The number of repeat drug-driving offenders has doubled in four years.
Ministry of Justice data obtained by road safety campaign group IAM RoadSmart shows that reoffending in England and Wales jumped from 1,363 in 2020 to 3,193 in 2024.
In the latest figures from the Department of Transport, the police reported 124 fatal road collisions in 2023 where “impaired by drugs” was a contributory factor.
Law enforcement
IAM RoadSmart’s William Porter said: “The system for dealing with drug-drivers hasn’t kept pace with the huge increase in reoffending.
“The fact that those who have tested positive to a roadside test are allowed to get back into the driving seat pending a laboratory blood test shows that the system is broken.”
According to the charity’s 2025 Road Safety Report, more than eight in ten of the 2,053 motorists it surveyed supported giving police powers “to suspend driving licences immediately pending trial for those testing positive for drug driving”.
Last year, the Centre for Social Justice found that almost ten per cent of adults aged 16-59 in England and Wales said they had taken illegal drugs in the previous year, although the think-tank noted that this was likely to underestimate the scale of the problem.
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