There was a big fall in the number of speed-camera penalties after police and local authorities lost the right to keep the proceeds.

The drop came in the same year that road deaths fell to their lowest level since records began, undermining claims that an increase in cameras improves road safety.

In 2007, 1.26 million fixed penalties were issued — down 370,000, or 23 per cent, on the previous year. Over the same period, road deaths fell below 3,000 for the first time, down 226 to 2,946. Until April 1, 2007, camera partnerships operated by police and local authorities were allowed to keep a proportion of fines to pay for more cameras. Since then, they have received a fixed amount for all aspects of road safety.

The drop in fines suggests that police chiefs decided to put fewer resources into speed enforcement when they stopped being able to recover the costs of installing and operating cameras. Many camera housings are being left empty and some forces have reduced their use of camera vans.

Ministers admitted in 2005 that allowing police to keep some of the money created a perception among drivers that cameras were being used to raise revenue, not just to save lives.

Thames Valley Police recorded the steepest fall in camera fines, down from 137,000 in 2006 to 54,000 in 2007. The Metropolitan Police and the Bedfordshire, Essex and Wiltshire forces also recorded substantial falls.

The anti-speed camera lobby will seize on the figures as evidence that cameras do not work. However, the decline in road deaths was due to several factors, not least a general improvement in compliance with speed limits even on roads without cameras.

Edmund King, the president of the AA, said: “These figures show the impact of removing the self-fulfilling bureaucracies that used to run speed cameras. The more tickets they issued, the more staff they could employ and the more cameras they could install.”

The number of drivers caught using handheld mobile phones also fell in 2007, down 27 per cent to 122,000.

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