lordswrans/lordswrans2025-07-16 conversation_7
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-07-16)

UK Parliament Hansard data: lordswrans/lordswrans2025-07-16 conversation_7

Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth:To ask His Majesty's Government how many prosecutions there have been in each police authority area for drunken or drug influenced driving in each of the past three years; and how many of these prosecutions led to convictions. \p Lord Hermer: A number of driving offences created by the Road Traffic Act 1988 relate to driving when under the influence of drink or drugs. These are as follows:

Section 3A(a) causing death by driving without due care and attention / reasonable consideration while unfit through drink or drugs.

Section 3A(b) causing death by due care while over prescribed limit.

Section 3A(ba) causing death by driving without due care / consideration while over specified limit - specified controlled drug.

Section 3A(c) causing death by due care and fail to provide specimen.

Section 3A(d) fail to give permission for a laboratory test on a blood specimen having caused a death.

Section 4(1) driving a motor vehicle when under the influence of drink or drugs.

Section 5(1)(a) driving a motor vehicle with an alcohol concentration above the prescribed limit.

Section 5A(1)(a) and (2) driving a motor vehicle with a concentration of a specified controlled drug above the specified limit.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) does not hold any data which shows the number of defendants prosecuted and convicted of the above offences and to establish whether defendants charged with these offences were convicted would require a manual review of case files and this would be at disproportionate cost.

The figures in the table below relate to the number of offences and not the number of individual defendants. It can be the case that an individual defendant is charged with more than one offence. No data are held showing the final outcome or if the charged offence was the substantive charge at finalisation.

Management information is available which shows the number of offences of charged by way of the above list of Road Traffic Act 1988 offences in which a prosecution commenced. The table below shows the number of these offences in each police force area from 1st January 2022 to 31st December 2024.

Offences of attempt, in charge, aid and abet have been excluded but failure to provide specimen following drunken or drug influenced driving have been included to produce a list of offences that meet the criteria of ‘drunken or drug influenced driving’ prosecutions.

Drunken or Drug Influenced Driving Offence Volumes

2022

2023

2024

Avon & Somerset

1,761

1,562

1,753

Bedfordshire

432

400

373

British Transport Police

19

23

17

Cambridgeshire

758

720

640

Cheshire

1,814

1,623

2,134

City of London Police

230

244

220

Cleveland

1,351

959

1,273

Cumbria

840

976

949

Derbyshire

950

973

978

Devon & Cornwall

1,989

2,401

2,246

Dorset

710

661

682

Durham

1,062

921

920

Dyfed-Powys

961

1,076

653

Essex

1,929

1,743

1,780

Gloucestershire

949

836

786

Greater Manchester

2,075

3,086

3,421

Gwent

1,073

1,075

856

Hampshire

2,469

2,287

2,204

Hertfordshire

761

723

657

Humberside

1,106

838

1,084

Kent

2,281

2,140

2,141

Lancashire

2,138

1,643

2,219

Leicestershire

1,024

884

757

Lincolnshire

1,063

1,064

982

Merseyside

3,024

2,990

2,896

Metropolitan Police

5,286

3,561

3,971

Norfolk

1,120

1,120

976

Northamptonshire

910

995

970

Northumbria

1,460

1,330

1,429

North Wales

1,263

1,507

1,372

North Yorkshire

1,196

889

1,010

Nottinghamshire

1,557

1,628

1,156

South Wales

1,716

1,761

1,619

South Yorkshire

1,305

1,227

1,309

Staffordshire

1,235

1,065

1,125

Suffolk

835

985

960

Surrey

1,287

1,217

1,412

Sussex

2,036

1,836

1,696

Thames Valley

2,798

2,806

3,303

Warwickshire

569

468

444

West Mercia

1,526

1,483

1,583

West Midlands

1,656

1,376

1,356

West Yorkshire

2,623

2,400

2,362

Wiltshire

852

846

746

44 Police Force Areas Total

63,999

60,348

61,420

Data Source: CPS Case Management Information System