Drink-Driving Limit Myth?

[Hymie]

I’ve never been arrested/charged with drink-driving – but have a question that ABers may be able to answer.

The legal drink-drive alcohol limit in England is 35µg/100ml of breath – I’ve read that if your alcohol breath result is between 35 to 50µg/100ml, then you can insist of a confirmatory blood test where the applicable alcohol limit is 80mg/100ml of blood; but you have to know that you can request this option. This then involves a doctor taking the required blood sample.

To avoid having to call out a doctor, my understanding is that now the police apply an alcohol limit of 40µg/100ml of breath (despite the legal limit being 35µg/100ml). If you are at/above the 40µg level there is now no option to request a blood test; so effectively the alcohol drink drive limit is 40µg/100ml of breath.

Are any ABers able to confirm the above last paragraph to be correct – or have I just made it up?

[Buenchico]

>>> I’ve read that if your alcohol breath result is between 35 to 50µg/100ml, then you can insist of a confirmatory blood test where the applicable alcohol limit is 80mg/100ml of blood.

Not any longer. The option to insist upon a blood test was repealed in 2015. (Section 52, Deregulation Act 2015 and Schedule 11 thereto).

[Stickybottle]

Having worked with Police in the past I can confirm that despite the 35 limit for breath it was SOP for most forces not to prosecute unless the lower reading of the two was at least 40
This was they were unsure whether a driver was in their way up or down
The 40 rule removed the ambiguity
It meant you were definitely above the limit regardless