Merseyside Police Become First UK Force to Charge Drink-Drivers at the Roadside

Merseyside Police can now take a breath sample at the roadside and use it directly in court, letting officers charge a suspected drink-driver on the spot rather than driving them to a station for a second test. It is the first time any UK force has used the technology in a live operation, and it closes a gap that has let borderline cases walk free for years.

A New Stop Outside Liverpool Airport

The first use of the technology came on a busy road leaving Liverpool John Lennon Airport, part of a campaign called Operation Take Off that targets travellers who drink on a flight home and then get behind the wheel.

The campaign takes its name from the deaths of eight-month-old Zackary Blades and his aunt Karlene Warner, killed in May 2024 by a driver leaving Newcastle Airport who was almost three times over the legal alcohol limit. Zackary’s mother has campaigned for a lifetime ban for anyone convicted of causing death by drink-driving.

Roads Policing Inspector Gavin Dixon, who led the first operation, said the change closes a gap that has let borderline drivers escape prosecution for years. “It might not sound like a major breakthrough, but being able to charge people at the roadside for drink-driving could make the difference between securing a prosecution and losing one,” he said. “We can sometimes find ourselves in the frustrating position where a driver who was clearly over the limit at the roadside is no longer providing a sample high enough to meet the evidential threshold by the time they reach custody.”

Merseyside Police says it is proud to be the first force in the country to use the technology in real policing operations, rather than in a trial or a lab.

Why the Old System Let Borderline Cases Go

Until now, a roadside breathalyser only told an officer whether a driver had failed a preliminary screening test. To bring a charge, police had to arrest the driver, take them to a police station, wait for a doctor or trained officer to become available, then run two further evidential tests on a separate, larger machine.

That gap, sometimes an hour or longer, gave alcohol time to clear a driver’s system. A motorist who blew well over the limit at the roadside could return a lower, non-prosecutable reading by the time the evidential test happened, and the case would collapse before it reached a courtroom.

The idea of testing at the roadside is not new. The Department for Transport ran a £350,000 competition in 2018 to bring a portable evidential breathalyser to market, working with the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety, and said at the time it expected police forces to have the device in use by summer 2020. It has taken six years longer than planned for a force to put the technology into a live operation, and Merseyside Police is now the first to do so.

Roads Minister Jesse Norman said when the funding was announced that the drink-drive limit has helped make Britain’s roads among the safest in the world, but that police needed better tools to enforce it against those who still choose to drive after drinking. Officers on the ground have echoed that view for years, arguing that a system built around delay works against them and in favour of the driver who was over the limit at the roadside.

What the Law Says About the Limit

The drink-drive limit itself has not changed. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland the limit remains 35 micrograms of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath, equivalent to 80 milligrams per 100 millilitres of blood. Scotland has run a lower limit from 2014, at 22 micrograms per 100 millilitres of breath, equivalent to 50 milligrams per 100 millilitres of blood.

A driver convicted of drink-driving faces a minimum 12-month driving ban, an unlimited fine and up to six months in prison. A driver who causes death while over the limit faces a far longer sentence under separate causing-death offences.

Merseyside Police is also testing separate equipment that can detect nitrous oxide, to work out whether breath sampling could prove as reliable for that substance as it has for alcohol. Nitrous oxide, commonly known as laughing gas, was made illegal to possess for its psychoactive effect under the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016, and police forces have struggled to build roadside tests for it in the way they have for alcohol.

From the start of the World Cup, police across the country have arrested 266 people for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, according to figures shared alongside the Merseyside announcement. Drivers can read more about how the tournament crackdown affects motorists this summer in our earlier coverage of the World Cup drink-drive crackdown, and the wider shift toward drug-driving prosecutions is covered in our report on drug-driving overtaking drink-driving as Britain’s top road danger.

The scale of roadside testing gives a sense of how many drivers this kind of change touches. Government figures from the last full year on record show more than 460,000 breath tests carried out at the roadside, with almost 59,000 of those coming back positive or refused outright. Refusal to provide a specimen without a reasonable excuse carries the same penalties as a failed test, including a driving ban and an unlimited fine, so declining to blow into the device is not a way around prosecution.

What Happens Next for Drivers Nationwide

Merseyside Police has confirmed it is the first force to use the equipment operationally, which raises an obvious question for drivers elsewhere: when will other forces follow. Police forces tend to adopt new enforcement equipment once a pilot proves reliable in court, in the same way automatic number plate recognition cameras and mobile phone detection cameras spread from a handful of early-adopter forces to nationwide use over several years. A successful run of prosecutions from the Merseyside device would give other forces a strong case to bid for their own units, and police and crime commissioners in neighbouring areas are already watching the results of Operation Take Off closely as they set next year’s road safety budgets.

For drivers, the practical change is speed rather than the odds of being caught. A driver who fails a roadside breath test already faces arrest under existing law; what changes is that the case can now be built and a charge brought within minutes rather than after a station visit that could run into hours. Officers using the new device will still ask a driver to blow into a handheld screening unit first, exactly as before. The difference comes if that initial reading suggests the driver is over the limit: instead of being driven to a station, the driver gives a second, evidential sample there on the roadside, and that reading alone can support a charge.

What to Do If You Are Stopped

Drivers still have the right to ask that the reading be double-checked and to have a solicitor present once under arrest, and can request a blood or urine test in the small number of cases where a breath device cannot be used, including certain medical conditions that affect lung capacity. Anyone unsure of their rights at a roadside stop can ask the officer directly, and can contact a solicitor before answering further questions once arrested.

The safest position remains not drinking at all before driving home from the airport, a night out or a long pub lunch. Alcohol takes hours to clear the body, and a driver who feels fine the morning after a late night can still be over the limit well into the next day. Anyone travelling this summer with a car waiting at the other end of a flight should budget for a taxi, a lift from a friend or family member, or a flight home that does not involve drinking at all. Inspector Dixon’s message to travellers was blunt: those tempted by a last-minute holiday drink, or a drink on the flight home, should think again before getting behind the wheel.

Sources:

• GB News: Revolutionary new technology unveiled to tackle vital road rules
• GOV.UK: Drink drivers face swifter justice with new roadside breathalysers
• Merseyside Police: Operation Limit updates