Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 18 January to Question 123732, if he will list (a) those local authorities that have informed his Department that they have commissioned hair strand tests for drug and alcohol use from Trimega and (b) the reasons why each local authority commissioned such tests.

Local authorities commission hair strand tests for drug and alcohol use for a number of different reasons, as part of their work to safeguard children. A number of local authorities have informed the department that they commissioned forensic hair strand tests for drug and alcohol use from Trimega Laboratories Limited (Trimega) during the period January 2010 to April 2014. We continue to work with local authorities to establish the extent to which they used Trimega during this period.