It does “not make sense to focus much police attention on cycling behaviour”, a former active travel commissioner has argued, after a new report in the Times revealed that the number of fines issued by the police to cyclists dropped to its lowest level in five years in 2025.
According to data secured through a Freedom of Information request by the newspaper, which gathered information from two-thirds of the UK’s police forces, 3,360 fixed penalty notices (FPNs) were issued to cyclists last year for offences such as cycling on the pavement or in pedestrianised zones, not having lights at night, or riding through red lights.
By comparison, in 2021 the same number of police forces issued FPNs, which normally constitute a £50 fine if paid immediately, to 6,083 cyclists. 4,339 cyclists were fined in 2024, 5,927 in 2023, and 4,674 in 2022.
The Metropolitan Police somewhat unsurprisingly topped the chart for cycling fines, handing out 1,491 FPNs in 2025, a number that fell by almost half compared to 2024, when 2,628 London cyclists were fined.
On the other hand, City of London Police are handing out more and more fines every year, with 1,123 FPNs issued to cyclists in 2025, almost double the 635 doled out in the Square Mile in 2023.
Earlier this month, City of London Police introduced a ‘sin bin’ for cycling offenders, offering them the opportunity to watch an educational road safety film from the roadside instead of paying the £50 fine.
Last September, we reported that the force was considering using Community Protection Warnings and Notices to issue stronger sanctions than £50 Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs).
Officials reportedly expressed concern about “dangerous, anti-social, and nuisance cycling behaviours” such as red light jumping, with councillor Jacqueline Webster also suggesting promotion of a “culture of courteousness” among cyclists is needed due to the parking of dockless hire bikes.
The Times also found that, between 2021 and 2025, South Yorkshire Police and Merseyside Police were prolific when it came to cycling fines, handing out 827 and 753 FPNs during that five-year period.
However, the newspaper reported that some forces, including Durham and Northumbria, revealed that they hadn’t fined a single cyclist in the last five years, with Northumbria Police telling the Times that “we do not issue fixed penalties to cyclists” (it was not clarified whether this task was left to the area’s local authorities).
In 2025, no cycling fines were issued by police in Kent, Northamptonshire, and Lincolnshire, while Bedfordshire Police handed out four FPNs to cyclists between 2021 and 2025.
According to the data, Cambridgeshire Constabulary fined 49 cyclists over the five-year period, including five in one 12-month spell, all for failing to obey a traffic sign, the most common cause of cycling fines across the UK.
Speaking to the Times, Sarah Gayton, from the National Federation of the Blind of the UK, said the figures had left her “speechless, angry, and upset”.
“The public are at breaking point, faced with the constant daily onslaught of riders jumping red lights, riding on pavements and in pedestrian-only places and spaces,” she said.
“I have witnessed first-hand how annoyed and upset cyclists get when they are stopped for going through a red light. It is very clear to us that it appears that bad cycling has been decriminalised and giving them a green card to cycle wherever they want with no consequence.”
However, Adam Tranter, the former cycling and walking commissioner for the West Midlands, argued that cyclists, as vulnerable road users, should not be the focus of police attention when resources are limited.
“The reality is that the biggest danger to pedestrians is overwhelmingly drivers of motor vehicles. On average, more pedestrians are killed each year by cows than by cyclists,” he said.
“By comparison, in 2025 alone, 364 pedestrians were killed and 5,960 seriously injured, almost all of them hit by drivers of motor vehicles.
“In an ideal world, everyone would follow the rules of the road but with limited policing resources and competing priorities, if you want to improve road safety, it does not make sense to focus much police attention on cycling behaviour.”
As Tranter notes, according to the Department for Transport’s road casualty statistics for 2025, most pedestrians killed or injured in reported road collisions were hit by motorists.
245 of the 364 pedestrians killed last year were involved in incidents with drivers (67 per cent of all pedestrian fatalities), and overall there were 15,222 pedestrian casualties involving motorists (76 per cent of all pedestrian casualties).
By comparison, cyclists were involved in just two incidents which resulted in a pedestrian fatality in 2025 (one per cent of all pedestrian fatalities), while 718 pedestrians were injured by cyclists (four per cent of all pedestrian casualties).
In a statement, the National Police Chiefs’ Council said: “We must all take responsibility for keeping everyone safe on our roads and any behaviour which puts other road users at risk is unacceptable.
“Police forces are operationally independent and decisions around enforcement are at the discretion of local teams, taking into account a number of factors.”
This isn’t the first time the Times – which in 2012 launched its award-winning ‘Save Our Cyclists’ campaign calling for better protection for people on bikes – has gathered information from the UK’s police forces to bemoan the apparent lack of action when it comes to “law-breaking” cyclists.
Back in 2017, the newspaper published a strikingly similar article which revealed that 3,590 cyclists had been fined the previous year – down from the crackdown-associated high of 15,297 in 2013 but, interestingly, roughly the same as 2025’s total.
In April, City of London police officials urged cyclists in the capital not to “gamble” that pedestrians will move out of the way, after it was revealed that the number of people on bikes caught running red lights had doubled in the past year.
The data, covering the period from the start of April 2025 to the end of March 2026, revealed that the force’s cycle team issued 1,315 fixed penalty notices to cyclists for riding through red lights – compared to the 643 cyclists caught committing the same offence during the previous financial year.
However, that fine tally is roughly similar to the number of fixed penalty notices issued in 2023-24, when 1,229 red light-jumping cyclists were fined in the City of London.
Last year, Kensington and Chelsea Council was forced to backtrack over a fine issued to a cyclist, admitting the £100 FPN should never have been given to the rider who was using a shared-use crossing when he was stopped by an enforcement officer.
“I was cycling very slowly and she caught me by surprise. She said: ‘Please show me your ID’,” Dr Paulo Ceppi said at the time, questioning if the decision to stop him there was an “insidious, unjust tactic” to “trap” cyclists and make money.
