Changes to drink drive laws
The government has introduced proposals to overhaul the drink drive laws, which are being heralded as the biggest changes in over 40 years.
Although there are no proposed changes to the legal limit, there are significant changes in the procedure that the police can use in gathering evidence that a driver is over the limit. The government will revoke the right for those whose evidential breath test result is less than 40% over the limit to opt for a blood test. This will prevent motorists trying to play for time by requesting a blood test and hoping that by the time that it is performed that their reading has reduced below the legal limit. The government are also going to approve portable evidential breath testing equipment to be used at the roadside, removing the need for a further test to be taken at the police station.
The effect of both of these measures is that evidential readings are taken much sooner. It could be argued that this change in procedure is in effect a reduction in the legal limit.
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