How many bus lane Penalty Charge Notices Islington Council issues, from which cameras, how much it raises — from data released under Freedom of Information (ref 8167665).
26,408
PCNs issued in 6 years2020/21–2025/26
£1.37m
gross income, 6 yearsnet of costs not held
4,970
PCNs in 2025/26across 11 cameras
28%
paid at the £80 discount2025/26
This page reports data released by Islington Council under the Freedom of Information Act (8167665, responded 2026-08-12). Figures are the council's own. BusLaneCheck is independent and not affiliated with the council. Compare every UK authority →
Bus lane PCNs issued per yearGross PCN income per year
Islington's eleven bus lane cameras issue around 4,000 to 5,000 penalties a year. The one clear dip is 2022/23, when the total fell to 3,262 before climbing back above 4,000; enforcement has since run at its highest levels of the period, 4,996 in 2024/25 and 4,970 in 2025/26. The income shown is money actually received, not the value of the penalties issued — the council supplied both, and they are very different: it raised £2.88m in charges across the period but collected £1.49m. Over the six full years here that is £1,371,604 received against 26,408 penalties, an average of £51.94 each, against a charge of £160 reduced to £80 for prompt payment. Only about one penalty in five, 6,035 of 26,408, was recorded as paid at the discounted rate, which is low compared with most authorities and means the average is carried by full-rate and late payments rather than by early ones.
Which cameras issue the most fines
Camera-enforced bus lane locations ranked by PCNs issued in 2025/26. The last column is the 6-year total.
Eleven cameras across eight roads. Where a road has more than one camera the penalties are added together here so each row matches one bus lane page: Essex Road has three cameras, which the council reports as two enforcement zones, and Old Street has two. The two Old Street cameras keep different hours and have separate pages on this site, but the council reports them as a single line, so the figure above covers both. The row the council labels Finsbury Square is the City Road camera at that junction. Balls Pond Road appears only from 2023/24 because its camera came into use in February 2024 — its 22 penalties that year cover about five weeks. The per-road figures account for 26,351 of the 26,408 penalties in the totals above; the council's own street-level table runs 57 short of its monthly table over the same period, and it does not say why. These figures are bus lane contraventions only — codes 34 and 34J, as the council stated. Islington also enforces camera points in its Low Traffic Neighbourhoods, which it reported separately as bus gates on Mildmay Road and Theberton Street (5,461 penalties and £225,831 received since 2019/20). Those are prohibition-of-motor-vehicle restrictions rather than bus lanes, so they are excluded here and have no pages on this site.
The fine itself
A bus lane PCN from Islington Council is £160, reduced to £80 if paid within 14 days. It is a civil penalty — there are no licence points. £160, halved to £80 if paid within 14 days, is the higher-band London charge for a bus lane contravention, set by London Councils rather than by the borough. It is more than twice the £70 that applies outside London.
What the council does not hold or publish
Cost of running the cameras. The council supplied gross figures only and gave no operating costs, so there is no way to say what the enforcement nets.
Formal representations and challenges. The council gave appeal outcomes only — 27 allowed and 74 rejected for bus lanes — and gave them as a single total covering every year rather than year by year. It did not give the number of formal representations received, or how many of those were accepted, so no challenge figures are shown here.
Two part years. The council's figures also cover 2019/20, which holds only January to March 2020, and 2026/27, which was still in progress when it answered. Both are left out of the totals above so the years shown are comparable. For the record, the part year to July 2026 ran to 1,305 penalties and £46,820 received.
The bus lanes behind these cameras
Each of these locations has a full page with operating hours, permitted vehicles and the governing traffic order: