Department for Transport today issued a reminder that the penalty for using a hand held mobile phone while driving will increase at the end of next month.

Paul Smith, founder of the Safe Speed road safety campaign(www.safespeed.org.uk) said: "Driving while using a mobile phone can be extremely dangerous and appears to affect the way that drivers recognise road hazards. All the science tells us that the problem comes from the conversation rather than the act of holding the phone. The revised law will only apply to hand-held phones while hands-free phones are likely to be equally dangerous."

"What worries me is that the law appears to condone hands-free phoning while driving. It's entirely the wrong message. Hands free conversations are equally dangerous and the only advice we should be giving to drivers is 'don't phone and drive'.