Part of Road Safety Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 2:45 pm on 25 January 2005.
Let me explain my concern. Currently, a driver who has been stopped on suspicion of drinking and who has failed the screening test will be taken immediately to a police station and probably breathalysed on the machine properly. As time goes on, drivers who have been pulled over will realise that the time between screening and an evidential test could be much less. Consequently, they will play for time as far as they can, probably sometimes in the mistaken belief that the longer they wait for the test, the lower their alcohol reading will be. In fact, if they had just left a public house, their reading could continue to go up, so waiting would mean a higher reading and probably a greater penalty in court. Can police officers say to someone, ''You have now failed the screening test. You are not allowed to imbibe anything, and that includes eating.''