Drink Driving

HC Deb 22 April 1991 vol 189 cc350-1W

Mr. Peter Bottomley

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many awards have been won by the advertising campaign to reduce drink driving.

Mr. Chope

The Christmas 1990 campaign won two major awards last week in the British television advertising awards 1991. Twelve other major awards have been won by the "Drinking and Driving Wrecks Lives" campaign since 1987.

Mr. Peter Bottomley

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how long it usually takes for information to he made publicly available as to whether a driver had been drinking alcohol before driving and being killed.

Mr. Peter Lloyd

I have been asked to reply.

It is possible for information about whether a driver killed in a road accident had consumed alcohol to become publicly available in a variety of circumstances, for example, during criminal proceedings against someone else involved in the same accident. But such information is most likely to emerge from any publicity given to a coroners' inquest into the death of the driver if the coroner, who is an independent judicial officer, admits evidence of this nature at the hearing. The date of any inquest is a matter for the coroner to decide and the length of time between the death and the inquest will vary according to the circumstances of each individual case.