Police drivers face speeding fines even if caught while responding to emergencies.

A law change means officers on duty will no longer be exempt from traffic safety laws.

Only drivers trained for highspeed driving will escape punishment.

Senior officers fear the change - due in October - will cost the forces huge sums and could even lead to some officers banned from driving.

A police source said: "Not everyone in patrol cars is trained to do high-speed driving at the moment.

"They are either going to have to pay to train up everyone who might use a police vehicle, or accept these speeding tickets and penalty points. It will pose all kind of problems, not least the admin required to identify who was behind the wheel and what level they were trained to."

The new rules also apply to the fire and ambulance services. But the police will be worst hit as most officers do not have specialist training.

In 2006 more than 900,000 police cars set off speed cameras but only 354 drivers got fines or points. The new rules, drawn up in 2006, were designed to cut crashes involving police cars, but the impact of speed penalties was apparently not spotted.

Insp Alan Jones of the Police Federation said: "This is a huge issue. Forces have a major amount of work getting through the requirements of training officers."

But Mr Jones insisted the new laws were in everyone's interest.

He said: "What this does is set national standards that should be consistent across England and Wales. And that holds chief constables to account - which is a good thing."

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