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Written question asked by Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party) on Monday, 25 February 2019, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 27 February 2019. It was answered by Tobias Ellwood (Conservative) on Monday, 4 March 2019 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.


Armed Forces: Drugs

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many drug tests have been administered in the (a) Royal Air Force and (b) Royal Navy in each of the last five years.

Answer

The numbers provided in the table below relate to the number of drug tests administered each calendar year.

Year

Number of drug tests administered each year in

Royal Air Force

Royal Navy*

2014

12,618

13,082

2015

12,450

13,556

2016

14,061

12,846

2017

20,662

15,689

2018

27,199

24,032

*These figures are for the Naval Service which consists of the Royal Navy and the Royal Marines.

Although the selection of personnel for compulsory drug tests is primarily random, a small percentage of personnel are repeatedly selected for testing. Consequently, the number of personnel tested each year does not directly correlate to the number of drug tests completed.


Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
225504
Session
2017-19
Subjects
Armed forces Drugs Testing
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk