How many bus lane Penalty Charge Notices Department for Infrastructure (NI) issues, from which cameras, how much it raises — from Open Data NI and an EIR release (ref DFI/2026-0452).
90,647
PCNs issued in 5 years2021/22–2025/26
£5.33m
gross income, 5 yearsnet of costs not held
25,841
PCNs in 2025/26across 35 sites
This page combines two sources. The penalty counts and the site-by-site table are from Open Data NI, the Department for Infrastructure's own published "Penalty Charge Notice Data" (Moving Traffic Offences). The income figures were released by the Department under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (DFI/2026-0452, responded 2026-08-17) — DfI handled the request under the EIR rather than the Freedom of Information Act, and declined to supply the penalty counts on the ground that they were already published in that dataset. Figures are the department's own. BusLaneCheck is independent and not affiliated with the department. Compare every UK authority →
Bus lane PCNs issued per yearGross PCN income per year
Belfast's bus lane penalties have risen every year since the pandemic and jumped sharply in 2025/26 — 25,841, up 38% on the year before and the highest in the eight years Open Data NI covers. Income rose with them, from £713,000 to just over £1.5m. The concentration is the striking part: Great Victoria Street alone accounts for 28,638 penalties over five years, more than a quarter of the total, and the top four sites — all of them among DfI's five fixed cameras — produce more than two thirds. At the other end, sixteen sites issued fewer than 500 each across the whole five years, and Upper Malone Road has a bus lane that issued none at all.
Which sites issue the most fines
Camera-enforced bus lane locations ranked by PCNs issued in 2025/26. The last column is the 5-year total.
Bus lane enforcement in Northern Ireland is run by the Department for Infrastructure, not by a council, and this page covers the whole of its moving-traffic enforcement. Two of the sites sit just outside the city — Kingsway in Dunmurry and one of the two Upper Newtownards Road sites, in Dundonald — and they are included because DfI reports them in the same dataset; together they are under 1% of the total. The table is headed sites rather than cameras deliberately: DfI names only FIVE fixed cameras in the whole network — Great Victoria Street, East Bridge Street, Donegall Square South, Donegall Square East and College Square East — and everywhere else is covered by a mobile CCTV vehicle deployed as needed. That shows in the figures: those five sites account for roughly three quarters of every penalty issued. Note too that this site lists around 65 Belfast bus lanes while only 36 appear here. A lane missing from this table has not been shown to be camera-free — it means no penalties were recorded there, which for a mobile-enforced lane may simply mean the van has not visited.
Challenges & appeals — do they work?
DfI cannot say how bus lane challenges fare, because it does not separate them from parking. For what it is worth, the combined figures show challenges falling — 20,580 in 2023/24, then 18,532 and 17,762 — while penalties were rising, and appeals reaching an adjudicator are rare and falling faster: 230, then 210, then 146. Bus lane appeals in Northern Ireland go to the Northern Ireland Traffic Penalty Tribunal, and the challenge stage is handled by DfI's Parking Enforcement Processing Unit. See our guide to appealing a bus lane PCN for the grounds that win.
The fine itself
A bus lane PCN from Department for Infrastructure (NI) is £90, reduced to £45 if paid within 14 days. It is a civil penalty — there are no licence points. Northern Ireland charges more than England outside London: £90, halved to £45 if paid within 14 days. Leave it 28 days and a Notice to Owner goes to the registered keeper; 28 days after that a Charge Certificate raises it to £135.
What the council does not hold or publish
Income net of operating costs. DfI holds gross income only. Bus lane costs are not apportioned separately inside its wider Parking Enforcement Contract, so no net figure exists to give.
When enforcement started at each site. DfI says it holds no record of the date camera enforcement began at any individual location — only that the scheme as a whole started in June 2015, after a three-week warning period.
Penalties paid at the discounted rate. DfI keeps this for a rolling three-year window rather than by financial year, and the figures it gave cannot be bus lanes alone — see the note below.
Challenges and appeals against bus lane penalties. DfI does not separate these from parking. The only figures it holds combine moving traffic and on-street parking, so no bus-lane challenge or appeal rate can be given.
The bus lanes behind these cameras
Each of these locations has a full page with operating hours, permitted vehicles and the governing traffic order: