Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-02-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the effect of the legal requirement for drivers in France to carry a breathalyser and its effect on road safety in that country in order to inform his policies.

Andrew Jones

We know that the number of people killed in drink drive collisions remains significantly higher in France than in Great Britain despite the introduction of the legal requirement to carry a breathalyser in 2012. In 2014 Trading Standards in Great Britain looked at the self-testing devices available and concluded that the majority of these were unreliable and may give anyone using them a dangerously false sense of security. We therefore have no plans to introduce any such requirement in Great Britain.