Police gain power to issue formal warnings to motorists just over the speed limit

The warnings will come into use later this year as part of a six-month pilot scheme which will target accident blackspots as well as sections prone to speeding.

They will be used against drivers who would not have been ticketed because, for example, they were under the enforceable level.

A spokesman for the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service(COPFS) said: “The Lord Advocate has agreed to Police Scotland using Formal Adult Warnings, as a part of a six-month pilot, for speeding offences in certain circumstances where the case would not ordinarily be reported for consideration of prosecution.”

Senior officers think the warnings will have a stronger effect against drivers who are just over the legal limit that the currently used informal warnings.

Normally, police in the UK issue tickets against speeders who are ten per cent plus 2mph over the speed limit.

Chief Superintendent Iain Murray, head of road policing, said: “We have an agreement to run a pilot of adult formal warnings, which starts in the autumn.

“You will get a warning that you are committing an offence.

“If you then go away and do it again, I don’t think many people would have sympathy if you got a fine.

“We are talking about people who might be law-abiding in every other aspect but fail to realise the risk they pose by driving on auto-pilot or failing to pay enough attention to what is going on around them.

“We are seeing changes and independent studies show people are taking fewer risks on the road, but research shows that nearly half of us are still engaging in illegal risk-taking on the road each year.

“The use of formal warning will enable us to challenge this behaviour, provide real-time education and monitor how behaviour changes by looking at re-offending rates.

“If a warning is appropriate, officers will be empowered to issue one, if the risk-taking is more serious, the more traditional enforcement approach will still apply.”