PACTS is pleased to announce the details of Stage 3 of the MEBTI competition – Mobile Evidential Breath Testing Instruments.
The Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS) was awarded a grant by the Secretary of State for Transport to run a competition to encourage the development of mobile evidential breath testing instruments (MEBTI: sometimes referred to a roadside evidential breathalysers) which meet Home Office type approval requirements.
The competition aims to result in one or more type approved instruments which can be operated by police forces throughout the UK by October 2021. It involves three stages with up to £350,000 awarded in total to one or more manufacturers over the three stages.
The first two stages were successfully completed, with three companies sharing a total of £175,000. This announcement provides details of Stage 3.
This competition is entirely additional to the routine procedures for gaining type approval. It is intended to provide an additional incentive to companies to develop MEBTI instruments. It does not alter the routine procedures in any way and companies may proceeded with the routine procedures quite independently of the PACTS MEBTI competition and timetable if they wish.
Details on Stage 3 are here: MEBTI STAGE 3 INFORMATION v5
PACTS Executive Director, David Davies, said, “It has been many years since Parliament authorised the police to take evidential breath samples at the roadside, instead of requiring a driver to attend the police station. However, no instruments have yet been approved for use. The technical standards are very demanding and the type approval process has been very challenging for manufacturers. The competition that PACTS has been running with funding from the DfT has given additional incentives and practical assistance to the companies developing these devices. We are now at the final stage (Stage 3) and we are hopeful that one or more company will get across the line by the end of next year. This would be an enormous help to the police in combating drink driving, which remains one the major causes of death and injury on the roads.”
The Department for Transport is expected to release the latest figures on drink-drive casualties tomorrow (27th August 2020). Now published – see DfT website
