Written evidence from Concateno (DDD 21)
INTRODUCTION
1. Concateno welcomes the Transport Select Committee's
Inquiry into Drink and Drug Driving Law. Below, Concateno responds
to the call for evidence with information about drug driving based
on our significant experience of roadside testing overseas, combined
with our extensive expertise in drug testing in the UK.
CONCATENO—IN
BRIEF
2. Concateno (www.concateno.com) is Europe's
most experienced provider of drug and alcohol testing. It is a
long-standing supplier of drug testing solutions to UK government,
the wider public sector and the private sector as well as internationally—including:
— Active roadside testing for drug driving
in countries such as Australia, Croatia, Italy and Spain using
an onsite, portable saliva testing solution—the UK-manufactured
Cozart® DDS®
— Home Office Drug Intervention Programme
(DIP)—the programme that uses the DDS in police custody
suites for testing arrestees and that recently carried out its
millionth test
— HM Prison Service's Mandatory and Voluntary
Drug Testing programmes
— More than 85 percent of UK police forces
use Concateno's solutions for forensic, employment and pre-employment
testing
DRUG DRIVING—THE
FACTS
3. According to the Royal Society for the Prevention
of Accidents, around 18 percent of people killed in road accidents
have traces of illegal drugs in their blood—a six-fold increase
since the mid 1980s.[44]
4. The worst offenders for driving under the
influence of drugs are those aged 25-34, with some nine percent
of this group admitting to such activity. Meanwhile, a quarter
of 17-24 year olds claim to have been in a car when they believed
the driver to be under the influence of drugs, according to the
RAC.[45]
5. When considering drug driving, the broader
context of UK drug use is insightful. Based on findings from the
latest British Crime Survey, around one in 20 people had used
illicit drugs in the last month.[46]
With potentially more than 43 million drivers on UK roads, according
to DVLA figures,[47]
it could be inferred that up to 200,000 drivers could also be
regular drug users.
6. While such evidence of drug driving is indicative
of a real problem in the UK, there is a significant lack of any
substantial data on its prevalence—particularly when
compared to the statistical data available for drink driving.
7. There is an urgent need for the UK to better
understand how many drug users go on to drive while under the
influence of drugs, and for more action to tackle the danger and
improve road safety.
8. When it comes to testing for drug driving
in the UK, findings from a YouGov poll commissioned by Concateno[48]
showed that:
— More than nine out of ten (92%) people
agree with the statement that drug driving is as socially unacceptable
as drink driving.
— 91% support drug testing at the roadside
and would not object to being tested for drugs.
CONCATENO'S
CURRENT DRUG
DRIVING TESTING
DEVICE
9. Concateno provides an onsite, portable saliva
testing solution—the Cozart®DDS®—that is currently
being used for roadside testing programmes in various countries
including Australia, Croatia, Italy and Spain.
10. Using the DDS, police can detect up to six
different drugs from a single oral fluid sample in a matter of
minutes.
11. Sampling takes approximately 30 seconds,
results for the presence of six drugs are displayed in five minutes,
and two drugs in 90 seconds, with both options being significantly
quicker than the Field Impairment Test currently used by police
in this country as the initial means of assessing whether someone
is driving under the influence of drugs.
12. While not used at the roadside in the UK,
the DDS is used in police custody suites as part of the Home Office's
Drug Intervention Programme (DIP), running since 2003, which tests
individuals arrested for trigger offences—such as burglary—for
opiate and cocaine use. The DDS is currently used in 174 police
custody suites in England and Wales as part of the DIP to carry
out 240,000 tests annually
ITALY AND
CONCATENO: TESTING
FOR DRUG
DRIVING
13. Concateno has sold over 200 DDS units to
Italian police forces, including Milan, Naples, the Piedmont region
and Rome. In total, the Carabinieri use the DDS in seven different
cities.
14. Rome City Hall approached Concateno recently
for the provision of 750 tests to support a three-month drug driving
test trial starting July 2010. Rome is considering issuing a tender
for all 23 Roman municipalities to be supplied with mobile drug
testing kits for suspected drug driving offenders.
15. In a separate development to this, the central
Italian Government is considering a trial of four drug testing
devices including the Cozart DDS to be carried out later in 2010.
The purpose will be to establish a standard device for police
forces across Italy.
16. The Italian police experience demonstrates
satisfaction with the DDS device as an effective deterrent against
drug driving.
AUSTRALIA AND
CONCATENO: TESTING
FOR DRUG
DRIVING
17. Concateno has been providing random roadside
drug testing for the Australian police since 2004. The State of
Victoria, which is at the forefront of the country's road safety
initiatives, was the first in the world to effect a change in
legislation and allow random testing. Other Australian states
have subsequently followed, including Queensland, New South Wales,
Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania.
18. Since the introduction of this testing regime,
a clear trend has been seen in the State of Victoria, with incidences
of drivers detected with illicit drugs present halved over a five-year
period, from one driver in 44 to one driver in 94, and a reduction
in the involvement of illicit drug in road trauma has occurred.
This means that fewer drivers are driving while taking drugs,
indicating that a regime such as the one adopted by Australia
is effective in reducing drug driving and contributing to safer
roads. Concateno believes that this significant impact has been
due to the combination of an effective, highly visible roadside
enforcement process with driver awareness media campaigns.
19. Australia's head of roadside testing for
the State of Victoria Police, Inspector Martin Boorman,
said: "In Australia, the use of roadside drug testing technology
has proved extremely successful and has certainly helped to make
our roads safer. Roadside drug testing, much like the roadside
alcohol screening test, acts as a deterrent, but also provides
the police with a quick and effective means to help catch those
people who drive while using illegal substances. This technology,
used in conjunction with a widespread educational campaign, has
and continues to be extremely successful."[49]
FIELD IMPAIRMENT
TESTS—LOW
UPTAKE FOR
TESTING FOR
DRUG DRIVING
20. Current law in this country states that:
— A person who, when driving or attempting
to drive a motor vehicle on a road or other public place, is unfit
to drive through drink or drugs is guilty of an offence.
— A person shall be taken to be unfit to
drive if his ability to drive properly is for the time being impaired.[50]
21. Although the offence is very clear, this
question of impairment means it can be difficult for police to
enforce. Currently the best available method of detecting drug
use at the roadside is the Field Impairment Test (FIT), which
relies on specially trained traffic officers observing an individual's
performance in physical and mental skills tests and other elements
(eg pupil dilation).
22. Yet FIT tests are not currently used consistently
as a matter of course by all UK police forces. The statistics
highlight a huge difference between the numbers of tests conducted
for drug driving compared to those for drink driving. They also
show that a proportionately higher number of drivers tested positive
for drugs than for alcohol.
23. According to the national Association of
Chief Police Officers, figures from the 2009 Christmas drink and
drug driving campaign[51]
show that:
— Police conducted 223,423 breathalyser
tests for alcohol—three percent were positive, failed or
refused.
— In comparison, just 489 Field Impairment
Tests were carried out for drug driving—with 18% arrested.
— The total number of drink driving tests
was up by almost 22%.
— This compares to less than a two percent
increase in drug driving tests.
WHAT CONCATENO
ADVOCATES
24. Concateno's recommendations to help Government
in this country make Britain's roads the safest in the world would
be:
— Evolve current UK law by changing the
emphasis from impairment to showing the presence of a drug over
a certain level.
— The introduction of a specification document
that lists the technical requirements of a device that can measure
the presence of drugs.
— A type approval process that evaluates
devices against the technical specification.
25. Enforcement practices such as testing are
just one instrument in combatting drug driving, and that the combined
impact of running awareness campaigns alongside the raised profile
that roadside testing brings, can make a significant improvement
to road safety. We draw attention to some hard hitting campaigns
by UK Police Forces on similar issues—such as Gwent Police's
COW[52]
film, about a teenage girl from a Gwent valleys family who kills
four people on the road because she used her mobile and lost her
concentration for a few seconds. It is an extraordinarily graphic
film produced with the help of schoolchildren. Similarly on drug
driving issues, Australia has produced a number of adverts in
conjunction with roadside test programmes that provide a similarly
hard hitting message—such as a recent one from Victoria's
Transport Accident Commission.[53]
26. Concateno is aware of the North Review recommendations
to introduce drug testing for drivers at the police station initially,
following an indication of impairment through means of the Field
Impairment Test. We have experience in both installing drug testing
technology in custody suites and training operatives to carry
out the tests as a result of Concateno's tests being the chosen
method for drug testing in custody suites as part of the Home
Office's Drug Interventions Programme, since the initial pilot
in 2001. To date over a million tests have been carried out.
CONCATENO AND
OTHER SAFETY
INITIATIVES
27. Although Concateno is not involved in current
roadside drug testing practices in the UK, we provide drug testing
products and related services for a number of other transport
sectors and therefore have direct experience of how others are
helping to make travelling safer through drug testing:
— We work with transport and logistics
companies, testing drivers to ensure that they are free from alcohol
and drugs.
— We test train drivers and trackside operators
so that organisations comply with the rail industry's regulations.
— We test airline pilots and cabin crew.
— We test taxi drivers as part of the licensing
procedure.
28. We are also aware of other initiatives that
are using testing, for example the DVLA tests persistent offenders
before re-issuing their licence.
HOW CONCATENO
CAN HELP
29. Concateno welcomes the Transport Select
Committee's recognition of drug driving as a serious issue, and
is committed to improving road user safety in the UK by helping
to reduce death and injury. We would feel privileged to assist
the Committee and its Inquiry with the provision of further evidence
of our drug driving/screening experience overseas, and to support
any pilot initiatives in the future. If there is a requirement
to learn from international police forces to gauge best practice,
Concateno would be able to facilitate a meeting between the UK
and international stakeholders.
CONCATENO—GLOBAL
DRUG TESTING
SERVICES
Informed testing for informed decisions, when
it matters most
30. Concateno (www.concateno.com) brings together
Europe's strongest and most experienced drug and alcohol testing
organisations and over 60 years of collected expertise. It offers
an unparalleled breadth of advisory services and testing capabilities—spanning
laboratory, point of care tests and all sample types for any biological
specimen, including urine, oral fluids, hair and sweat.
31. Concateno's 400 employees perform and deliver
more than 10 million tests annually, supported by a global network
of 600 sample collection officers, trained in-house in chain-of-custody
procedures. Together, they conduct testing for approximately 8,500
clients in 130 countries around the world across all industries,
healthcare and government bodies. Concateno's dedicated divisions
specialise in: Child Protection, Clinical Diagnostics, Criminal
Justice, Employee Services, Healthcare and Maritime.
32. Quality is assured by the highest levels
of accreditation, supported by expert and responsive customer
service. Concateno's three UK laboratories are audited and accredited
by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) to the international
standard ISO/IEC 17025 for the testing for substance misuse in
hair, oral fluids and urine, respectively. Laboratory products
and point of care test products are manufactured within ISO 9001:2008
and ISO 13485:2003 certified facilities. The company is also subject
to a range of external quality assurance programmes, including
UKNEQAS, IIP and CAP (US scheme).
33. In August 2009, Concateno became a subsidiary
of Alere Inc., formerly known as Inverness Medical Innovations,
Inc. (NYSE: ALR).
August 2010
44 Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents: Drink,
Drugs and Driving, http://www.rospa.com/roadsafety/citizenship/drink_drugs.pdf Back
45
RAC Report on Motoring 2009 Back
46
Home Office Statistical Bulletin, Drug Misuse Declared: Findings
from the 2008/09 British Crime Survey Back
47
DVLA, Driver and Vehicle Statistics, Drivers Statistics at a Glance,
http://www.dft.gov.uk/dvla/pressoffice/¥/media/doc/press_stats/drivers_aag.ashx Back
48
YouGov:Concateno survey conducted online between 17-19 November
2009. All figures from YouGov Plc Back
49
Concateno press release 20th August 2010: Oslo: Concateno to preview
new drug testing device at ICADTS Back
50
Road Safety Act 1988, Sections 4(1) and (5) Back
51
http://www.acpo.police.uk/pressrelease.asp?PR_GUID={7F46F85D-50B5-44BE-AFE6-5F6CB2191659} Back
52
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMNx0Q8t9so Back
53
10 http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=TACVictoriap/u/49/n4X2lbxc5O4 Back
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