Drug and alcohol management

Under the Act, a DAMP operator must conduct an operation involving safety-sensitive activities and hold an aviation document listed in the rules. Rule 99.5 sets out the certification rule parts affected. The relevant certificates are:

1. an adventure aviation operator certificate issued under rule 115.9:
2. an airline air operator certificate issued under rule 119.11(a):
3. a general aviation air operator certificate issued under rule 119.11(b):
4. an agricultural aircraft operator certificate issued under rule 137.153:
5. an aerodrome operator certificate granted under rule 139.9:
6. a qualifying aerodrome operator certificate granted under rule 139.9:
7. an aviation security service certificate issued under rule 140.9:
8. a standard aviation training organisation certificate granted under rule 41.5(a):
9. a maintenance organisation certificate issued under rule 145.9:
10. an aircraft design organisation certificate granted under rule 146.9:
11. a maintenance training organisation certificate granted under rule 147.35:
12. a manufacturing organisation certificate granted under rule 148.9:
13. an aeronautical telecommunication service certificate issued under rule 171.9:
14. an air traffic service certificate granted under rule 172.9:
15. an instrument flight procedure service certificate granted under rule 173.9:
16. a meteorological service certificate granted under rule 174.9:
17. an aeronautical information service certificate issued under rule 175.7.

Advisory Circular AC99.1 provides advice on the scope of ‘safety sensitive activities’ and affected workers, in Section 4.

No, a DAMP will only need to be submitted once, and will subsequently become part of your exposition. It will, however, need to cover all safety sensitive activities covered by all certificates held by your organisation.

Not until 5 April 2027. The Act prescribes a two-year transition period to prepare for the introduction of its drug and alcohol provisions. During the transition period, drug and alcohol management plans will be prepared by operators and approved by the CAA.

The Act broadly defines ‘safety-sensitive workers’ as anyone undertaking a ‘safety-sensitive activity’ – something which could significantly affect the safety of anybody on an aircraft; or an activity which, if not performed safely, could contribute to, or cause, an accident involving an aircraft. Safety-sensitive workers performing roles for DAMP operators can be tested. The criteria are outlined in Advisory Circular AC 99.1.

Section 114(2)(a) of the CA Act 2023 requires a DAMP operator to list all their safety-sensitive activities which are conducted as part of their operation. This includes safety-sensitive activities which are conducted in relation to certificates that are not listed in rule 99.5. This is because excluding safety-sensitive activities related to those certificates would be contrary to the statutory purpose of the CA Act 2023.

There may be limited exceptions where, depending on the corporate structure of the operator, some safety-sensitive activities do not need to be listed in a DAMP. For example, a regulated air cargo agent (RACA) who holds a Part 109 certificate, is owned by (or forms part of) an airline group, but is structured as a separate company can fairly say it is not conducting the business of the RACA. Rather the separate subsidiary is conducting the RACA business. Therefore, those activities may not need to be listed in the airline’s DAMP, and as the RACA is unlikely to hold any other certificate listed in rule 99.5, they would therefore not be considered a DAMP operator.

The Civil Aviation Act 1990, which the 2023 Act replace, did not contain any provisions relating to drug and alcohol testing.

However, Civil Aviation Rules require adventure aviation (Part 115) operators to establish a programme for monitoring and managing risks associated with drug and alcohol use.

Separately, there is a general requirement that any crew members are not impaired due to alcohol and drugs (Rule 91.118).

Pilots and Air Traffic Controllers are also required to hold medical certificates and drug and alcohol use is part of the medical assessment required to hold a licence.

Holders of aviation documents for adventure aviation activities have been required to have a drug and alcohol management programme since late 2012, as set out in rule 115.62 Drug and alcohol programme. That won’t change and compliance with the current rule may mean that future DAMP requirements are mostly met.

A DAMP can loosely be described as a sub-set of the Part 115 drug and alcohol programme requirements, particularly as the DAMP just covers random drug and alcohol testing. Rule 115.62 (b) has been amended to specifically allow for the required DAMP to be part of the Part 115 drug and alcohol programme documentation. But it is important that all the things that need to be in the DAMP are easy to identify.

Individual licence holders will not be DAMP operators. But, if an individual is employed by, or directly contracted to, a company that is a DAMP operator (e.g., a Part 119 air operator), they are likely to be considered 'safety-sensitive workers' – hence potentially subject to alcohol and drug testing.

Only individuals who are employed or engaged by the DAMP operator are subject to the DAMP.  ‘Engaged’ means any individual who is directly contracted to the DAMP operator. Organisations which sub-contract to the DAMP operator are not subject to an operator’s DAMP. This is because the individuals are directly employed or engaged by the sub-contractor, not the DAMP operator. 

A DAMP operator can stipulate in their contract with a sub-contractor, or third party, that their employees must meet health and safety standards when they are on site and that this may include drug and alcohol testing. But this is not DAMP testing under the 2023 Act.

CAA has been conscious of the ability of small organisations and companies to develop DAMPs and undertake random testing. This is one of the reasons that the advisory circular includes a template and provides advice on random testing for a range of organisation sizes.

There is potential for small operators to join together to organise a joint approach to developing their DAMPs and organising testing. For example, operators could club together to pay a third-party to create their DAMPs and/or do the drug and alcohol testing. But it is important that each operator has its own DAMP that reflects its operations and that the Chief Executive of each operator is familiar with and responsible for their DAMP.

Operators will only have to produce a DAMP once. It will then become part of their exposition and considered as part of certificate renewal, updated as needed.

Yes, where the rule is clear and specific (e.g. Rule 99.17) it is satisfactory for the DAMP operator to state that they will comply with the applicable rule in its entirety.

CAA approval of the DAMP will be charged for as normal, on an hourly basis. However, we believe approval will be a relatively straightforward process. Assisted by the Advisory Circular guidance, it will be desk based and not involve a site visit. Following the AC guidance, using the template provided, and getting questions answered before submitting your DAMP for approval, will also help keep processing costs down.

The cost of random drug and alcohol testing will depend on the process undertaken. However, saliva testing has become much more reliable, cost effective and quicker, and would be an adequate drug test in most instances.

It will be up to DAMP operators as to whether they use third-party testing agencies or undertake the testing themselves. This needs to be set out in the DAMP and will be one of the matters for CAA to consider when it approves a DAMP operator’s plan.

Operators could club together to pay a third-party to do the drug and alcohol testing. This must be set out in the operator’s DAMP and the Chief Executive of each operator must be familiar with and responsible for their own DAMP.

Yes, a template is part of the Advisory Circular package which is available here:

DAMP template [DOCX 38 KB]

This is up to the DAMP operator to determine in their DAMP. CAA recommends that a reasonable and practical approach is for operators to notify CAA as soon as practicable of non-negative alcohol tests when two consecutive non-negative test results are returned with no more than a 15-minute interval between the tests.

The second test administered 15 minutes after an initial non-negative will either confirm or exclude the possibility of the non-negative result being caused by metabolic conditions and other insignificant alcohol levels from passive ingestion, or fermentation e.g., perfume or mouthwash.

This means a negative result is where the first test result is negative or where the first breath test is non- negative, but second test 15 minutes later is a negative test.

A non-negative result is where the first test result is non-negative, and the second test result (from a test conducted 15 minutes after the first test) is also non-negative.

The DAMP needs to set out sufficient detail for CAA to understand what proportion of safety-sensitive workers will be subject to random testing. The proportion of workers may be presented as a percentage or may provide an actual number of workers who will be tested. The proportion of workers needs to be appropriate for the size of the organisation. For example, testing 3% of workers a year from an organisation with a total of 300 safety-sensitive workers would not be appropriate. This would equate to 9 people being tested over a 12-month period which would not serve as a sufficient deterrent.

For the most part, CAA will only hold depersonalised information about a worker’s test result. It is for the DAMP operator to manage the situation. CAA will just need to know a non-negative test result has occurred. The exception, however, is when the worker being tested holds a medical certificate – a certified pilot or air traffic controller. In that situation, test information is relevant to the individual’s licence to do their job and CAA may follow up.

The assumption behind the Act is that existing provisions already adequately mitigate the risk of drug and alcohol use in the recreation and private sector. For example, it is an offence to operate an aircraft in a careless or dangerous manner and it is an offence for a crew member to be intoxicated or impaired by drugs.

Guidance documents for uncrewed aircraft advise that 'Operators should never operate an unmanned aircraft when impaired by drugs or alcohol'.

Initiating a testing regime for drone operators would, however, be a significant undertaking.

The current uncrewed aircraft rules (for both recreational and commercial use) require a more general review before adding random testing.

Under the 2023 Act CAA is not a DAMP operator. However, CAA is mindful of its role as a regulator and finding ways of holding itself to an equivalent standard to that which applies to those who are required to have a DAMP. The CAA will work through those issues over the coming period.

The 2023 Act (specifically section 116) allows for inspectors appointed by the CAA Director to undertake drug and alcohol testing of those workers covered by participants’ drug and alcohol management plans. This testing does not need to be random.

Director testing provides oversight of the DAMP operator regime and allows CAA to respond to specific issues, and to gain assurance.

Now that the Act is in force, CAA will consider how it will implement Director testing, alongside DAMPs, from 5 April 2027.

When the CAA conducts Director testing, it will follow the same scope and standards outlined in the operator's DAMP.

Where there is a non-negative test result, refusal to test or suspected tampering, the responsibility would then shift to the operator who would follow the response plan they had outlined in their DAMP.

The new Act was not designed to create a punitive system, nor criminalise drug and alcohol use.

However, existing offences still apply – for example, for operating an aircraft in a careless or dangerous manner, and any crew member being intoxicated or impaired by drugs.

Guidance is included in Advisory Circular AC99.1.