The government will not rush into accepting a proposal by the national substance abuse agency, Sedqa, to give the police wider discretionary powers to carry out breathalyser tests at road blocks.

The Home Affairs Ministry will be “looking closely” at Sedqa’s proposals, a spokesman said, pointing out that the matter was closely linked to the controversial issue of searches during road blocks.

“The government will be looking closely at Sedqa’s comments on arbitrary breathalyser testing during road blocks as well as earlier contributions dealing with the closely related matter of searches during road blocks... before taking any decisions as to what suggestions are to be implemented, if any,” the spokesman said.

Earlier this year, The Sunday Times quoted criminal lawyers saying citizens were not adequately protected against abuse of power and discrimination during road blocks. Their comments followed a European Court of Human Rights judgment in January which found that police stop and search powers, under the UK’s anti-terrorism legislation, were too broad and interfered with an individual’s right to privacy.

In a bid to clamp down on drunk-driving, Sedqa is proposing that the law should allow the police to perform a breathalyser test not only when they have “reasonable suspicion” a person is drunk. Sedqa’s operations director Jesmond Schembri told The Times on Monday that police officers needed to be given more power to administer the test.

“Just as in a road block nobody can protest if a policeman asks to see an ID card or driving licence, policemen should also have the discretion to administer a breathalyser test,” he said.

Only 60 positive breathalyser tests were carried out this year until the end of October, according to police statistics. Sedqa’s call comes ahead of a campaign to raise awareness to the dangers of drinking too much which it plans to launch for the Christmas period.