Devices which detect or jam speed cameras are to be banned because of concerns that drivers are exploiting them to drive over the speed limit without fear of being caught.

More than 100,000 drivers have installed the devices and dozens of companies supply them. The market is growing rapidly in response to the huge rise in speed camera penalties.

Two million tickets were issued last year and police expect to hand out three million this year.

The Government plans to include the ban in a forthcoming road safety Bill. The penalty for carrying a device in a vehicle has yet to be determined but the maximum fine is likely to be £1,000 and drivers will also have up to six points added to their licences.

A Department for Transport document outlining the proposed ban states that it will “prohibit the carriage of devices that either actively inhibit the proper function of a speed camera or detect the presence of functioning speed cameras (as opposed to dummy housings)”.

Devices that use satellite-positioning systems to give drivers early warning of a speed camera will remain legal.

Ministers believe there is no problem with drivers simply being reminded of an approaching camera, which should be highly visible anyway under rules introduced two years ago.

The ban will instead focus on devices which tell drivers whether or not a yellow speed camera housing contains a live camera.

Many housings are dummies because police forces have only a limited number of cameras that they rotate in their enforcement sites. Drivers are able to speed past many camera housings because their detectors fail to bleep or flash, indicating that the housings are empty.

Ministers also want to prevent drivers from evading detection by police officers armed with speed guns. Most forces supplement their fixed cameras with “mobile enforcement” as an extra deterrent.

The ban would bring Britain into line with several other European countries which have outlawed camera detectors, including France, Belgium, Greece, Austria, Turkey, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Ireland and Norway. In Luxembourg the maximum penalty is a prison sentence of between eight days and three years. The Republic of Ireland also deals harshly with offenders and a six-month prison sentence is possible.

Until 1999, the devices were believed to be illegal in Britain under the 1948 Wireless and Telegraphy Act. But a test case established that radar and laser detectors were not covered by the Act because they did not interfere with the signal.

Road safety groups welcomed the plans for a ban, saying it would stop drivers from believing they could speed with impunity.

Rob Gifford, director of the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety, said: “This is a long overdue closing of a legal loophole.

“Speed camera detectors should not be needed by law-abiding drivers: a competent driver is always aware of the speed limit and can assess the speed at which the vehicle is travelling. I am glad that at last the Government is taking action.”

But the RAC Foundation said that detectors were a useful tool for high mileage drivers who would risk being sacked if they lost their licences after getting four speed camera penalties.

Edmund King, the foundation’s director, said: “Some fleet drivers fit these devices for quite legitimate reasons. “When driving 40,000 miles per year it is relatively easy to stray above certain speed limits, so these devices act as a reminder to slow down.

“Will drivers who have bought these legal devices in good faith be compensated if they are made illegal to use?” A MORI survey commissioned by the Drivers Technology Association found that 60 per cent of those who used camera detectors said that they had become safer drivers since purchasing the devices and three quarters said they had become more aware of speed limits.

FLASH GADGETS

The A537 from Macclesfield to Buxton is the most dangerous road in England. There are no speed cameras on this road