Organisation: Home Office
Date of Publication: March 2026
Uploaded to Knowledge Centre: 8 April 2026
New figures show there was a slight decrease in the number of roadside breath tests delivered by police officers during 2024.
The Home Office figures show police across 26 forces carried out 167,095 roadside breath tests in England and Wales during 2024, compared with 167,384 tests in 2023 – a slight decrease of 0.2%.
The Home Office figures also reveal that nearly 25,000 motorists either failed a breath test or refused to provide a sample in 2024 – around 15% of all drivers tested.
Fifteen years ago police conducted nearly 650,000 breath tests annually. However the figures are not directly comparable, as they exclude 17 of the 43 forces in England and Wales due to changes in data recording.
Click the link below to access the full dataset:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-powers-and-procedures-roads-policing-to-december-2024/police-powers-and-procedures-roads-policing-to-december-2024