Drug-driving clampdown kicks in

POLICE forces in England and Wales are starting to use new legislation to catch drug-drivers, as the latest figures revealed 7,796 motorists had been arrested between March 2015 and April this year for getting behind the wheel under the influence.

Stricter new laws for drug-driving were introduced in March 2015, with police handed ‘drugalysers’ to conduct roadside tests with. Last year, six months after the law change, Auto Express revealed how half the police forces couldn’t provide figures as they were either not using the ‘drugalyser’ or not digitally storing data.

By October 2015, only 2,038 roadside inspections had been done, with 1,080 coming back positive. However, now forces like South Yorkshire Police are seeing a 35-fold increase in drug-drive arrests, thanks to more widespread use of the new tools. According to the figures obtained by the BBC under a Freedom of Information Act, the most arrests were made by the Metropolitan Police, which caught 1,636 offenders – or more than four a day.

Suzette Davenport, the roads policing lead for the National Police Chiefs’ Council, described the new roadside tests as “immensely helpful” for officers to catch offenders. She said: “People who previously got away with driving under the influence of controlled drugs are now being detected and prosecuted.”