Dave Thompson MSP

An SNP MSP says the drink driving powers devolved under the Scotland Act 2012 do not go far enough and is urging as many people as possible to participate in the Scottish Government’s consultation on the issue.

Dave Thompson – who represents Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch – is a long-time campaigner for lower drink driving limits. He is today echoing the calls of Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill to pursue the early transfer of a number of key powers from Westminster so that Scotland can make serious inroads into tackling drink-driving. In particular, Mr Thompson believes the current powers do not allow police to target the hard-core of persistent drink drivers who believe they will never be caught. Following the launch of the consultation, a number of organisations have called for the drink driving limit to be lower than the Government’s proposed 50mg.

While welcoming proposals to reduce the limit from 80mg, Mr Thompson says this is only a first step, and – in a letter to Mr MacAskill – outlined a number of further powers which should be pursued from Westminster, including:

• Ability to change the penalties for drink driving
• Powers enabling police to randomly breathalyse drivers.

Commenting, Mr Thompson, said: “I warmly welcomed the devolution of powers over drink driving limits – and indeed the Scottish Government’s proposal to reduce them – but as usual, the piecemeal transfer of powers does not go remotely far enough.

“Following the launch of the consultation, many organisations have called for the legal limit to be lower than 50mg.

“For Scotland to be able to reduce the limit to a much lower level, we really need to be able to vary the penalties – we couldn’t realistically treat someone with 21mg of alcohol in their blood the same as 51mg.

Mr Thompson added: “There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that reducing the limit will save lives but the fact remains that there is a hard core of persistent drink drivers who just aren’t deterred by penalties or limits – because they don’t think they’ll be caught.

“Exactly how and when we introduce randomised breath tests would need to be considered carefully.

“But just the very prospect of being randomly breathalysed – with stiff penalties for those over the limit – would undoubtedly deter people from getting behind wheel and putting people’s lives in danger.

“I would urge as many people as possible to participate in the consultation."

Note:

Details of the consultation can be found here:  http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2012/09/3556