Police hail new interim driving bans for suspects

Suspected drug-drivers in Essex are being given temporary driving bans to prevent them from re-offending while under investigation, a senior police officer has said.

Imposed as a bail condition for up to six weeks, the restriction forbids suspects from getting behind the wheel while police continue their inquiries.

Adam Pipe, head of the county's roads policing unit, branded the ban "groundbreaking".

Essex Police arrested almost 2,000 people on suspicion of drug-driving offences in the first 10 months of 2026, compared with 886 drink-drivers.

The figure has risen from 971 drug-driving arrests in 2024 and 1,874 in 2025.

Pipe told BBC Essex presenter Ben Fryer he wanted to "expedite justice quickly".

"We're one of the first forces in the country to do it, because we recognise we've got to reduce this risk on the road," he said of the scheme.

Huge delays in criminal cases being resolved at court mean, in some instances, people accused of serious driving offences are able to continue driving for months - sometimes even years - before they eventually are disqualified.

The crown court backlog in England and Wales currently stands at almost 81,000 cases and has led to record delays for defendants and victims.

When speaking to the BBC separately in the summer, Pipe said delays were also being created by how police tested blood samples taken from drivers.

"We're seeing people with multiple drug-driver offences that haven't actually even gone to court because of some of the current delays we have," he said.

"We're trying our really utmost in Essex Police to try and bridge that gap [and] reduce the period for bloods so that we can put people in front of the court as soon as possible."

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