§ Sir Richard Glynasked the Minister of Transport whether he will provide on request, and without charge, a supply of breathalysers being used by his Department to any Member of Parliament who might wish to ascertain the accuracy of these devices at a time and place of their own choosing.
§ Mr. Tom FraserNo breath testing equipment of any kind is at present being used by my Department. A small sample of drivers is being tested, on a voluntary basis, by the Road Research Laboratory with the co-operation of the police. The "breathalyser" is a quite complicated piece of equipment. Its scientific accuracy can be tested only by properly controlled laboratory experiments; and a report of the results of194W experiments of this kind was published in the "British Medical Journal" on 4th January this year. The problems likely to arise in practice if breath testing equipment were to be used for the purposes of the Road Traffic Act, 1962, are now being studied by a Home Office Working Party.