A road safety charity has called on the government to invest more money in policing following the release of statistics showing increases in drink and drug driving across the Thames Valley.

Statistics released this week revealed drug-driving arrests in December 2015 doubled compared to the same time the previous year.

Combined drink and drug driving arrests in the Wycombe district increased by 27 per cent from 12 months previous, while total arrests for the Thames Valley in general increased by 19 per cent.

The data has been released off the back of Thames Valley Police’s ‘Where will you end up tonight?' campaign which ran from December 1 to January 1.

Gary Rae, campaigns director for road safety charity Brake, said: “The fact is that there is a hard core of persistent drink-drive offenders who seem oblivious to the fact that driving and drinking, or drug taking, is a lethal combination.

“There remains a real problem with young, male drivers, and we’re calling on the government to ensure that Thames Valley Police, together with other forces across the UK, have the resource to deploy more specialist road policing officers.”

Ch Insp Henry Parsons, Acting Head of Roads Policing, said: “New legislation and equipment have made detecting drug drivers much easier and this resulted in 30 extra arrests.

“As in previous campaigns, we were greatly assisted by members of the public who passed us vital information and helped us take these drivers off the roads.

“Drink and drug-driving kills or injures people. Our message is simple – don’t mix drink or drugs with driving – it’s not worth the risk.”

A total of 38 people were arrested for drug driving during the campaign throughout the Thames Valley, 21 more than last year's total of 17.

There were 19 arrests made for drink and drug driving in the Wycombe district and 16 arrests in Chiltern and South Bucks, the fourth lowest district in the Thames Valley.

The age bracket of the most frequent culprits was 22 to 30 and five times as many men were caught than women.