Your car could refuse to start: The alcolock plan heading for UK roads
Key Points
- Police chiefs, PCCs and the RAC have urged the Prime Minister to introduce alcohol interlocks
- An alcolock is a breathalyser wired to a car's ignition that blocks the engine starting
- Drink-drive collisions killed 220 people in Great Britain in 2024
- Interlocks can cut reoffending by up to 70% and 82% of drivers back them
- UK courts currently cannot require convicted drink-drivers to fit one
Drivers convicted of drink-driving in the UK could have to blow into a breathalyser before their car will start.
Police chiefs, Police and Crime Commissioners, the RAC and a group of road safety organisations have written an open letter to the Prime Minister as part of the Lock Out Drink Driving campaign, calling on the Government to commit to an alcohol interlock programme for high-risk and repeat offenders.
The coalition wants the Government to use its forthcoming response to the motoring offences consultation to set out a clear route towards a mandatory alcolock scheme.
That response is already overdue, with the Government having passed its own three-month timetable for publishing a summary of responses and next steps after the consultation closed.
How an alcolock works
An alcohol interlock is a breathalyser wired into a vehicle’s ignition, and the engine will not start if it detects alcohol above a set threshold.
The technology can be retrofitted to almost any vehicle and several countries already use it to tackle repeat drink-driving.
Courts in the UK currently have no power to require a convicted drink-driver to fit one as a condition of returning to the road.
The Department for Transport estimates that drink-drive collisions in Great Britain killed 220 people and seriously injured more than 1,500 others during 2024.
International evidence suggests alcohol interlocks can cut reoffending by up to 70%, and RAC polling found that 82% of UK drivers support their introduction for repeat and high-risk offenders.
More than four people die on Great Britain’s roads every day, and the Road Safety Strategy targets a 65% reduction in deaths and serious injuries by 2035.
“Drink-driving remains one of the most preventable causes of death and serious injury on our roads. Alcolocks physically stop someone from driving after drinking, and there is strong public support for repeat or high-risk offenders having to have them fitted to their vehicles before being allowed to drive again.
“The Government said it would set out its next steps within three months of the Road Safety Strategy consultation closing. That deadline has now passed, and every further delay means more preventable harm on our roads,” said Simon Williams, Head of Policy and PR at the RAC.
“As Mayor of Greater Manchester, the Prime Minister backed the ambition of Vision Zero – that nobody should be killed or suffer life-changing injuries on our roads. We are asking him to bring that same ambition to the whole country and commit to a mandatory alcohol interlock programme for high-risk and repeat offenders,” Williams added.
The signatories want courts to be able to make an alcolock a mandatory condition of an offender returning to driving, backed by monitoring and appropriate rehabilitation.
They argue that the approach stops a vehicle moving after the driver has been drinking, rather than relying on a ban or a penalty after the event.
Signatories to the letter include the RAC, Road Safety Great Britain, Brake, the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety, the Road Safety Foundation, the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, National Police Chiefs’ Council Roads Policing and the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents.
