Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the answer of 16 October 2025, to Question 77642, on Driving under Influence: Scotland, whether research has been commissioned or produced on the effect of drink driving limits on the economic viability of pubs and other hospitality venues which serve alcohol.

The Government is committed to reducing the numbers of those killed and injured on our roads.

We are considering a range of policies under the new Road Safety Strategy; the first for 10 years. This includes the case for changing the motoring offences, such as drink driving.  We intend to publish this by the end of the year.

Research was conducted by the University of Bath in 2021, Dr Jonathan James and Professor Marco Francesconi, looking at the effect of the introduction of the lower drink drive limit in Scotland. The authors found that the “alcohol industry remained unscathed, with no changes in production, prices, or employment”:

www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/s0167629621000722#sec0014

On 5 December 2014 Scotland lowered the drink drive limit to that of the majority of European countries. In 2023 Transport Scotland published casualty estimates show that the “numbers of drink-drive collisions and casualties fell by 55% and 47% respectively between 2012 and 2022 (the latest year for which estimates are available)”:

www.transport.gov.scot/publication/reported-road-casualties-scotland-2023/.