OIA Response: Drug Swab Refusal and Fit and Proper Assessments
Updated: 5 days ago
After reports that refusing a roadside oral drug swab had been used to suspend or revoke firearms licences, COLFO sought answers under the Official Information Act about alternatives to the oral swab, whether refusal had led to firearms licence suspensions, and how refusal is considered in fit and proper assessments.
Police confirmed that no licence has been suspended solely for refusing a drug screening test, that a refusal would not ordinarily be enough on its own but may still be weighed with other information in a fit and proper assessment, and that the law provides no alternative test if a driver refuses the oral swab.
