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Driving Under Influence

Volume 460: debated on Tuesday 22 May 2007

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many drink driving tests were carried out in each police authority in 2004. (138643)

Information on the number of tests carried out is provided in the following table:

Screening breath tests, by police force area 20041, England and Wales

Police force area

Total tests

Avon and Somerset

27,300

Bedfordshire

7,800

Cambridgeshire

12,300

Cheshire

20,200

Cleveland

8,100

Cumbria

8,400

Derbyshire

31,000

Devon and Cornwall

10,700

Dorset

7,000

Durham

6,100

Essex

25,300

Gloucestershire

7,100

Greater Manchester

19,900

Hampshire

38,400

Hertfordshire

7,300

Humberside

5,600

Kent

32,000

Lancashire

10,200

Leicestershire

15,400

Lincolnshire

11,300

London, City of

700

Merseyside

5,000

Metropolitan Police

61,500

Norfolk

4,800

Northamptonshire

3,200

Northumbria

9,800

North Yorkshire

8,600

Nottinghamshire

8,200

South Yorkshire

6,500

Staffordshire

13,700

Suffolk

10,600

Surrey

9,500

Sussex

15,200

Thames Valley

15,400

Warwickshire

5,500

West Mercia

8,000

West Midlands

6,600

West Yorkshire

16,900

Wiltshire

7,400

Dyfed-Powys

6,700

Gwent

1,600

North Wales

24,200

South Wales

16,700

Total

577,600

1 Following a comparison between the number of positive breath tests reported by each police force in 2004 and the number of court proceedings for drink/driving related offences, it became clear that there was under-reporting in a number of forces. As a result Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent, Lancashire, South Yorkshire, Staffordshire, Dyfed-Powys, Gwent and South Wales, court proceedings figures have been substituted for the positive breath test figures. Similar adjustments were also made to various forces data between 1998 and 2003.

Note:

Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by police forces. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used.