The drink drive limit in the UK is 80mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and 50mg in Scotland. The government consulted until 11 May 2026 on cutting the England and Wales limit, with a possible lower limit for new drivers, and as of 3 November 2026 it hasn't announced a decision. If it follows Scotland, the best study we have says pubs lost about 0.7% of their alcohol sales. Here's what that means for a pub, and what's worth doing before any change lands.
I run a pub in a town, not a village, so I'll be honest that this hits some of us a lot harder than others. A village pub where half the customers drove there is in a different position to a high street local with a bus stop outside. But every pub has drivers in it, and every pub has staff who drive home. So it's worth knowing the facts rather than the scare stories.
The limits now, and what's proposed
| Where | Blood | Breath | Urine |
|---|---|---|---|
| England and Wales (now) | 80mg per 100ml | 35µg per 100ml | 107mg per 100ml |
| Northern Ireland (now) | 80mg per 100ml | 35µg per 100ml | 107mg per 100ml |
| Scotland (since 2014) | 50mg per 100ml | 22µg per 100ml | 67mg per 100ml |
| Northern Ireland (planned) | 50mg per 100ml | 22µg per 100ml | 67mg per 100ml |
| Northern Ireland, novice and professional drivers (planned) | 20mg per 100ml | 9µg per 100ml | 27mg per 100ml |
The England and Wales limit hasn't changed since 1967, and the government's own press release calls it the highest in Europe. The road safety strategy, launched on 7 January 2026, said it would consult on lowering it. The consultation ran from 7 January to 11 May 2026 and asked two questions that matter to us: should the limit be lowered, and should new drivers have a lower limit than everyone else.
Nothing has been decided. The government hasn't published its response. When it does, a change would still need time to come in, so this isn't a Christmas 2026 problem. But it could easily be a Christmas 2027 one.
How many pints is 50mg?
There's no honest answer, and I'd never give a customer one. It depends on weight, sex, food, how fast you drink and how your body handles it, and the government's own consultation says impairment starts well below any limit. It quotes the NICE review: a driver between 20mg and 50mg has at least three times the risk of dying in a crash of a driver with no alcohol, rising to six times between 50mg and 80mg, and 11 times between 80mg and 100mg.
So the line behind the bar should be the one it is now. If you're driving, have the soft drink or the alcohol-free. Don't let anyone on your team tell a customer "you'll be fine on two". Under a 50mg limit that's even more likely to be wrong.
What I can give you is the units, because they're just arithmetic. A unit is 10ml of pure alcohol.
| Serve | Units |
|---|---|
| Pint of 4.5% lager | 2.6 |
| Pint of 4.0% lager or bitter | 2.3 |
| Pint of 3.4% session beer | 1.9 |
| 175ml glass of 12.5% wine | 2.2 |
| 25ml single of 37.5% spirit | 0.9 |
| Pint of 0.5% alcohol-free beer | 0.3 |
What Scotland's cut did to pubs
Scotland dropped from 80mg to 50mg in December 2014, so we don't have to guess. The best study is a natural experiment published in The Lancet in 2019, by researchers from Glasgow and elsewhere, comparing Scotland with England and Wales.
They found no significant change in road traffic accidents in Scotland after the cut. And they found a 0.7% fall in per-person alcohol sales in the on-trade, with no change in the off-trade. The government's consultation cites the same study and says it found no impact on the drinks and entertainment trade, while the study itself measured that 0.7% on-trade fall. Both can be true. 0.7% is small, and it's an average.
Here's what 0.7% looks like on one pub.
| Per week | Per year | |
|---|---|---|
| Lost drink takings, inc VAT | £35 | £1,820 |
| Ex VAT | £29 | £1,517 |
| Gross profit lost at 55% | £16 | £834 |
| In pints of gross profit at £2.45 a pint | About 7 | About 340 |
On average, that's survivable. The worry is the average. A rural licensee in Cumbria wrote in the Morning Advertiser on 30 October 2026 that many Scottish pubs reported a significant loss of trade, with rural venues hit hardest, because there's often no bus home. The Lancet study can't separate a village pub from a city bar. If your trade is mostly people who drove to you, assume you'll feel more than 0.7%.
A poll for breathalyser maker AlcoSense of 2,000 adults, reported in April 2026, found 13% of pub and restaurant visitors said they'd visit less often under a lower limit, and more than a third said their habits wouldn't change. Treat a poll like that as a feeling, not a forecast. People say they'll change more than they do.
The morning after, and your own team
This is the bit I think most pubs will miss. A lower limit doesn't only change the drive home. It changes the drive in the next morning. Someone who had a heavy night and feels fine at 8am is more likely to be over 50mg than over 80mg.
That matters for your staff more than your customers. The bar team who stay for a drink after close and then drive home. The person opening up for a delivery at 7am after a late finish. The cleaner. If one of them loses their licence, you lose them, and they lose a lot more than that. A staff drink after a shift is a nice thing to do. For anyone driving, make it a soft drink or an alcohol-free, and say so as a house rule now, before any change, so nobody feels singled out later.
What I'd do before any change
Get a proper alcohol-free on, and price it properly
Alcohol duty only applies above 1.2%, so a 0.0 or 0.5% beer carries none. The Morning Advertiser's 2026 survey put the average low and no pint at £5.11, more than the average lager at £4.89. That's a driver's drink with a better margin than the lager they'd have had. My low and no alcohol guide has the numbers, and the warning about buying too much of it.
Think about a 3.4% beer, for the people who aren't driving
Not for drivers. For the rest of the round, who might want to stay longer and drink a bit less. Draught under 3.5% is taxed at £8.58 per litre of alcohol against £19.45 above it, so a 3.4% pint carries about 16.6p of duty against 49.7p on a 4.5% pint, on the February 2026 rates in my duty guide. The Budget also gave small brewers a more generous duty discount on beers under 3.5% from February 2027. That's 33p of duty a pint you don't have to pass on.
Give the driver their drinks free
This is the idea I'd try first. Free soft drinks all night for the designated driver of any group of three or more. A pint of lemonade poured from 2 litre bottles costs a pub about 54p, from my soft drinks guide. Four of those over a night is £2.16. The group that came in because of it spends ten times that on the bar. Put it on a card at the till and on the menu, and tell the team to offer it, not wait to be asked.
Sort the lift home
Ring a local taxi firm and ask for a fixed fare from your door to the two or three places most of your customers come from. Put that number and price on a card behind the bar and by the door. It costs nothing, and it turns "I'd better not, I'm driving" into "I'll get a taxi from there".
My take
I'm not going to argue against a lower limit. Nobody in this trade wants a drunk driver on the road, and the risk figures speak for themselves. What I'd say is that Scotland shows the average pub loses a little, the rural pub may lose a lot more, and the pubs that come through it best are the ones that made it easy to come out and not drink much. You can do all of that now, before anyone in Westminster decides anything, and it'll earn you money whatever they decide.
If quiet midweek nights are already the problem, my guide on whether to close on quiet nights has the break-even sums.
Common questions
What is the drink drive limit in the UK?
In England, Wales and Northern Ireland it is 80mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood, 35 micrograms per 100ml of breath or 107mg per 100ml of urine. In Scotland it is 50mg per 100ml of blood, 22 micrograms per 100ml of breath or 67mg per 100ml of urine.
Is the drink drive limit changing in England?
Not yet. The government consulted from 7 January to 11 May 2026 on lowering the limit in England and Wales and on a lower limit for novice drivers. As of 3 November 2026 it had not published a decision.
How many pints can you drink under a 50mg limit?
There is no reliable number. It depends on your body, food and how quickly you drink, and the government's consultation notes impairment starts at low levels. The only safe advice is not to drink alcohol if you are driving.
Did the lower limit in Scotland hurt pubs?
A 2019 study in The Lancet found per-person alcohol sales in Scottish pubs and bars fell by 0.7% after the 2014 cut, with no change in shop sales and no significant change in road accidents. Rural pubs report being hit harder than the average.
Sources
- Current and planned limits for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, consultation questions on lowering the limit and a novice limit, Scotland's evidence, NICE risk figures (3, 6 and 11 times), estimates of 25 to 100 fatalities prevented a year: Department for Transport, Proposed changes to penalties for motoring offences (opened 7 January 2026, closed 11 May 2026). No outcome published as at 3 November 2026.
- Strategy launched 7 January 2026, limit unchanged since 1967 and highest in Europe, 1 in 6 road fatalities in 2023 involved drink driving: GOV.UK, Thousands of lives to be saved under bold new road safety strategy.
- No significant change in road traffic accidents, 0.7% fall in per-capita on-trade alcohol sales, no change off-trade: Haghpanahan H, Lewsey J, Mackay DF and others, The Lancet 393 (2019) 321-329, University of Glasgow record.
- Rural pubs and Scotland's experience, 260 drink-drive deaths in 2023: Morning Advertiser, Why cutting the drink-drive limit could damage rural pubs (30 October 2026).
- AlcoSense poll of 2,000 adults (13% would visit licensed premises less often, more than a third no change): Road Safety GB (28 April 2026).
- More generous duty discount for products below 3.5% ABV within Small Producer Relief from 1 February 2027: HM Treasury, Budget 2026.
- Duty rates and per-pint duty, low and no prices, lemonade at 54p a pint: my duty, low and no and soft drinks guides. Units, the 0.7% worked example and the £2.45 gross profit a pint are my arithmetic.