There are many situations, in and out of the workplace , in which people are required to take drugs and/or alcohol tests. Sobriety tags could automate the process.

If it’s possible to detect alcohol in sweat then how long before the technology is incorporated into steering wheels and gear sticks? The smart cars of the future could refuse to start if the driver is drunk. No doubt, many lives would be saved.

A similar argument could be made for requiring all children to wear a sobriety tag. Parents and/or child protection services could be alerted the moment a proscribed substance is detected.

Health monitoring through wearable technology is already something that millions of us choose for ourselves. It’s easy to imagine smart watches acquiring the sweat-monitoring functions of a sobriety tag. Compelling the use of such gadgets could make it impossible for anyone to get away with substance misuse.

But could that happen in a democratic society? Our government can’t force monitoring devices on to the non-criminal population, can it? Er, yes, it can — and regularly does. People who haven’t committed any offence (yet) are required to take breathalyser tests. We are regularly surveilled by CCTV, speed cameras etc. And we’ll soon be ‘encouraged’ to subject our movements to Covid contact-tracing apps — as is happening in other countries.

So, despite the strong arguments for using sobriety tags in their current context, we should be aware of the future consequences of introducing the technology.

That being the case, it’s only fair that all ministers should wear sobriety tags. The results could be fed into a constantly updated, online league table of intoxication.

Who’d come top, I wonder?

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Peter Franklin is Associate Editor of UnHerd. He was previously a policy advisor and speechwriter on environmental and social issues.

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