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Drink-drive limit may be cut, says transport secretary

15/03/2010

Transport Secretary Lord Adonis has hinted that the legal drink-drive limit may be reduced, after admitting that "too many" people are killed on UK roads each year.

Speaking yesterday on BBC One's Andrew Marr Show, he was addressing suggestions that the current limit of 80 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood could be cut to 50mg. The UK limit, equivalent to one-and-a-half to two pints of normal-strength lager for an average-sized man, is one of the highest in Europe.

Last month the Scottish Government called for devolved powers in order to set its own drink-drive limit to 50mg – or just under one pint for an average-sized man. Taking this action would bring Scotland into line with almost all other European countries.

Lord Adonis stressed that no decisions would be taken until he had read the findings of a report into drug and drink driving by road traffic expert Sir Peter North, due at the end of March. He added that "obviously I would want to weigh the evidence very carefully before we make a change". However, he told Marr that despite the number of drink-drive related deaths falling dramatically over the past three decades, there was still work to do.

In 2008, the most recent figures available, 430 people died as a result of drink-drive accidents. This figure rose from 410 in 2007 but, by comparison, 1,640 lost their lives in 1979.

Lord Adonis said: "The introduction of the breathalyser, the drink-drive campaigns - all of those things have made a big difference.

"And of course there's a big social change taking place too - very few people now think it's socially-acceptable to have a few drinks.

"But we do need to look and see whether it's possible to improve on our record further still."

Last summer chief constable Mick Giannasi, the UK's leading traffic policeman, urged the Government to lower the legal drink-drive limit, in order to remove any confusion for people who believe they are safe to drive after drinking "a couple of pints".

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