To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many offences of (a) drug and (b) drink driving were recorded in (i) Ashford and (ii) Kent in each year since 1997. (243120)

Offences of driving while unfit through drugs or drink are summary offences and do not feature in the recorded crime statistics collected by the Home Office.

The Home Office does collect data on recorded offences of ‘Causing death by dangerous or careless driving (including while under the influence of drink or drugs)’. However, it is not possible to determine from the information held centrally which, if any, of these offences were committed while the offender was under the influence.

The available information for the aforementioned offence is given in the following table. Data for this offence have only been collected at local authority area level since 2000-01.