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Drugs: Screening

Volume 495: debated on Tuesday 7 July 2009

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many cases of (a) testing of drugs and (b) testing for drugs using (i) blood and (ii) urine samples were processed at each Forensic Science Service laboratory in each of the last five years. (283602)

[holding answer 2 July 2009]: The records on blood and urine tests carried out by the Forensic Science Service are generated by the machines running the analysis. These records do not differentiate between tests on or for blood and urine and cannot be broken down by type.

Drugs case demand report

Case count

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

20091

Chepstow

3,122

3,036

2,979

3,267

3,484

1,395

Chorley

3,614

4,141-

3,868

4,742

4,682

1,809

Huntingdon

3,089

3,596

2,842

3,473

4,061

2,459

London

4,633

4,329

5,298

4,823

4,444

1,246

Manchester

2

1

1

2

2

Priory House, Birmingham

2,900

2,478

2,570

2,294

1,791

1,020

Trident Court, Birmingham

48

4

4

3

Wetherby

2,976

2,703

2,233

2,403

2,905

1,734

Barmston Court

1

1

FPU Sheffield

2

Overall Result

20,384

20,284

19,793

21,007

21,374

9,667

1 To 29.June

The testing of samples of body fluids and tissues for drugs (both drugs of abuse and medicinal drugs) is carried out at the FSS labs in Chorley and London. Both laboratories carry out toxicology examinations in support of a wide range of criminal investigations; in addition the Chorley lab carries out tests of blood and urine in relation to the investigation of impaired driving through drugs. The cases of impaired driving are reported separately in the following table.

2004-05

2005-06

2006-07

2007-08

2008-09

London Toxicology

1,617

1,991

1,912

1,829

1,901

Chorley Toxicology

1,461

1,603

1,297

1,153

1,146

Chorley Drug Driving Unit

2,986

2,526

1,916

1,759

1,663