Commentary on provisions of Act Section 2: Commanding officer’s power to require preliminary alcohol and drugs tests
Sections 93A to 93I of AFA 2006 make provision with respect to the testing for alcohol and drugs of members of the armed forces and civilians subject to service discipline suspected of committing, or of having committed, certain offences.
	Under section 93A, a commanding officer may require a member of the armed forces or a civilian subject to service discipline to co-operate with ‘preliminary tests’ (a preliminary breath test, a preliminary impairment test or a preliminary drugs test). A member of the armed forces may be required to co-operate with such tests where a commanding officer has reasonable cause to believe that the person:
is committing a specified type of offence, or
has committed such an offence and still has alcohol or a drug in their body or is still under the influence of a drug.
	The offences in question are an offence of exceeding the alcohol limit for a prescribed safety-critical duty contrary to section 20A of AFA 2006 and an offence of unfitness for duty due to the influence of alcohol or drugs contrary to section 20(1)(a) of AFA 2006 in respect of a safety-critical duty (as defined in section 93I) (see the definition of "safety-critical duty offence" in new section 93AA(1)).
	Under section 93A, a commanding officer may require a civilian subject to service discipline to co-operate with such tests where that officer has reasonable cause to believe that the person is:
committing an offence under section 42 of AFA 2006 as respects which the corresponding offence, under the law of England and Wales, is one of the offences sspecified in subsection (3)(a) of section 93A, or
has committed such an offence and still has alcohol or a drug in their body or is still under the influence of a drug.
	The offences specified in subsection (3)(a) are maritime and aviation offences under the Railways and Transport Safety Act 2003.
	It is an offence under section 93A(6) to fail, without reasonable excuse, to comply with a requirement to co-operate with a preliminary test.
	Subsection (2) of section 2 amends section 93A to allow commanding officers to require co-operation with preliminary tests in three additional situations. These are referred to as "the third situation", "the fourth situation" and "the fifth situation" in new subsections (3A), (3B) and (3C) of section 93A. The situations in which such tests may currently be required are referred to as "the first situation" and "the second situation" in subsections (1) and (3) of section 93A (as amended by subsection (2)(b) and (f) of section 2).
	The changes made by section 2 provide for post-accident preliminary testing of a person for alcohol and drugs without the need for suspicion that the person may have committed an offence. New subsection (3A) of section 93A provides for the testing, after an accident involving an aircraft or a ship, of a person who was carrying out an aviation function in relation to the aircraft or a marine function in relation to the ship at the time of the accident. New subsection (3B) of section 93A provides for the testing after such an accident of a person who carried out such a function before the accident occurred, where the carrying out of the function by the person may have caused or contributed to the occurrence of the accident or its consequences. New subsection (3C) of section 93A provides for the testing, after other serious accidents, of people who carried out safety-critical functions (see new section 93AA(6)) before or at the time of the accident, where the carrying out of those functions may have caused or contributed to the occurrence of the accident or its consequences.
	Subsection (3) of section 2 inserts new section 93AA into AFA 2006. This new section sets out the meaning of terms used in section 93A (as amended by subsection (2) of section 2).