Scottish Government dismiss calls for tougher drink-drive fines

The Scottish Government has insisted there is ''no evidence'' for tougher drink-driving fines being brought in.

Their comments come after Scottish Labour raised their concerns that TV star Ant McPartlin would have paid a fraction of the record penalty imposed if his crash had taken place north of the border.

The £130,000-a-week television presenter was handed an £86,000 fine alongside a 20-month driving ban after he admitted driving while more than twice the legal limit in London in March.

But Labour said he would have been fined a maximum of £5,000 if the offence had occurred in Scotland, due to limits resulting from the ''standard scale'' for financial penalties.

With Scotland also having experienced a rise in convictions for driving under the influence in 2016-17, justice spokesman Daniel Johnson said the courts should be allowed to impose larger fines in a bid to deter wealthier motorists.

Cases where driving under the influence was the main conviction increased from 3,537 in 2015-16 to 3,646 the following year, according to Scottish Government figures, with 2,851 fines imposed as a result.

Mr Johnson welcomed the long term fall in cases of driving under the influence, with 7,820 recorded in 2007-08, but insisted action was still needed to tackle the problem.

The Labour MSP said: ''The long-term drop in convictions for drink driving is welcome and a marker of the enormous change in attitudes over the last decade.

However, we should not be complacent about this progress, and this year's increase shows there is still work to do to prevent drink driving.

A simple, but effective way to do that would be to allow courts to hand out larger fines, especially for those with large incomes, as happens in England.''

Mr Johnson added: ''The stark reality is that for a case like TV presenter Ant McPartlin's, Scottish courts would only have been able to hand down a fine worth just six per cent of his eventual fine.

While a fine of £5,000 would in most cases be an appropriate maximum, for those on higher incomes this may not act as any kind of deterrent.

It therefore seems appropriate to review and adjust the standard scale of fines to fix this anomaly as part of a renewed effort to end drink driving for good.''

A Scottish Government spokesman said: ''We took action in 2014 to lower the drink-drive limit so it is now lower than in England and Wales. However, specifically setting maximum penalties for drink-driving remains a matter reserved to the UK Government.

We keep the levels used on the standard scale under review, but at present there is no evidence indicating they need to be revised in Scotland.''