All speed cameras in Hertfordshire were active at some point during the last year, figures released under the Freedom of Information Act have revealed.

This is in contrast to reports that two out of every five cameras across the country are inactive, and are used to “scare” motorists into cutting their speed.

There are 137 permanent speed camera locations across Hertfordshire, including sites for mobile cameras, and they were all active for a period of time during 2007/08.

In the same period, the Metropolitan Police switched off 40 per cent of its cameras.

As a result, 62,755 Notices of Intended Action were issued to motorists caught speeding, though this number includes those where no further action was taken (e.g. Emergency vehicles that are exempt from speeding restrictions, and stolen vehicles), and notices that result in recommendations to prosecute, for which Hertfordshire Constabulary holds no record of the outcome.

Of the rest, 38,345 paid a Fixed Penalty Notice and more than 6,000 attended a Speed Awareness Course.

The Freedom of Information request also asked the location of the camera with the most activations in 2007/08, how many activations there were and how many of these resulted in action being taken against the motorists, but the answers were unavailable due to the time restrictions allowed in processing a Freedom of Information request.