The Prison (Amendment) (Northern Ireland) Order 2004

Testing prisoners for alcohol

5.  After section 19 of the Prison Act there shall be inserted—

“Testing prisoners for alcohol

19A.— (1) If an authorisation is in force for the prison, any designated prison officer may, at the prison, in accordance with prison rules, require any prisoner who is confined in the prison to provide a sample of urine for the purpose of ascertaining whether he has alcohol in his body.

(2) If the authorisation so provides, the power conferred by subsection (1) shall include power—

(a) to require a prisoner to provide a sample of breath, whether instead of or in addition to a sample of urine, and

(b) to require a prisoner to provide a sample of any other description specified in the authorisation, not being an intimate sample, whether instead of or in addition to a sample of urine, a sample of breath or both.

(3) In this section—

“authorisation” means an authorisation by the Secretary of State;

“intimate sample” has the same meaning as in Part VI of the Police and Criminal Evidence (Northern Ireland) Order 1989 (NI 12);

“designated prison officer”, in relation to any prison, means a person appointed under section 2(2) who has been designated for the purposes of this section by the governor of the prison.”.