Irish-style drink-drive limits will kill pubs, say Scottish publicans

The introduction last year in Scotland of Irish-style drink-driving limits threatens the destruction of Scotland’s rural pubs, publicans have warned, following figures that showed that the number of drivers who failed breath-tests dropped by a fifth over Christmas.

Drink-driving limits – which fell to 50mg per 100ml in Scotland on December 5th, significantly lower than the 80mg/100ml levels still applying in England and Wales – has led many drivers to abandon drinking entirely when they are out.

Saying that the change will have a bigger impact on pubs than the 2006 smoking ban, Paul Waterson, chief executive of the Scottish Licensed Trade Association, said it will accelerate the closure of pubs in rural Scotland.

“People are not drinking the night before. It’s all about the next day. The vast majority of people did not drink and drive if they went out – it’s about residual alcohol levels in the bloodstream the next day,” said Mr Waterson.

However, the lower drink-driving limits have led to sharp increases in supermarket purchases of non-alcoholic and low-alcohol beers, with Tesco reporting that sales had risen by 80 per cent since the 50mg limit was brought in.

Meanwhile, young drivers throughout Britain were more likely to be found drink-driving over Christmas than their older peers, despite a belief that culture changes had made the habit unacceptable.

In all, one in 15 under-25 drivers stopped by police failed breath-tests; though just one in 25 of the 134,000 people held at checkpoints over the holidays by police forces from Cornwall to the Orkneys did so.

Promising that police will “plague” offenders, chief constable Suzette Davenport insisted that the anti-drink-driving message is getting through, even if young drivers are “unsurprisingly more likely to take risks”.