Rupert Lowe is griping about proposals to lower the drink-drive limit

On 7 January, Rupert Lowe – everyone’s least-favourite ‘too much even for the far-right’ MP – posted to social media this about the drink-drive limit:

An even stricter drink-drive limit is mental.

It will destroy rural pubs, and achieve absolutely sod all in terms of 'safety'.

I will oppose it in Parliament.

— Rupert Lowe MP (@RupertLowe10) January 7, 2026

Rather than a vague gripe at anything passingly ‘woke’ (a Lowe specialty), this tweet was actually referring to something currently relevant.

The UK government just launched a major new road safety overhaul. The strategy updates – which are currently up for public consultation – would constitute the biggest changes in over a decade. Most pertinently, the drink-driving limit looks set to drop dramatically.

Lower drink-drive limits

The proposed changes would mimic several strategies that are already in force in Scotland and Northern Ireland. As such, they’d apply to England and Wales only.

Among the plethora of policy updates, the government is looking to:

• consult on introducing a three or six month minimum learning period for learner drivers

• consult on a lower blood alcohol limit for novice drivers

• consult on introducing mandatory eyesight testing for drivers over age 70 and develop options for cognitive testing for older drivers

More precisely, the Department for Transport (DfT) has proposed lowering the blood alcohol limit from 80mg to 20mg per 100mg (or 0.2g per litre) for new drivers.

However, it’s not just novices who would be affected by the new, lower limits. For everyone else, the new maximum would be 50mg per 100ml, in line with the current limit in Scotland.

The government’s policy document also made a strong case for lowering the limits:

The current limit (i.e. the legal maximum level of alcohol in the bloodstream on testing) is the highest in Europe and (in England and Wales) has not changed since it was introduced in 1969. This is despite the fact that in 2023, 1 in 6 fatalities were in drink drive collisions.

‘Highest in Europe’

When they say “highest in Europe”, they’re really not kidding either. The current limit in England and Wales is 0.8g/litre for all drivers. However, other European countries often distinguish between novice, experienced and commercial drivers in setting their maximums.

The very lowest drink-drive limits – 0.0g/l, absolutely no blood alcohol across the board – are found in the Czech Republic, Romania, and Slovakia. Following close behind, Estonia, Norway, Poland and Sweden use a 0.2g/l limit. For context, that’s the amount we’re proposing for novice drivers.

Meanwhile, Denmark has a 0.5g/l limit for experienced drivers and 0.2g/l for novices. This exactly matches the DfT’s new proposals for the UK.

Beyond that, most of the rest of Europe uses a 0.5g/l limit. However, only Belgium, Bulgaria and Finland apply that same maximum to novices – Spain uses 0.3g/l for new drivers, and other countries set the limit at 0.2g/l, or even 0.0g/l.

Notably, everywhere but Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, France, Latvia and the Netherlands also set a lower limit for commercial drivers. That is, they impose stricter limits on people driving taxis, lorries and buses.

Safe and sensible

Alcohol is a recreational drug, like any other. And, like other recreational drug, it strongly affects our ability to operate heavy machinery:

• The brain takes longer to receive messages from the eye

• Processing information becomes more difficult

• Instructions to the body’s muscles are delayed resulting in slower reaction times

Note, also, that these drawbacks don’t happen only when you pass a certain blood-alcohol level. Even the smallest amount of alcohol impairs your driving ability. Legal drink driving limits are merely an arbitrary calculation of risk to the general public.

Contrary to the opinion of fossils like Rupert Lowe, and “even stricter” drink-driving limit would still leave us with the highest limits in Europe. It’s just that beforehand, our limits were two, three or even four times those of our continental neighbours.

There is no true ‘safe’ drink-driving limit. However, 0.5g/l is undoubtedly safer than 0.8g/l – that must should be obvious.

Featured image via the Canary