Call for roadside drug driving saliva tests to be used as evidence

There are renewed calls for legislation to be updated in order for police to use roadside drug driving saliva samples as evidence.

This would close loopholes that allow drug drivers to keep on driving following a positive test – and even evade justice entirely.

At the moment, while police can test for drugs at the roadside, they are then required to obtain an evidential blood sample to proceed with a prosecution.

This is not always immediately possible – and where it is, the results can often take months to return from the laboratory.

Alarmingly, drug drivers are even able to evade justice entirely if labs don’t return the results within six months, the legal deadline for police to authorise charges for road traffic offences.

Roadside evidential saliva tests would bring the UK in line with other countries who have abandoned the evidential blood only system, such as France and Australia.

France, says the AA, has now achieved a "virtually perfect confirmation rate" for drug driving.

The calls come on the 10th anniversary of Section 5A of the Road Traffic Act. This made it illegal to drive with specified controlled drugs in the body above set limits. It brought drug driving laws in line with drink driving legislation.

The recent introduction of the new Crime and Policing Bill into parliament now gives the government an opportunity to close the loophole and address the growing epidemic of drug driving, says the AA.

Including provisions for evidential roadside saliva testing for drug driving would help take more dangerous drivers off the road, says its head of roads policy Jack Cousens.

"Just 1 in 10 believe that drug drivers will be caught and prosecuted, which often means people feel they can get away with it. Drug driving is fast becoming a major road safety concern, which needs urgent action," he says.

Ean Lewin is MD of D.tec International, which supplies all 43 UK police forces with DrugWipe, the Home Office approved roadside drug driver screening device.

"Right now, a driver who fails a roadside drug test can legally remain behind the wheel for up to six months – and if they plead not guilty, potentially for over a year. This is solely because outdated laws force police to rely on impractical blood confirmation testing, plagued by inherent laboratory delays."

Worse still, says Lewis, an unknown number of offenders escape justice entirely when these delays exceed the six-month prosecution window. 

"That is nothing short of a national disgrace. The solution is simple: allow police to take immediate roadside evidential saliva samples. Other countries have done this for years – why is the UK still falling behind?"