How it will address the increase over the past four years in driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs.

The Scottish Road Safety Campaign(SRSC), funded by the Executive, runs publicity campaigns on both drink and drugdriving and works closely with the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland(ACPOS). The SRSC’s next planned activity in relation to drink-driving will coincidewith an ACPOS’ festive safety campaign. The next phase of the SRSC’s drug-drivingcampaign will take place from October 2003, when an advert will highlight the useof field impairment testing by police officers in the detection of drug-impaireddrivers. Screenings of this advert on television and in cinemas, together with radioadvertising, will take place in October and November. A leaflet highlighting thefacts about drug-driving will also be distributed to drug action teams to coincidewith the campaign.
In addition to the range of policieswe are taking forward to tackle alcohol and drug misuse generally, specific actionon drug-driving includes new powers in the Railways and Transport Safety Act 2003to provide the police with specific roadside testing powers; material distributedas part of the Know the Score campaign to explain the risks of driving under theinfluence of drugs, and since 2001-02, an additional annual amount of £125,000 madeavailable by the Executive to police forces in Scotland to facilitate analysis ofdrug-driving samples. Following the Plan for Action on alcohol problems,published in January 2002, which set out a range of action on culture change, preventionand education, services and protection and controls, there has been high profileadvertising to tackle binge drinking and action on a national framework for thedelivery of services, including those to rehabilitate drink drivers.