Licence to accelerate: spies to get speed limit exemption

FEEL the need for speed? A career as a British spy may be the best way to indulge your street racing fantasies without having a brush with the law.

MI5 and MI6 officers will be allowed to break speed limits and ignore red lights under changes to motoring laws set to be announced today, the BBC reports.

There are caveats, of course. Spooks will need to take a course in high-speed driving before they're given a licence to speed, says the BBC. They'll also need to be responding to a situation that threatens "life or limb" or "national security", rather than dashing home to pick up a dinner jacket or wristwatch fitted with a laser.

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The changes follow a Department of Transport consultation that found that 93 per cent of respondents felt the speeding exemption already enjoyed by police and emergency services should be extended to Britain's intelligence officers. As well as spies, vehicles used to carry organs for transplant, bomb disposal units and mountain rescue teams are also likely to be added to the list, the BBC says.

More than one wag has suggested the exemption would add a daring new excuse to the list of reasons for speeding. "Sorry I was speeding officer, I'm a spy," sounds so much more suave than "my speedometer's on the blink".