Accredited official statistics

User feedback request: proposed changes to drink-drive statistics

Published 31 July 2025

The road safety statistics team regularly reviews the contents of its publications to ensure they remain relevant and meet user needs. We have recently reviewed the drink-drive statistics and would welcome feedback from users which can be provided by completing our feedback survey or by emailing the road safety statistics team at roadacc.stats@dft.gov.uk.

Coroner data on passengers, pedestrians and pedal cyclists

We are proposing to make changes to the data collected from coroners which forms part of the annual drink-drive statistics, from 2024 data onwards. Coroner data provides information on blood alcohol levels of those killed in road collisions which is used in these statistics.

To reduce burdens on coroners who supply this information, we are proposing that in future data will only be collected for motor vehicle drivers in future.

Currently data is collected for all fatalities. However, only those that are motor vehicle drivers or riders are used in producing the estimates of drink-drive casualties as the drink-drive limits do not apply to pedestrians, vehicle passengers or non-motor vehicle drivers or riders.

As it stands, data on proportions of pedestrians, passengers and pedal cyclist fatalities with blood alcohol in excess of the drink drive limit is presented in table RAS2033. However, this shows that the sample sizes for these groups are typically small, and in many cases toxicology information is not available. It is likely that some coroners will test when alcohol is suspected to be present, which introduces the possibility of bias in these figures and potentially limits their usefulness.

Question 1. Are you providing a response as an individual, or on behalf of an organisation?

Question 2. Does the proposed loss of data on blood alcohol levels in pedestrian fatalities cause you any problems with your work? If yes, please provide brief details.

Question 3. Does the proposed loss of data on blood alcohol levels in pedal cyclist fatalities cause you any problems with your work? If yes, please provide brief details.

Question 4. Does the proposed loss of data on blood alcohol levels in passenger fatalities cause you any problems with your work? If yes, please provide brief details.

Digital breath test results

We haven’t updated RAS2042, which contains data on the concentrations of alcohol detected in drivers’ breath in roadside breath tests, for 2023. This in part reflects a reduction in the volume of data provided by police forces in recent years.

We are also proposing the removal of this table in future. If these data are not being used, then we believe that the value to users that these statistics provide is outweighed by the work required to collect the data and produce the statistics.

Question 5. Does the proposed loss of data on readings from digital breath tests cause you any problems with your work? If so, please provide brief details.

Proposed methodology changes

We are proposing a change to the methodology used to produce the drink-drive estimates for fatalities. This will result in minor changes to the estimates but will make the statistics more robust. Technical details of the changes we are considering implementing are available, including a chart showing the potential impact on recent years figures.

Question 6. Do you have any comments on the implementation of the proposed methodology changes? Are you content to support the team’s proposed development, or would you have any concerns about the planned change? Or do you have no strong opinion on this change?

Name of the publication

Currently, this publication is titled “Reported road casualties in Great Britain, involving illegal alcohol levels” however, we don’t believe that this is clear or matches the language used when the statistics are discussed and reported. We are considering changing the name of this publication to “Reported road casualties in Great Britain, drink-drive collisions”. We believe that this is clearer and aligns better with how users of the statistics would refer to them.

Question 7. Do you support changing the name of this publication to “Reported road casualties in Great Britain, drink-drive collisions”?

Any other feedback

We also welcome any other feedback on these statistics. For example:

• does the timeliness and frequency of the current publications meet your needs?
• are there additional topics or analyses you would like to see included in the annual publication?
• are there any additional breakdowns which could be included in the published data tables?

Question 8. Do you have any other comments or feedback on the Department’s drink-drive statistics, or road casualty statistics more generally?

Contact us

Road safety statistics

Email roadacc.stats@dft.gov.uk