'Slash the drink-drive limit'

The Government has been urged to cut the drink-drive limit by almost half in a move which could save 50 lives a year.

An all-party committee of peers said the legal blood-alcohol concentration level for drivers should be reduced from 80 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood to 50mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood.

There is a serious need to reduce the legal limit because alcohol begins to impair a person's driving skills at 50mg per 100ml, well below the existing level, the peers said.

They added that, according to the Government's own estimates, 50 lives, 250 serious injuries and 1,200 slight injuries could be prevented every year if the new limit was brought in.

The call to cut the legal limit is a key recommendation of Drinking And Driving, a new report from the EU subcommittee on energy, industry and transport. The committee's new findings reinforce the conclusions of its earlier report, Blood Alcohol Levels For Drivers, compiled in 1998.

Lord Brooke of Alverthorpe, inquiry chairman, said the Government announced it was considering lowering the blood-alcohol concentration limit four years ago but the idea has not been followed through.

Lord Brooke said: "In 1998 the Government stated that it was minded to lower the legal limit to 50mg per 100ml. Now it sees no need to reduce the legal limit of permitted blood alcohol level for drivers in the UK.

"We believe the decision contradicts the evidence we have received, in connection with both this inquiry and our 1998 report."

The EU's recommended lower legal limit has already been adopted by 10 member states and one has an even lower level.

The peers also pointed out that that there has been no decline in drinkdriving offences for the past decade and 79 per cent of organisations responding to a Government consultation were in favour of reducing the blood-alcohol level.

Public opinion now also appears less tolerant of drink-driving offences.