Parklife, NTIA threaten legal action following drugs testing changes

The founder of Parklife Sacha Lord and the Night Time Industries Association have written a letter to the Home Secretary Suella Braverman, threatening legal action if they do not engage with them on new drugs testing policy by this Friday. Following changes announced by the UK home office on June 8 on organisations performing back-of-house drug checking at festivals must be approved for a separate Controlled Drugs license by the Home Office rather than rely on agreements with local law enforcement.

While bigger festivals like Glastonbury and Leeds are able to hire private companies to carry out testing, independent festivals are often reliant on partnerships with charities and advocacy groups like The Loop. Requiring these organisations to apply for a permit is time-intensive, cost prohibitive, and simply not compatible with the way back-of-house testing is currently run, advocates say.

"This requirement would render the testing, for all but the largest of festivals, prohibitively expensive and, even for the largest of festivals, so time consuming as to nullify its effect," reads the letter.

The brief outlines the key issues that Lord and the NTIA take with the recent changes, claiming the change "contravenes a legitimate expectation" that festival organisers were not obligated to go beyond their established agreements with local authorities.

The letter also contends that the timing of the announcement (48 hours before the first big festival of the season) caused material harm by not allowing organisations adequate time to respond, and that the decision was taken "with no consultation" from "any interested parties, e.g. police forces, public health providers, festival organisations, drugs testing providers etc."

Lorde and other festival organisers say the government has not been clear in its messaging.

The Home Office told Newsbeat, "Our position hasn't changed for 50 years. Festivals aiming to test drugs off their site this summer must work with the police and a Home Office licensed drug testing provider. We continue to keep an open dialogue with any potential applicants."

Advocates of drug testing dispute this claim, as back-of-house festival testing has been in practice at Parklife and other festivals since 2014.

The letter advocates reaching an agreement with the Home Office "through a process of negotiation and discussion," adding "We stress, however, that in the interim period it is of vital importance that the onsite drug testing undertaking by such charities during music festivals continues - the alternative is that lives of festival goers will be placed at unnecessary risk."