Drink driving

England & Wales and Scotland run different prescribed alcohol limits under the same Act — the single most consequential jurisdiction divergence on this site. This page carries the limits, the offences the schedule creates around them, and what each offence’s maximum, disqualification and points actually are.

The limit

Two prescribed limits, one Act

England & Wales and Scotland do not share a drink-driving limit. Choose where the driving happened before comparing a reading — the site will not pick a jurisdiction for you.

Scotland’s limits are lower than England and Wales’s

Scotland’s prescribed limits are LOWER than England and Wales’s. A reading that is under the limit on one side of the border can be over it on the other, and that is the single most consequential thing a cross-border driver can misunderstand.

RTA 1988 s.11(2) · S.S.I. 2014/328 reg.2

Against the prescribed limit

Choose a jurisdiction first. England & Wales and Scotland have different prescribed limits, and this site will not pick one for you.

This compares a reading you enter against the prescribed limit for the jurisdiction you chose. It does not estimate anyone’s alcohol level and it is not evidence of anything.

Sourced — legislationRTA 1988 s.11(2) · S.S.I. 2014/328 reg.2legislation.gov.ukSLD current text, fetched 2026-08-02

What the law no longer says

There is no “replacement specimen” option any more

A figure that still circulates in this market, attached to a subsection that has not been in force since 2015.

What the law does not say

The low-end “statutory option” was abolished UK-wide on 10 April 2015

Until 2015, a driver whose breath reading sat at the low end could insist on a blood or urine sample instead. That right was abolished across the United Kingdom on 10 April 2015, and the subsection that created it is blank in the statute today. A source still quoting a 50 µg (England & Wales) or 31 µg (Scotland) replacement-specimen threshold is quoting a provision that no longer exists — the prescribed limits in the panel above sit in a different subsection, and are unaffected.

RTA 1988 s.8(2), omitted 10.04.2015 · Deregulation Act 2015 s.115(7), Sch.11 para.1(1) · S.I. 2015/994 art.4

Sourced — legislationRTA 1988 s.8(2) REPEALED 10.04.2015 · S.S.I. 2014/328 reg.3 (spent)legislation.gov.ukSLD current text, fetched 2026-08-02

Drug driving

The specified drug limits — England and Wales only

A separate, later regime from drink driving, with its own limits and its own instrument. It runs alongside the alcohol limits above, not instead of them.

Specified controlled-drug limits, England and Wales
Drug	Limit in blood
Amphetamine	250 µg/L
Benzoylecgonine	50 µg/L
Clonazepam	50 µg/L
Cocaine	10 µg/L
Delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol	2 µg/L
Diazepam	550 µg/L
Flunitrazepam	300 µg/L
Ketamine	20 µg/L
Lorazepam	100 µg/L
Lysergic Acid Diethylamide	1 µg/L
Methadone	500 µg/L
Methylamphetamine	10 µg/L
Methylenedioxymethamphetamine	10 µg/L
6-Monoacetylmorphine	5 µg/L
Morphine	80 µg/L
Oxazepam	300 µg/L
Temazepam	1,000 µg/L

Sourced — legislationDrug Driving (Specified Limits) (England and Wales) Regulations 2014 (S.I. 2014/2868)in force 02.03.2015, as amended by S.I. 2015/911

Scotland’s specified drug limitsUNKNOWN

No Scotland-specific drug-driving-limits instrument is among this site’s sources — only the England-and-Wales-scoped regulations above were found. That is a genuine gap in what can be cited here, not a claim that Scotland shares the England and Wales figures.

S.I. 2014/2868 (England and Wales only, by its own title and extent)

The offences

Six offences, from the same schedule

Two of the six are written to cover drink OR drugs together, not alcohol alone — the schedule’s own wording, not a simplification made here. Each row’s maximum is a level on the standard scale; what a level is worth is on the penalties page, not repeated here.

← swipe to see the whole table →

Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988 Schedule 2 Part I — drink and drug-driving offences
Offence	Provision	Maximum punishment	Disqualification	Endorsement	Points
Driving/attempting to drive unfit through drink or drugs	RTA 1988 s.4(1)	6 months or level 5	Obligatory	Obligatory	3–11
In charge, unfit through drink or drugs	RTA 1988 s.4(2)	3 months or level 4	Discretionary	Obligatory	10
Driving/attempting to drive, excess alcohol	RTA 1988 s.5(1)(a)	6 months or level 5	Obligatory	Obligatory	3–11
In charge, excess alcohol	RTA 1988 s.5(1)(b)	3 months or level 4	Discretionary	Obligatory	10
Failing to co-operate with a preliminary test	RTA 1988 s.6	Level 3	Discretionary	Obligatory	4
Failing to provide specimen	RTA 1988 s.7	(a) drink/drive-linked: 6 months or level 5; (b) other: 3 months or level 4	(a) Obligatory (b) Discretionary	Obligatory	(a) 3–11 (b) 10

Sourced — legislationRTOA 1988 Sch.2 Pt.Ilegislation.gov.ukSLD current text, fetched 2026-08-02

Every maximum above is a level on the standard scale, and what a level resolves to — in pounds, for both jurisdictions — is on the penalties page’s standard-scale table, rather than restated here.

Where this applies. This site answers for England and Wales and for Scotland. It does not answer for Northern Ireland: the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988 does not extend there (s.99(7)), and Northern Ireland runs a separate Road Traffic (Northern Ireland) Order regime that is not among this site’s sources. Figures here are Great Britain figures, not UK-wide ones.