Drug Driving In-House Analysis

Volumes of internal outstanding drug driving casework (Section 4 and Section 5A) have decreased significantly since Summer 2022 (data above measured from September 2022 when the Toxicology Development Plan was implemented).  At the end of March 2023, there were 72 internal outstanding drug driving cases (Section 4 and Section 5A).  Output has been lower than anticipated for some months in Q3/4, for a variety of reasons.  As a consequence, more Section 4 cases are open than initially forecast, however good progress is being made in addressing this and this will be improved further during April 2023.

At the end of Q4 (i.e. end of March 2023), only 2 active drug driving cases were within the 10 week window of statutory time limit (i.e. currently one year from the date of incident).  This represents a substantial reduction from September 2022, when there were 34 cases within 10 weeks of statutory time limit, and from June 2022 when more than 130 cases fell into this age band. 

As stated previously, no drug driving cases have been confirmed as failing to progress to prosecution due to laboratory testing delays since September 2022.

Updates on the progress of the drug driving service will be reported to the Forensic Services Committee and Authority meetings.