Centrally held arrest statistics relate to those arrested for recorded crimes (notifiable offences) only. Summary offences such as driving after consuming alcohol, etc. and drink related offences are not notifiable.
Information on arrests for summary offences of driving while under the influence of alcohol or drugs is not collected centrally.
Deployment of resources is an operational matter for individual chief officers of police. In January 2005, however, the Home Office, together with the Department for Transport (DfT) and Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), issued a jointly agreed statement of Roads Policing Strategy. This included as one of its five key actions the reduction of road casualties. The strategy identified drink driving as one of the key behaviours contributing to avoidable casualties and committed the police to tackling it by increasing the risk of detection. Home Office and DfT Ministers wrote to chief officers in January this year to stress the Government’s continuing commitment to the Roads Policing Strategy and the importance of effective enforcement of road traffic law. Drink driving was highlighted as an area of offending where there is a need for positive police activity nationally.
ACPO is due to launch a new enforcement campaign at the end of July to complement the Government’s new multi-media anti-drink driving publicity campaign which began on 20 July. Under the Road Traffic Act 1988, the police cannot target drivers for breath tests because of their age. They can carry out a test where they reasonably believe that a person is or has been driving or in charge of a vehicle with alcohol in his body, has committed a moving traffic offence or has been involved in an accident.