A new survey from Which? magazine has shown up widespread variations throughout England and Wales on which speed cameras are switched on and working.

With all 43 police forces in England and Wales asked to provide details of which fixed cameras were working and which were not, the results showed up huge differences with some forces having all of their cameras with working devices while others, such as Staffordshire only having 11% operational. Five forces refused to reveal how many of their cameras were working at any one time.

The figures come in the light of the coalition government saying, soon after coming into office, that there will be no central government spending on new or replacement cameras, while some councils have blamed spending cuts for not contributing towards safety camera partnerships.

The AA said that it was not especially concerned about the wide variations in speed camera policy throughout the 43 forces. Its head of road safety, Andrew Howard, said: "Their main purpose is to provide a deterrent and the fact that they are not in every camera housing means this can be done at minimum cost both in terms of prosecution and financial burdens on the authorities."