Drug Driving

Forensic Services continues to work with Police Scotland colleagues to ensure that forensic toxicology testing is delivered to support roadside drug and alcohol testing. A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) is in place which was published in January 2025 and sets out the level of service provided and the roles and responsibilities of each organisation within the Criminal Justice System to ensure robust delivery of service within statutory timeframes.

Current demand for toxicology testing continues to run at 20% over the agreed level of demand set out in the MOU, despite this performance targets are being met consistently albeit with an increased level of outsourcing than was planned. This is posing a financial pressure for Forensic Services which will continue to be monitored as the year progresses.

It is well understood that there is a need to roll out the roadside testing beyond Roads Policing officers and this is also set out in the Three-Year Business Plan and Annual Policing Plan published by Police Scotland. An Initial Business Case was agreed at the SPA Resources Committee meeting in December 2024 which set out the options for Forensic Services to deliver a robust and resilient service that meets Police Scotland needs in the medium to long term. 

Whist the project board to implement the Long-Term Sustainable Model for Criminal Toxicology was established in March 2025 there has not been the commitment provided by Police Scotland Estates to support progress within the timescales previously discussed with the Forensic Services Committee due to competing priorities within Police Scotland. Whilst an option has now been facilitated to allow Forensic Services to bring in external estates support, this has increased the risks to the project and will result in a delay to the provision of the FBC to the Resources Committee.

The decision made by the Resources Committee on the initial business case for the Long-Term Sustainable Model was to progress the preferred option to ‘Invest to Automate’. This was the only option that would reliably meet the anticipated level of increasing demand based on detailed modelling of drug driving toxicology demand over the next 10 years undertaken by Police Scotland.  The option to ‘Maintain the criminal toxicology service in its current form and meet growth in demand by outsourcing to private sector suppliers’ was discounted.

A recent pilot was undertaken by Police Scotland, with Forensic Services support, in Shetland to assess the roll out of roadside drug testing to Local Policing officers on the island, and this has provided positive outcomes for the local community and learning in terms of officer training and sample logistics.  Alongside retaining the roadside testing in Shetland, Police Scotland have now indicated an intention to roll out further pilots to two subdivisions later this calendar year as part of Operation Seltern which has been created to manage the incremental expansion of drug-wipes across Local Policing Divisions between 2025 and 2027.

Forensic Services has sufficient internal capacity, alongside a budget for planned outsourcing, to meet the requirements set out in the MOU. A project is ongoing to bring a FBC with associated investment case to the SPA Resources Committee which sets out the investment required to build a resilient and sustainable model to meet Police Scotland’s demand in the future.  Once investment is agreed, it will take two to three years to build this solution, the timescale being set out in the FBC.  Development of this FBC, and subsequent implementation, is dependent on Police Scotland Estates, Digital Division, Procurement and Change providing appropriate support as set out in service back agreements.

An incremental roll out of roadside testing to Local Policing officers in the absence of the long-term sustainable model in Forensic Services will require reliance on additional outsourcing of toxicology testing to England and Wales. This, in turn, will rely upon sufficient capacity being available in the commercial market and significant additional funding, alongside making the case for investment to enable Forensic Services to deliver this testing in Scotland.

Forensic Services entirely supports the ambition of Police Scotland to roll out the roadside drug testing and how important this is to reduce the impact of fatalities and serious incidents on the roads of Scotland.