There is no reason to do that. It will just negatively affect many people’s enjoyment of life for no significant benefit, Edmund King of the AA has just been on the radio and he was saying that the reduction in blood alcohol levels in Scotland had no significant effect on road accidents. His point was that the great majority of drunk drivers who have serious accidents aren’t just under the previous limit, they’re way over the limit.
Having said all that I think the government will still drop the limit because they, as most politicians are these days, are a bunch of “progressive” authoritarian virtue signalling kill joys : “***Look, we care about people so much, every single life, that we are going to drop the drink drive limit (even if the people don’t want it and has been proved it will make no discernible difference)***”.
AndAnotherThingHere on
Might stop people who have a couple of pints, will not stop those who have a lot more. Final nail in the coffin of country pubs and more money for supermarkets. Nothing like a bit of virtue signalling.
BlondBitch91 on
I know people on reddit will call for it to be dropped to zero, which means that even having eaten a chocolate liqueur or a Christmas pudding would stop them from driving, but I would really like to see the evidence the government has that this would actually improve things.
How many accidents were there, caused by people between the old limit and the new one? I’d like to see data showing exactly what benefits this will have.
Never seen as much DD as in Wiltshire, it’s the norm for middle class Brits to have a couple of beers at pubs/houses and then drive home. Yet in my 10 years here, not once have I ever been randomly tested or seen roadside checks.
dvb70 on
I imagine this will have quite an impact on pubs. I will have 1 pint when driving over a period of around an hour when eating out but with new rules I just won’t drink.
Acceptable-Pin2939 on
How will this improve road safety.
Drink drivers drunk enough to cause a crash are already over the limit.
Better_Concert1106 on
Solving a problem that doesn’t really exist. People going for a pint with a meal or something like that aren’t really the problem and the lower limit hasn’t made any difference in Scotland from what I can tell.
Underscore_Blues on
People who drive 3x over the current limit will still drink.
People who drive after 1-2 pints with a meal or a small outing will now not drink.
Hmmm.
Salty-Bid1597 on
The UK has practically the safest roads in the world. Only Norway is better.
What has prompted this sudden concern for a problem that isn’t? Could it be some kind of ideological crusade?
andrew0256 on
I’d like to see proper research and evidence to bolster the government’s case. From what I’ve read dropping the driving limit has had no impact on accident rates.
If I’m driving I have one pint of beer, before moving onto soft drinks. This is a case of performative politics yet again.
Bladders_ on
For god’s sake! Why do Labour just take, take, take, they’re taking everything away slowly but surely.
I say this as a one time labour voter myself. Never again!
Taps698 on
The people that drink drive already know the limit. They just ignore it. Lowering it won’t make a jot of difference. Unless I see a lot of evidence that a lot of accidents are caused by those just under the limit I am very sceptical.
ken-doh on
One pint or glass of wine with a meal does not cause a problem. The issue is assholes who drink 5 pints and drive. This change will do nothing to stop the latter, while impacting people that enjoy a meal out.
It will impact pubs and restaurants who will sell less.
TheWorldIsGoingMad on
I reckon this is yet another case of Starmer and Labour not being in tune with the public, I predict a further negative effect on their popularity :
Why drop the limit, though? If the limit is set at 1 1/2 pints. Anything over is classed as dangerous. You could increase it to 5 pints. The danger is still there. Let’s have a sensible limit. And allow for people to use judgement. And if an accident has happened. 1 1/2 is the legal limit. Anything above. Your f@£<Ed.
parkway_parkway on
If safety is the only priority then we should ban recreational driving.
As in you can drive to work or the hospital.
But you can’t drive to the cinema or the beach.
That would cut deaths a lot, won’t somebody please think of the children?
Fraggle_ninja on
Who is going to enforce this? The tories decimated the police funding and it’s barley increased…
paul_h on
The hundreds of drivers doing 40, 50 and touching 60 on my 30 mph road have not been drinking. They’re doing it principally cos they think they can get away with it. If they get in an accident while they were over 30 mph, they’ll all claim they were not.
Reesno33 on
Seems a bit pointless, If I have one pint with a meal I’m still more alert and faster to react than anyone who’s 60 or older so if a 20-35 year old is “unsafe” after one pint why aren’t all over 60s just completely banned?
rennarda on
I honestly think drug driving is a bigger problem. It seems every Amazon delivery van that passes me stinks of weed these days. People gotta wake up and realise that’s a dangerous as drunk driving.
Interesting-Voice328 on
How about an alcohol limit for the House of Commons tested on arrival and leaving.
Humble_Dirt_5751 on
People who get smashed don’t care about the law or the rules
GreyFoxNinjaFan on
The limit isn’t the issue, police numbers and patrols are. Automation doens’t work. People just work around it by installing reflective number plates that can’t be photographed.
I drove from the North into London regularly. Completely uneventful on the way down but as soon as you get to London, people just seem insane.
On the north circular where the speed limit ranges from 30 to 50, the number of just mad manoeuvres people pull is crazy. Speeding, undertaking, tail-gaiting, switching lanes suddenly without warning, flashing and honking at people “in their way”.
Half of them probably coked up to their eyeballs or just pricks that need taking off the road.
Rossmci90 on
I play football and padel with mates twice a week. After the game we go to the pub and have a pint.
We won’t be able to do that anymore. We pose absolutely no danger to anyone, but now that pub has lost a load of business on quiet midweek nights.
1. More enforcement – i.e. more police. It’ll take a _lot_ more cops to cover this *and* serious crime currently going unchecked.
2. Better public transport – certainly if we aren’t to do more damage to the pub trade.
My wife rarely drinks, and gets quite tipsy on half a glass of wine. I drink beer most days and even two beers doesn’t make me feel like I am too impaired to drive.
The point I am trying to make is that different amounts of alcohol have very different effects on people if their tolerance is different.
BootlegJB on
The only people I know who would drive after consuming an alcoholic drink, would also drive after consuming ten of them. I’d be interested to see how many alcohol-related road accidents are clocked between the old limit and the new one. Probably very few.
0factoral on
This is fairly similar to NZ. 25 (or 250 as we do it by litre of breath) is the limit.
You can still have a few drinks with dinner and be fine.
DennisAFiveStarMan on
This gov won’t be satisfied till puts every pub in the country out of business. Why can’t ya have a pint while eating a meal and drive.
CrazyGitar on
For some reason I had thought this change had already come into force in October. And what people have been saying is exactly what I have done – instead of having a single pint at the start of the meal while being a designated driver, I’m just opting not to have anything.
Although I guess that doesn’t say much when I’m barely going out anymore anyway due to the cost of everything…
Barry_Umenema on
It’s like lowering speed limits, you don’t improve safety and you just piss everyone off. All the pricks who drink and drive will continue to drink and drive.
let_me_atom on
I think we all know the reason driving accidents are trending upwards is the massive influx of people from countries with FAR lower driving standards being able to just use their existing licenses without taking a UK test. As usual though labour will come after the common folk. It’s all they do.
NoDefaultForMe on
I’m not sure this will solve anything other than making more people guilty of being over the limit, what I do have an issue with is
> as well as new powers to suspend driving licences for people suspected of drink or drug-driving offences.
So, even just being suspected of an offence will be enough to have you’re license suspended? In what world is this what we do as a nation? It’s literally guilty until proven innocent.
Fullchimp on
Obfuscation. They don’t want to spend on those cameras that pick up drivers using phones.
Nade52 on
So it’s basically just a scheme to get their numbers up over the nice people who only have a pint with their meal that 99% of the time has 0 cognitive effect by the way.
Fucking ridiculous.
peelyon85 on
Prefer they actually dealt with proper drink / drug drivers rather than messing with the limits.
Everything feels like a slap on the wrist nowadays.
Owzwills on
This government is procrastinating by regulating areas that are just easy to regulate rather than dealing with the big issues. A bad sign.
malin7 on
State of this thread, now people defend drink driving because they hate Labour
Maybe you can make a petition to Saint Nige to put increase of the alcohol limit in his manifesto
n1l3-1983 on
Need to tackle all the assholes on the road that are using mobile phones.
cwspellowe on
I don’t see the issue personally. We’ve had the lower limit in place in Scotland since 2014 and the number of drink driving serious casualties has reduced by around 70% over the decade following.
A recent survey also shows that 29% of those polled have reduced their overall alcohol consumption as a result of the change to the limit which can only be a good thing for their physical health.
The limit isn’t zero – noone is saying you can’t have a pint with your meal – but the lower limit seems to greatly influence the amount of people who do take the piss.
Personally I have zero tolerance for drink driving, I’ll either arrange alternative transport or just not drink. It’s not hard. “I’m still safe to drive” is the attitude that got my granddad killed by a drunk driver but as long as it only happens to statistics and not someone you know personally it seems to be acceptable.
Afraid-Hurry4207 on
I would imagine that people on their phones is now a much bigger problem than drink drivers. Still no concrete scheme to deal with that
ActivePalpitation980 on
Why not remove the roundabouts and install more traffic lights? Or have uk cars preinstalled with speed limitations? Or even put way more tax on speed cars to avoid ppl getting dangerous cars
Chemical_Profession9 on
The thing is people who drink drive and drink lots really don’t care about what the “limit” is.
ionetic on
If only Labour could fix the economy instead of punishing village pubs. They’re headed for a severe beating in the May elections.
Chemical_Profession9 on
If they think measures like this are going to reduce serious accidents and deaths by 65% by 2035 they are kidding themselves.
hyperlobster on
In other crime-reduction news, we’re making murder and other violent crimes EXTRA TURBO ILLEGAL, so look forward to massive drops in those.
-super_hans- on
Look at all these sad alcoholics in the comments. You’ve got legs, use them.
TheBlueEyedLawyer on
I’ve zero sympathy for drink and drug drivers. I believe limits should be reduced and punishments increased.
Selfish bastards the lot of them.
Upset-Orange-1202 on
I don’t like how the Labour government seem to be obsessed with nannying people. They should take proper account of what Britain’s traditional values are, which is to leave people to themselves unless they’re causing serious harm.
49 Comments
There is no reason to do that. It will just negatively affect many people’s enjoyment of life for no significant benefit, Edmund King of the AA has just been on the radio and he was saying that the reduction in blood alcohol levels in Scotland had no significant effect on road accidents. His point was that the great majority of drunk drivers who have serious accidents aren’t just under the previous limit, they’re way over the limit.
[https://www.gla.ac.uk/news/archiveofnews/2018/december/headline_626050_en.html](https://www.gla.ac.uk/news/archiveofnews/2018/december/headline_626050_en.html)
Furthermore the public think the drink drive limit is right where it is :
[https://yougov.co.uk/topics/consumer/survey-results/daily/2025/08/15/10dc4/2](https://yougov.co.uk/topics/consumer/survey-results/daily/2025/08/15/10dc4/2)
Having said all that I think the government will still drop the limit because they, as most politicians are these days, are a bunch of “progressive” authoritarian virtue signalling kill joys : “***Look, we care about people so much, every single life, that we are going to drop the drink drive limit (even if the people don’t want it and has been proved it will make no discernible difference)***”.
Might stop people who have a couple of pints, will not stop those who have a lot more. Final nail in the coffin of country pubs and more money for supermarkets. Nothing like a bit of virtue signalling.
I know people on reddit will call for it to be dropped to zero, which means that even having eaten a chocolate liqueur or a Christmas pudding would stop them from driving, but I would really like to see the evidence the government has that this would actually improve things.
How many accidents were there, caused by people between the old limit and the new one? I’d like to see data showing exactly what benefits this will have.
Also, I cannot wait to hear the Labour party bleat on about how they “really care about rural pubs” whilst simultaneously doing this which *will* put many of them out of business. That said, [many pubs have now banned Labour MPs](https://www.theguardian.com/news/ng-interactive/2025/dec/21/pubs-bar-politicians-business-rates-backlash-rural-communities) so I doubt they care if they put them all out of business.
Never seen as much DD as in Wiltshire, it’s the norm for middle class Brits to have a couple of beers at pubs/houses and then drive home. Yet in my 10 years here, not once have I ever been randomly tested or seen roadside checks.
I imagine this will have quite an impact on pubs. I will have 1 pint when driving over a period of around an hour when eating out but with new rules I just won’t drink.
How will this improve road safety.
Drink drivers drunk enough to cause a crash are already over the limit.
Solving a problem that doesn’t really exist. People going for a pint with a meal or something like that aren’t really the problem and the lower limit hasn’t made any difference in Scotland from what I can tell.
People who drive 3x over the current limit will still drink.
People who drive after 1-2 pints with a meal or a small outing will now not drink.
Hmmm.
The UK has practically the safest roads in the world. Only Norway is better.
What has prompted this sudden concern for a problem that isn’t? Could it be some kind of ideological crusade?
I’d like to see proper research and evidence to bolster the government’s case. From what I’ve read dropping the driving limit has had no impact on accident rates.
If I’m driving I have one pint of beer, before moving onto soft drinks. This is a case of performative politics yet again.
For god’s sake! Why do Labour just take, take, take, they’re taking everything away slowly but surely.
I say this as a one time labour voter myself. Never again!
The people that drink drive already know the limit. They just ignore it. Lowering it won’t make a jot of difference. Unless I see a lot of evidence that a lot of accidents are caused by those just under the limit I am very sceptical.
One pint or glass of wine with a meal does not cause a problem. The issue is assholes who drink 5 pints and drive. This change will do nothing to stop the latter, while impacting people that enjoy a meal out.
It will impact pubs and restaurants who will sell less.
I reckon this is yet another case of Starmer and Labour not being in tune with the public, I predict a further negative effect on their popularity :
[Only 27% of people think the present limit is too high, where as 41% think it is about right](https://yougov.co.uk/topics/consumer/survey-results/daily/2025/08/15/10dc4/2)
Why drop the limit, though? If the limit is set at 1 1/2 pints. Anything over is classed as dangerous. You could increase it to 5 pints. The danger is still there. Let’s have a sensible limit. And allow for people to use judgement. And if an accident has happened. 1 1/2 is the legal limit. Anything above. Your f@£<Ed.
If safety is the only priority then we should ban recreational driving.
As in you can drive to work or the hospital.
But you can’t drive to the cinema or the beach.
That would cut deaths a lot, won’t somebody please think of the children?
Who is going to enforce this? The tories decimated the police funding and it’s barley increased…
The hundreds of drivers doing 40, 50 and touching 60 on my 30 mph road have not been drinking. They’re doing it principally cos they think they can get away with it. If they get in an accident while they were over 30 mph, they’ll all claim they were not.
Seems a bit pointless, If I have one pint with a meal I’m still more alert and faster to react than anyone who’s 60 or older so if a 20-35 year old is “unsafe” after one pint why aren’t all over 60s just completely banned?
I honestly think drug driving is a bigger problem. It seems every Amazon delivery van that passes me stinks of weed these days. People gotta wake up and realise that’s a dangerous as drunk driving.
How about an alcohol limit for the House of Commons tested on arrival and leaving.
People who get smashed don’t care about the law or the rules
The limit isn’t the issue, police numbers and patrols are. Automation doens’t work. People just work around it by installing reflective number plates that can’t be photographed.
I drove from the North into London regularly. Completely uneventful on the way down but as soon as you get to London, people just seem insane.
On the north circular where the speed limit ranges from 30 to 50, the number of just mad manoeuvres people pull is crazy. Speeding, undertaking, tail-gaiting, switching lanes suddenly without warning, flashing and honking at people “in their way”.
Half of them probably coked up to their eyeballs or just pricks that need taking off the road.
I play football and padel with mates twice a week. After the game we go to the pub and have a pint.
We won’t be able to do that anymore. We pose absolutely no danger to anyone, but now that pub has lost a load of business on quiet midweek nights.
Likely won’t reduce accident rates unless combined with:
1. More enforcement – i.e. more police. It’ll take a _lot_ more cops to cover this *and* serious crime currently going unchecked.
2. Better public transport – certainly if we aren’t to do more damage to the pub trade.
Source: How it played out in Scotland: [Introduction of stricter drink drive limit in Scotland has had ‘no effect’ in reducing accidents](https://www.essex.ac.uk/news/2021/08/10/introduction-of-strict-drink-drive-limit-has-had-no-effect-in-reducing-accidents).
My wife rarely drinks, and gets quite tipsy on half a glass of wine. I drink beer most days and even two beers doesn’t make me feel like I am too impaired to drive.
The point I am trying to make is that different amounts of alcohol have very different effects on people if their tolerance is different.
The only people I know who would drive after consuming an alcoholic drink, would also drive after consuming ten of them. I’d be interested to see how many alcohol-related road accidents are clocked between the old limit and the new one. Probably very few.
This is fairly similar to NZ. 25 (or 250 as we do it by litre of breath) is the limit.
You can still have a few drinks with dinner and be fine.
This gov won’t be satisfied till puts every pub in the country out of business. Why can’t ya have a pint while eating a meal and drive.
For some reason I had thought this change had already come into force in October. And what people have been saying is exactly what I have done – instead of having a single pint at the start of the meal while being a designated driver, I’m just opting not to have anything.
Although I guess that doesn’t say much when I’m barely going out anymore anyway due to the cost of everything…
It’s like lowering speed limits, you don’t improve safety and you just piss everyone off. All the pricks who drink and drive will continue to drink and drive.
I think we all know the reason driving accidents are trending upwards is the massive influx of people from countries with FAR lower driving standards being able to just use their existing licenses without taking a UK test. As usual though labour will come after the common folk. It’s all they do.
I’m not sure this will solve anything other than making more people guilty of being over the limit, what I do have an issue with is
> as well as new powers to suspend driving licences for people suspected of drink or drug-driving offences.
So, even just being suspected of an offence will be enough to have you’re license suspended? In what world is this what we do as a nation? It’s literally guilty until proven innocent.
Obfuscation. They don’t want to spend on those cameras that pick up drivers using phones.
So it’s basically just a scheme to get their numbers up over the nice people who only have a pint with their meal that 99% of the time has 0 cognitive effect by the way.
Fucking ridiculous.
Prefer they actually dealt with proper drink / drug drivers rather than messing with the limits.
Everything feels like a slap on the wrist nowadays.
This government is procrastinating by regulating areas that are just easy to regulate rather than dealing with the big issues. A bad sign.
State of this thread, now people defend drink driving because they hate Labour
Maybe you can make a petition to Saint Nige to put increase of the alcohol limit in his manifesto
Need to tackle all the assholes on the road that are using mobile phones.
I don’t see the issue personally. We’ve had the lower limit in place in Scotland since 2014 and the number of drink driving serious casualties has reduced by around 70% over the decade following.
A recent survey also shows that 29% of those polled have reduced their overall alcohol consumption as a result of the change to the limit which can only be a good thing for their physical health.
The limit isn’t zero – noone is saying you can’t have a pint with your meal – but the lower limit seems to greatly influence the amount of people who do take the piss.
Personally I have zero tolerance for drink driving, I’ll either arrange alternative transport or just not drink. It’s not hard. “I’m still safe to drive” is the attitude that got my granddad killed by a drunk driver but as long as it only happens to statistics and not someone you know personally it seems to be acceptable.
I would imagine that people on their phones is now a much bigger problem than drink drivers. Still no concrete scheme to deal with that
Why not remove the roundabouts and install more traffic lights? Or have uk cars preinstalled with speed limitations? Or even put way more tax on speed cars to avoid ppl getting dangerous cars
The thing is people who drink drive and drink lots really don’t care about what the “limit” is.
If only Labour could fix the economy instead of punishing village pubs. They’re headed for a severe beating in the May elections.
If they think measures like this are going to reduce serious accidents and deaths by 65% by 2035 they are kidding themselves.
In other crime-reduction news, we’re making murder and other violent crimes EXTRA TURBO ILLEGAL, so look forward to massive drops in those.
Look at all these sad alcoholics in the comments. You’ve got legs, use them.
I’ve zero sympathy for drink and drug drivers. I believe limits should be reduced and punishments increased.
Selfish bastards the lot of them.
I don’t like how the Labour government seem to be obsessed with nannying people. They should take proper account of what Britain’s traditional values are, which is to leave people to themselves unless they’re causing serious harm.