Guidance sets out best practice on drugs and alcohol policies

The responsibilities of staff and managers to develop and enforce policies covering alcohol, illicit recreational drugs, prescription medicine and even over-the-counter remedies that may have an impact on the performance of safety-critical tasks are also put under the spotlight.

The guidance has been developed following consultation with a working group led by the light rail sector’s representative organisation UKTram. Members of its Operations Group provided LRRSB with a scope of topics to be included and current ‘Best Practice’ approaches.

Steve Duckering, LRSSB Operations Manager, explained: “The publication of the new guidance is to be welcomed and reflects an excellent example of UKTram and the LRSSB working together to share best practice and to respond effectively to issues raised by sector representatives.

“This is obviously an extremely important policy requirement for any transport system.

“This new guidance offers comprehensive assistance to operators in setting out new or reviewing current policies.”

The guidance has been peer-reviewed by industry and is now available to download here from the LRSSB website.

The testing regime set out in the guide takes in recommended procedures for pre-planned and random tests as well as ‘for cause’ testing, which has to take place as soon is as reasonably practical.