Legal noise limits breaches by road users

​​Request 710030534

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, I would like to request the following information:

1. The number of drivers stopped, fined, or prosecuted for offences related to illegal or excessively noisy exhaust systems, under the Road Traffic Act 1988 and the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986, for each of the calendar years 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 to date.

2. The number of Section 59 warnings (Police Reform Act 2002) issued for vehicles causing alarm, distress, or annoyance due to exhaust noise, over the same time period.

3. If available, the top five locations (e.g., streets, towns, areas) within your force area where the highest number of such offences or warnings were recorded.

4. If available, the highest recorded decibel readings from any enforcement equipment (e.g., sound meters) used to measure vehicle noise.

I would prefer the information in a spreadsheet format (.csv or .xlsx) if possible.

If parts of this request exceed cost limits, please prioritise providing as much of questions 1 and 2 as possible

Response

​1. & 2. UK legislation such as the Road Traffic Act 1988, the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986, and the Police Reform Act 2002 do not apply in Jersey. The Jersey equivalents are the Road Traffic (Jersey) Law 1956, and the Motor Vehicles (Construction & Use) Order 1998. The number of drivers stopped, fined or prosecuted, as recorded by the States of Jersey Police can be found in Table 1. 

ID FOI 8558 Table 1 and 2 20250529.pdf​

3. Top 5 locations for these offences can be found in Table 2.

4. Article 3 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 applies as the States of Jersey Police do not hold this information. 

Article applied

Article 3 - Meaning of “information held by a public authority”

For the purposes of this Law, information is held by a public authority if –

(a)     it is held by the authority, otherwise than on behalf of another person; or

(b)     it is held by another person on behalf of the authority.​