Drink & drug driving law
Closed
What the inquiry looked at
“The Transport Committee held a short inquiry into Drink & drug driving law focusing on: Should the permitted blood alcohol limit be reduced as proposed? If so, is the mandatory one year driving ban appropriate for less severe offenders, at the new (lower) level? How severe is the problem of drug driving and what should be done to address it? What wider costs and benefits are likely to result from changes to drink and drug driving law? What would be the implications of such changes for enforcement? The Committee published its Report on 24 November 2010. The Government published their response to the Committee's report as a Command Paper in March 2011, available below. The Government's Response to the Reports by Sir Peter North CBE QC and the Transport Select Committee on Drink and Drug Driving (Cm 8050) Published March 2011 Inquiry Timeline”
The committee's words, from the inquiry page on parliament.uk ↗.
What it found
The previous Government appointed Sir Peter North in December 2009 to conduct an independent review of the law on drink and drug driving in Great Britain. His report was published in June 2010 and we undertook an inquiry into his most high-profile recommendations.
Drink driving
While we agree that medical and statistical evidence supports a reduction in the current drink drive limit of 80mg alcohol per 100ml blood, we note that currently 2% of drivers killed in road accidents have a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) between 50mg/100ml and 80mg/100ml, while 18% have a BAC greater than 80mg. We recommend that the police should have an additional power to enable preliminary breath tests to be required and administered in the course of a designated drink drive enforcement operation.
We are concerned that a reduction in the limit to 50mg/100ml would send out a mixed message with the Government’s official advice to not drink and drive at all, particularly in light of the strong evidence of public uncertainty about what constitutes a “legal drink”. In the long term, we believe that the Government should aim for an “effectively zero” limit of 20mg/100ml but we acknowledge that is too great a step at this stage. Instead of an “interim” reduction to 50mg/100ml, the Government should concentrate on working with individual police forces to achieve a stricter enforcement of the current limit and beginning a public education campaign to help achieve public acceptance of a 20mg/100ml limit.
We support the retention of the current minimum penalty of 12-month mandatory disqualification.
Drug driving
The Government should adopt a five-year strategy to tackle drug driving, so that it is as important a road safety priority as combating drink driving. This should include a high-profile advertising campaign, in particular on the consequences of being caught and convicted of the crime.
The police currently lack the ability to enforce drug driving legislation effectively, which accounts for the low conviction rate. We welcome the Government’s commitment to install drug screening devices in every police station by 2012; the medium-term aim should be to develop and type-approve a drug screening device for use at the roadside.
Unlike with drink driving, there is no objective test for impaired driving due to drugs, no legal definition of impairment in the Road Traffic Act, and no offence of driving in breach of prescribed limits of specific drugs. We favour the adoption of a “zero-tolerance” offence for illegal drugs which are known to impair driving, which are widely misused, including among drivers, and which represent a substantial part of the drug driving problem.
What the government said
1st report - Drink and drug driving law - additional written evidence
No government response is linked to this report.
1st report - Drink and drug driving law
No government response is linked to this report.
How the inquiry ran
Each dot is a dated item listed on this page, from the inquiry's opening on 22 July 2010 to its close on 1 April 2012.
- Report 2 reports
What it recommended
The committee's recommendations are not listed here yet. Read them in 1st report - Drink and drug driving law - additional written evidence ↗ and 1st report - Drink and drug driving law ↗ on parliament.uk.