FOI 417/25

REQUEST 

1. The number of blood tests sent to a lab for testing, taken from suspects of driving under the influence of drugs from June 2021 to June 2024.
2. How many of these tests took under one month to be returned with a result?
3. How many of these tests took between one to three months to be returned with a result?
4. How many of these tests took between three to six months to be returned with a result?
5. How many of these tests took over six months to be returned with a result?
6. How many of these tests were ‘lost’ or were never returned with a result?

Can I please have the information split up on a year-by-year basis.

RESPONSE

We have consulted with our Joint Scientific Investigation Unit who have provided the below information to answer your request.

Please note, we only hold this data from October 2023. We have therefore supplied the information for the time-period October 2023 – December 2024.

Question 1

Please see the below table that provides the number of blood tests sent to a lab for testing broken down by calendar year:

Questions 2 – 5

Please see the below table that provides the number of the blood test results returned broken down by how long these tests took to be returned:

Please be advised, we have not yet received results for two cases in 2024.

Question 6

There are none recorded for cases of lost samples.