Scotland’s change to lower drink drive limits does not seem to be working

A review on the decrease in drink driving limits in Scotland has shown that the change has had little effect on drink driving accidents and only pushed down the sale of alcohol in bars and restaurants by 0.7%.

According to National Institute for Health Research the decrease in drink driving limits to typical European levels made no difference to drink drive accidents.

In other countries such as France, Austria and Australia lowering the drink drive level has lowered accidents, but not apparently in Scotland. However, researchers believe that poor enforcement of the new law, such as insufficient ongoing publicity after the initial campaign in 2014, and not enough random breath testing, is the most likely explanation.