I am grateful to everybody who contributed to this debate, and I am particularly grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Brooke, for setting out the case for these amendments. I reassure the noble Lord that the Government take road safety very seriously and believe that any form of drink-driving is unacceptable and a serious road safety issue. The Government are committed to tackling drink-driving and ensuring that those guilty of this offence and all such offences are detected and punished. I am unable to confirm his precise figures, but for 2019 the final estimate was that between 210 and 250 people were killed—in deference to the noble Baroness, Lady Jones of Moulsecoomb—in incidents, where at least one driver was over the limit. If I can improve on those figures I will write to the noble Lord.
That number is broadly in line with recent years. We have a combined approach of tough penalties and rigorous enforcement along with highly respected and effective THINK! campaigns. This reinforces the social unacceptability of drink-driving and reminds people of the serious consequences that drinking and driving can have on themselves and others. The Government are obviously aware that the drink-drive limit in England and Wales is one of the highest in western Europe, hence our approach, which I have just outlined.
Turning specifically to Amendment 157 to change the prescribed limits, it is unclear whether it would deliver the desired result—a point well made by my noble friend Lord Attlee. More work needs to be done to see if there will be any such benefit as a result of a reduction in the drink-drive limit. The recent academic study by Bath University demonstrated that there had been no benefit to road safety in Scotland as a consequence of reducing the drink-drive limit. This research highlighted there being no change across all types of accidents involving alcohol as a result of the introduction of a stricter drink-drive limit in Scotland in December 2014.
The Government note—as the noble Lord, Lord Tope, predicted, I am afraid I have to say this—that the University of Glasgow published an independent evaluation of the impact of the reduction of the legal blood alcohol limit in Scotland in the Lancet in December 2018. This evaluation took advantage of the natural experiment created by the lowering of the limit in Scotland only and compared data on weekly road traffic collision rates and alcohol consumption, based on off and on-trade sales data, between Scotland, the intervention group, and England and Wales, the control group. The study found that lowering the drink-drive limit was not associated with any reduction in total road traffic collision rates or serious and fatal road traffic collision rates, but that the change was associated
with a small reduction in per-capita alcohol consumption from on-trade alcohol sales, to the point from the noble Lord, Lord Rosser.
Another area that the Government would want to explore in detail is any effect of minimum pricing of alcohol on drinking and driving. We are aware that there is also a public health aspect to drink-driving in both prevention and rehabilitation of those convicted for such an offence.
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In summary, given what I have said about the evidence from Scotland, we believe that we need to study the evidence much more carefully. The noble Lord, Lord Rosser, referenced PACTS, the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety, and noted that it had published a variety of reports. The reports were published this year and I assure the noble Lord that the Government are giving them serious consideration. Any change will necessitate work across many organisations and will need careful assessment of any impact, so we should not embark on that process without a clear evidence base.
Turning to Amendment 164, which would introduce random breath testing, as with the noble Lord’s Amendment 157, it is unclear whether this would deliver the desired result of making the roads safer. More work is needed to see if there is any benefit resulting from introducing random breath testing. We would also need to closely examine the equalities and human rights implications of doing so.
Currently, a police officer can administer a roadside drink-driving test only if: a motorist has committed a moving traffic offence; the police officer suspects that the motorist has been drinking, as per the comment of the noble Lord, Lord Paddick; or the motorist has been involved in an accident—here I am using the legal definition, not “collision”, which is the preferred term used by many people involved in road safety work and campaigning.
To extend the breath test power to one of needing no grounds could potentially lead to concerns about disproportionality and targeting of certain groups; the Committee will recall the debate we had last week on stop and search powers. That could have a detrimental effect on community relations and cohesion, as well as damaging wider efforts to prevent and detect those who drink and drive.