Laser, Radar and Speed Camera Detector - Current UK Legislation.

The Road Safety Bill proposed for 2005 has been scrapped due to parliament being dissolved prior to the recent general election. This meant that all unread bills had to be automatically rejected. The Road Safety Bill was rejected on 11th April 2005.

Therefore, accident Blackspot and laser detectors remain 100% legal.

If the bill is progressed in 2006, it needs to be decided what technologies they want to outlaw. This process alone is expected to take approximately 12 months. Once agreed, it would take another six months to be made law. The Department for Transport could not put those changes into practice until late 2007.

What did the “Road safety Bill” propose?

Its main purpose was to ban Laser Jammers, as these units prevent the police getting a speed on your vehicle. They also intend to ban Radar detectors. Radar detectors were proposed for a ban as they can determine which cameras are live and which are not, effectively allowing the user to speed through inactive cameras, working against the reason for having the safety camera installed at that location, “Reducing Speed”. To that end, laser detectors working from a database of all camera locations, regardless of whether the camera is live or not will remain legal as the driver cannot flout the law past inactive cameras.

If passive laser detection is banned in the future, some laser detector units will remain 100% legal, but may require minor adjustments. It would be advisable to ask whether this adjustment will be possible in the future on the model you intend to buy.

Currently, no action is required as Laser Alert is 100% legal.

GPS Camera locators such as Road Angel, were not under review in the 2005 bill and this was confirmed in writing from the Department for Transport. The government fully understands and accepts the safety benefits of GPS based safety alert systems, as documented in the dropped Road Safety Bill. Products like Road Angel warns of areas of danger advising the user to reduce speed and be aware of potential danger, which supports perfectly what safety cameras aim to achieve.