Written question asked by Owen Paterson (Conservative) on Tuesday, 19 June 2007, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 21 June 2007. It was answered by Stephen Ladyman (Labour) on Monday, 25 June 2007 on behalf of the Department for Transport.

Driving Under Influence

Question: (4) what assessment he has made of the (a) costs and (b) benefits of reducing the permitted blood alcohol level from the current statutory level to 50 milligrammes.

Answer: Any limit is aimed primarily at persuading people not to drink and drive in the first place, rather than at a target for convictions, and so no specific assessment has been made of the effect of a 50mg legal limit on drink driving convictions. A change in the legal limit would require public consultation and the making of a statutory instrument subject to negative resolution procedure.Such a statutory instrument would require an impact assessment, which would include an assessment of the likely cost impact of a lower limit. An assessment of the estimated effect on road traffic casualties of lowering the legal alcohol limit was made in the Department's consultation paper ““Combating Drink Driving: Next Steps”” (February 1998), a copy of which is in the Library of the House.

Secondary information