Police want the drink-drive limit lowered in England and Wales

Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a non-alcoholic beer before you get behind the wheel and risk falling over the drink-drive limit.

One police body believes we should be taking note of our friends north of the border when it comes to tackling drink-drinking, by lowering the limit in England and Wales to match the threshold in Scotland. Such a move would see the limit dropped from 80mg of alcohol in 100ml of blood to 50mg.

The announcement comes ahead this of this week’s conference of the Police Federation of England and Wales, where Victoria Martin, chief inspector at the Federation, will be raising figures from a new study by Social Research Associates that found anti drink-driving messages were "not getting across adequately".

"We would like to see a lower drink-drive limit, as most other European countries have, as well as Scotland, which saw a marked reduction in failed breathalyser tests as soon as the law was changed last year," she told the Daily Telegraph.

The study also found that more needs to be done to address women and drink-driving, after it emerged that one in six women admitted to driving when they thought they were over the limit: "We've seen a steep decline in men drink-driving over the years, with targeted advertising campaigns, which is great, but women don’t seem to be getting the same message," added Martin.

Though where both sexes are concerned, there appears to be an equal worry in the eyes of police working across England and Wales that drink-driving deterrents - including advertising on how how it impairs driving ability and the risks of facing criminal action - simply aren't working.

Do you think the drink-drive limit should be lowered to match Scotland’s? Let us know in the poll below.