• https://www.gosafe.net/safety-cameras/mobile-sites/
• https://www.tvscamerapartnership.com/mobile-camera-sites
• https://www.npcc.police.uk/Speed-Awareness-Course-Update-2026/