RoSPA Drinking and Driving Policy Paper 2007

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents
Drinking and Driving Policy Paper
Updated May 2007
Under the HRO scheme, once their period of disqualification has been completed,
offenders are required to satisfy the DVLA’s Medical Adviser that they do not have a
drink problem and are fit to drive before their licences are returned.
An evaluation of the scheme 4 indicated that it successfully identifies drivers whose
subsequent behaviour shows that they pose a genuine high risk. However, changes
were recommended to enable identification of multiple offenders more readily.
Enforcement Levels
Information from breath tests carried out at the roadside following a moving traffic
offence, road accident or suspicion of alcohol use, is available for England and Wales
from the Home Office.
Home Office figures for England and Wales for 2003 5 show that just over 534,000
roadside breath tests were conducted (6% fewer than the previous year), of which
106,000 (20%) were positive or refused – 3% more than the previous year.
Table 2: Roadside screening breath tests: England and Wales: 1994-2004
thousands
1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004
No. of 679 703 781 800 815 765 715 624 570 534 578
breath tests
No. positive 93 94 101 104 102 94 95 100 104 106 103
or refused
% positive 14 13 13 13 13 12 13 16 18 20 18
or refused
No. of
convictions
90 93 96 100 93 89 86 85 90 89 96
Enforcement levels are critical to detecting and deterring drink drivers. The number of
breath tests carried out increased dramatically during the 1990s but has been falling
since 1998, and by 2004 the number of breath tests conducted was lower than in
1994. Despite the drop in the number of breath tests, more drivers are failing the
tests, suggesting that the police are better at spotting drivers who are likely to be over
the limit, or that more people are drinking and driving.
However, Police forces vary widely in the number of tests they conduct, from just 390
breath tests per 100,000 population in some force areas to almost ten times that rate
of 3,390 per 100,000 population in other areas. 5
This ‘postcode’ lack of consistency is worrying, especially when combined with the
findings of research which found that drivers feel they would not get caught by the
Police if they were over the limit. Half of drivers felt it was “unlikely” or “very unlikely”
that they would get caught if they drove over the limit once a week for a year. 1 3