Organisation: Home Office Scientific Development Branch
Date uploaded: 1st May 2013
Date published/launched: May 2012
This factsheet provides data on driving under the influence of drugs.
• Driving while under the influence of drugs is a significant cause of injuries and deaths on the road. Impairment by drugs was recorded as a contributory factor in about 2% of fatal road incidents in Great Britain in 2010. This is about a third of the rate for alcohol impairment.
• In 2010, impairment by drugs (illicit or medicinal) was reported as a contributory factor in road traffic accidents which resulted in 1,094 casualties, including 51 deaths.
• Clause 27 creates a new offence of driving with the concentration of a specified controlled drug in the body in excess of the specified limit for that drug. This is similar to the existing drink driving prescribed limit offence (in section 5 of the 1988 Act) in terms of not requiring proof of impairment.
• For the most effective enforcement of the new offence, the police will be assisted by the availability of reliable drug testing devices. Such devices are required by the 1988 Act to be of a type approved by the Secretary of State (Home Secretary). The Home Office is committed to the approval of suitable drug testing devices for the use in police stations by the end of 2012.
For more information contact:
Home Office Centre for Applied Science and Technology