The Glastonbury Festival could be forced to change its drug testing policy as part of a future review of its licence.

Mendip District Council issues the licence for the Worthy Farm event, which includes an agreed event management plan laying out how those attending the festival will be kept safe.

The festival currently carries out 'back-of-house' drug testing, where substances are tested by a private company after either being surrendered in amnesty bins or being confiscated on-site.

But a senior figure in Avon and Somerset Constabulary has called for a change in approach – with councillors agreeing that the issue should be explored as part of any review of the existing licence.

Pete Collins, the police's drug expert lead, addressed the issue when the council's licensing board convened in Shepton Mallet on Wednesday evening (October 26).

Mr Collins began by clarifying the force's rule in policing the Glastonbury Festival, stating: "We work on-site, but we don't get involved in the drugs seizures side of things too much.

"The festival use the services of a licensed private company to carry out what they call back-of-house testing there.

"Believe it or not, but the seizure of drugs is not something that's disclosed to us – the data is owned by the Glastonbury Festival and they don't disclose that to us.

"From what I saw, the amount of drugs that was seized was low – lower than they have been in previous years."

Under the current system, the police will arrest people within the Glastonbury Festival site for supplying or attempting to supply drugs – and these figures are recorded within the official police statistics.

However, information about any drugs recovered either through amnesty bins or interventions by the festival's own security seizures will not form part of any official police investigation.

The private drug testing company has a licence from the Home Office to test and dispose of the drugs.

Mr Collins said: "They keep all the drugs that are seized. They do give us the large amount of cannabis that's seized because it's not of any use to them, so we dispose of it for them."

Councillor Francis Hayden cited the work of The Loop, a charity funded by Bristol City Council and licensed by the Home Office to carry out drug testing in a bid to "reduce high risk drug-taking and build a fuller picture of the illicit drug market in the local area", according to its website.

Mr Hayden asked: "I understand that a similar service is offered in some festivals, and a number of us on this committee have been pressing for such a service at Glastonbury. Do you think that would be useful?"

Mr Collins responded: "I think the service they [The Loop] offer is useful. It certainly advises the members of the public on their drug use, and it enables festival-goers to have their drugs checked to make sure what they're taking is not going to harm them.

"The bottom line here is that people who are attending festivals will take drugs. From a law enforcement perspective, our role is to enforce the laws handed down by the government.

"Healthcare professionals and charities like The Loop are ideally placed to offer advice to those people on how to take their drugs safely – and at the end of the day, we want people to be safe.

"I would think that at some point in time this approach may well be rolled out into festivals – but the bottom line is that is a decision for the festival organisers as to whether that happens, and then if that's something they agree to, the Home Office licence needs to be issued for the location of that festival."

Councillor Simon Carswell, the deputy chairman of the licensing board, suggested that the festival should be compelled to release the figures surrounding drug seizures as part of its licence.

He said: "The low seizures at the festival would perhaps suggest a light touch by the festival organisers, because I can't believe that usage of drugs at Glastonbury would be substantially less, proportionally, than at other festivals.

"Can we make it a condition of the licence that they do release figures, or we make them more robust in their drug testing or enforcement?"

Mr Collins replied that having more security staff on-site – or a lower attendance at the festival – would lead to more drugs being seized.

He pointed to the drugs seized at this year's NASS (National Adventure Sports Show) festival, held at the Bath & West Showground near Evercreech back in July – including one seizure of just under £30,000 worth of drugs.

He said: "The searching regime and the amount of searching that goes on is something which is potentially a condition of the licence.

"With NASS, reduced numbers [of attendees] increased the drug seizures, because security were able to do a better job – they had time to do a better job. A similar situation could be applied to Glastonbury."

Mr Hayden said he favoured front-of-house testing at festivals, where people were allowed to get their drugs tested before entering to ensure they were safe.

Andy Battle, the Glastonbury Festival's head of security, told the board in April that he did not believe such an approach would be effective, either at deterring unscrupulous dealers or at keeping individual drug users safe.

Mr Hayden asked Mr Collins: "If the security staff are successful in seizing drugs from punters coming into the festival, then those people are going to be inclined to buy their drugs on the site – and that means buying from people that don't know from Adam.

"It obviously increases the danger to them if they not are buying their drugs from someone that they know and have come to trust.

"Do you think there's a way in which we as licenser and you and the festival organisers could begin to have a conversion about how to involve The Loop and how to implement front-of-house testing at the festival?"

Mr Collins responded: "The Home Office needs to be completely on board with that. I can't speak with any authority, but I don't believe it's something that they're keen on.

"You as the licensing authority can make it a condition of the festival's licence, but unless they can get an organisation which is licensed by the Home Office to do that, that will be counter-productive.

"My personal opinion is we should have front-of-house testing at festivals – I fully support that, but the barrier is purely the Home Office."

The board agreed to discuss the prospect of amending the Glastonbury Festival's licence at its next meeting, which is scheduled to take place on February 1, 2023.