Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the Answer of 30 April 2014, Official Report, column 760W, on driving under influence: drugs, what the proposed timetable is for the steps his Department proposes to take to communicate the new drug driving offence.

Officials working on the new drug driving legislation meet regularly with stakeholders from both the law enforcement and healthcare sectors. These meetings include discussions on how the new offence will be communicated.

The medical profession has assisted the Department in developing guidance to healthcare professionals to use in discussion with their patients. We expect to publish the guidance later in the summer and will circulate it to the medical profession. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is currently working with pharmaceutical companies to update the product information of those medicines implicated by the new legislation. MHRA also expect to issue a ‘Drug Safety Update' article later in the summer to include details about the new offence for healthcare professionals. This will be accompanied by an article for patients. MHRA also work closely with the British National Formulary to update the prescribing information for medicines as new safety information emerges and will ensure this new information is brought to their attention. The Think! campaign is in the process of being developed but we expect to start informing the public about the new offence just prior to its introduction followed be a more concentrated campaign on its introduction.