Justice Secretary calls for transfer of more powers over drink driving

THE Justice Secretary has called for the transfer of more powers over drink driving, before a debate at Holyrood next week on plans to reduce the limit.

MSPs will debate the Scottish Government’s proposals to lower the existing blood/alcohol limit of 80mg/100ml to 50 mg/100ml, which is currently the subject of a public consultation.

Kenny MacAskill has written to UK Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin asking for the devolution of additional powers over areas such as breath testing, drink-drive penalties and differential limits.

“This Government welcomes having the power to set the drink-drive limit but the Scotland Act was a missed opportunity. The very limited transfer of powers did not go far enough,” Mr MacAskill said.

“We wanted a package to be devolved that would allow us to consider whether the police should be able to carry out breath testing drivers anytime, anywhere and powers to consider changing the penalties for drink driving.

“We also called for the chance to consider differential drink-driving limits. For example, for young and novice drivers.

“None of these were devolved by the UK Government and I have written to the Secretary of State for Transport calling for the UK Government to reconsider.”

Mr MacAskill’s plea comes after the Reported Road Casualties Scotland 2011 report showed that an estimated 750 casualties including 20 deaths were due to drink-drive accidents in Scotland in 2010.