Tories accuse Blunkett of new 'stealth tax' over £5 extra fine for minor road offences

The Government provoked uproar last night by imposing a new "stealth tax" on the one million drivers caught on the nation's network of 5,000 road cameras every year.

Tickets for speeding and other motoring offences, such as driving with defective lights, will rise by at least £5, with the extra revenue channelled into a fund for the victims of crime.

Motoring organisations and opposition parties accused the Government of an underhand ploy to raise more revenue.

David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, also signalled that brewers and large companies would have to pay more as part of reforms to the funding of victim-support services.

Under the plans, due to become law in the summer, penalties for minor offences would rise from £30 to £35 and for speeding from £60 to £65. The £120 penalty for drivers who fail to give their details to the police will rise to £130, and the £200 fine for driving while uninsured will go up to £210. Parking fines will be exempt from the levy.

Other on-the-spot fixed penalties will rise by £5 to £45 or £85. They include fines for being drunk in public or making a hoax emergency call. Everyone who falls foul of the criminal justice system will be ordered to pay into the new victims' fund. Fines of up to £1,000 will carry a £15 surcharge, while those fined more than £1,000, sentenced to community service or jailed, face extra fines of £30.

The moves, which follow the Treasury's insistence that the new Victims' Fund is self-financing, could raise up to £28m. But with only 60 per cent of court fines collected, £17m might be a more realistic figure.

Mr Blunkett said the new fund would provide services such as support and advice to victims of rape and sexual offences, people seriously injured in road accidents and those who have been bereaved through crime. He said: "The effect of crime on the lives of its victims can be devastating. A lump sum of compensation alone does not repair this damage, and the current scheme does not enable us to provide the wide range of support needed. We want compensation to victims to be targeted in the right way, and to come from the most appropriate sources."

David Davis, the shadow Home Secretary, said: "David Blunkett's sense of justice is even more distorted than his understanding of economics. This counter-productive scheme will penalise minor traffic offenders who have nothing to do with bringing misery to the victims of serious crimes."

Andrew Howard, head of road safety at the Automobile Association, said: "Drivers are already concerned that speed cameras are about revenue-raising rather than road safety and this proposal, if it goes ahead, would confirm that."

A consultation document issued by Mr Blunkett also proposes that the responsibility for paying compensation to people attacked while at work is transferred to employers with more than 250 staff. With estimates of the annual bill from crime and antisocial behaviour from drunkenness reaching £7.3bn, Mr Blunkett made clear that the drinks industry would be expected to pay more towards victims' support schemes.