Guidance

Evidential Testing of Drug Drivers: Market Exploration Document

Published 16 December 2021

1. Background

In the UK, drug driving is most commonly policed by Section 5A of the Road Traffic Act 1988, under which it is an offense to drive or be in charge of a motor vehicle with a concentration of a specified drug above a specified limit. The drugs and their limits in blood are specified in associated Regulations, and detailed in Table 1 below (while the Act provides for either blood or urine as a matrix, limits have only been specified for blood). To obtain evidence for court proceedings a blood sample is sent to a Forensic Service Provider (FSP) for analysis.

Controlled drug	Limit (micrograms per litre of blood)
Amphetamine	250
Benzoylecgonine	50
Clonazepam	50
Cocaine	10
Delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)	2
Diazepam	550
Flunitrazepam	300
Ketamine	20
Lorazepam	100
Lysergic Acid Diethylamide	1
Methadone	500
Methylamphetamine	10
Methylenedioxymethamphetamine	10
6-Monoacetylmorphine	5
Morphine	80
Oxazepam	300
Temazepam	1000

Table 1: Controlled drugs and their corresponding concentration thresholds in blood for drug driving offences under Section 5A of the Road Traffic Act 1988, as specified in The Drug Driving (Specified Limits)(England and Wales) Regulations 2014 and The Drug Driving (Specified Limits) (England and Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2015.

To support more efficient handling of drug drive cases, and reduce the burden on FSP toxicology departments, we are looking for technology or concepts that may lead to an instrument police can use to perform this evidential analysis themselves at a police station or, preferably, at the roadside. Current legislation requires evidential analysis of a sample of blood or urine. We are therefore also interested in how proposed technologies respond to these matrices and also to less invasive alternatives, such as oral fluid (saliva). This knowledge has the potential to shape future legislation to enable new technologies or concepts to be adopted.

2. What we want

We are looking for technology that can contribute to a device or approach equivalent to current laboratory testing, which typically involves orthogonal techniques with a high discriminating power (these documents from UKIAFT and ENFSI offer guidance on how this is be achieved). Suggestions for such combinations of technologies, and how this might be achieved, are desirable but we would also like to hear about single technologies that could, if necessary, be combined with other technologies later on.

Currently, around three quarters of drug driving prosecutions involve cocaine or cannabis (THC) so we are looking for technology applicable to one or both of these drugs, at levels equivalent to those specified. However, it is desirable for the technology to have the potential to be applicable to all the drugs in Table 1, and with the scope to expand to others if required.

The technology should have the potential to accurately identify, and determine the level of, the target drug(s) without interference from commonly encountered substances in either the biological matrix or test environment. It must be capable of generating a ‘while you wait’ result (ideally no more than 30 minutes), and do so in a way that is safe for all concerned and does not require specialist knowledge.

We are also looking for an indication of the range of matrices with which the technology is likely to be effective. In particular, we are keen to understand whether blood or urine present a technical challenge, and if so what matrices would be suitable alternatives. It is desirable for this to be supported by evidence, such as published or unpublished research, but a ‘best guess’ will be of interest where this is not available.

3. What we don’t want

We are not interested in approaches that rely solely on immunoassay based technology, literature reviews, paper-based studies, consultancy, non-technical solutions or marginal improvements to existing capabilities.

This is not a competition and therefore we are not asking for costed proposals at this stage. This is a market engagement request for information exercise and we do not commit to subsequently launch a formal DASA competition.

4. How to submit a Market Exploration Submission to DASA

Responses to this Market Exploration must be submitted via the DASA submission service, for which you will need to register. We recommend you use a Google Chrome browser to access the DASA submission service.

You will be asked for a title and short summary of your innovation, along with questions related to your organisation, your idea and technology maturity. We are seeking to understand what and how much further development is required for a complete solution to meet requirements, or whether a combination of separate solutions is required. The information you provide will assist in developing a statement of requirements for potential future activities.

Submissions must be submitted by midday Thursday 17th February 2022. Unfortunately we are unable to accept any submissions after this point.

Please only provide details of one product/capability per submission. If you have a number of potential solutions, then please submit multiple forms.

If you have any questions then please email [email protected] with “Evidential Testing of Drug Drivers” in the subject line.

5. How we use your information

Information you provide to us in a Market Exploration Submission, that is not already available to us from other sources, will be handled in-confidence. By submitting a Market Exploration Submission you are giving us permission to keep and use the information for our internal purposes, and to provide the information onwards, in-confidence, within UK Government. The Defence and Security Accelerator will not use or disclose the information for any other purpose, without first requesting permission to do so.