Drink driving offences 1135/2025

FOI Reference: 1135/2025

Request:

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, I would like to request information on drink driving offences and roadside breath testing within your force area.

For clarity, this request relates specifically to drink driving offences under Section 5 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 (driving or attempting to drive with alcohol level above the prescribed limit). 

If your force records drink driving offences under different offence codes, contravention codes, or internal classifications, please provide the equivalent data for offences relating to driving or attempting to drive over the prescribed alcohol limit.

Please exclude drug driving offences recorded under Section 4 and Section 5A of the Road Traffic Act 1988 where possible. If your recording system does not allow drink driving offences to be separated from drug driving offences, please provide the combined figure and state clearly that the data includes both drink and drug driving offences.

Please provide the following for each calendar month in 2022, 2023 and 2024:

1. The total number of drink driving arrests
2. The total number of roadside breath tests conducted
3. The total number of roadside breath tests where the driver was recorded as being over the legal alcohol limit
4. The highest evidential breath alcohol reading (µg per 100ml) recorded in that month

Response 1:

I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information requested, as outlined below.

Response 2:

I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information requested, as outlined below.

Response 3:

I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information requested, as outlined below.

Response 4:

I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information requested, as outlined below. Please be advised that the Freedom of Information team have been advised by the relevant department that data prior to May 2023 is no longer retrievable due to a change in recording systems.

It should be noted that as a result of the systems adopted by Dyfed-Powys Police in relation to the recording of such information that the information released may or may not be accurate.

Furthermore, it should also be noted that Police forces in the United Kingdom are routinely required to provide crime statistics to government bodies and the recording criteria is set nationally. However, the systems used for recording these figures are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the crime data. It should be noted that for these reasons this force's response to your questions should not be used for comparison purposes with any other response you may receive.

(This is a response under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and disclosed on 07/01/2026)