Speeding makes up 84% of detected motoring offences

Some 2.39 million drivers were caught speeding in England and Wales in 2018/19, the study commissioned by the RAC Foundation found.

This was a 4% increase on the previous 12 months and a 37% rise compared with 2011/12.

A total of 2.84 million motoring offences were recorded in 2018/19, meaning speeding accounted for 84%.

RAC Foundation director Steve Gooding said: "The simple rule for drivers who don't want to risk ending up with a speeding ticket is not to break the limit in the first place.

"Where limits are properly signposted and clearly feel right for the road in question, motorists have no excuse for going faster.

"But that means highway authorities also have a responsibility to make sure the limits they set are appropriate and to avoid instances where the limit repeatedly bounces up and down along a single stretch."

Speeding offences were dealt with in the following ways in 2018/19:

- 44% resulted in the offender being sent on a speed awareness course

- 34% attracted fixed penalty notices

- 12% were later cancelled

- 10% resulted in court action

The analysis of Home Office data by Adam Snow of Liverpool John Moores University and Doreen Lam of the RAC Foundation found that the number of drivers caught speeding was 225 times higher in some parts of England and Wales than others.

The police force that detected the most speeding offences in 2018/19 was West Yorkshire with 182,000.

This was followed by Avon and Somerset (159,000) and Metropolitan Police and City of London combined (157,000).

At the other end of the scale, Wiltshire Police caught fewer than 1,000 people speeding, with Cleveland and Derbyshire each identifying 12,000.

Researchers suggested variations across forces are partly due to geographical area, road type, traffic volume and local policing priorities.

In Wiltshire, all speed cameras were turned off in 2010.

Department for Transport figures show 186 people were killed and 1,505 seriously injured in crashes on Britain's roads in 2018 in which a vehicle exceeding the speed limit was a contributory factor.