Drug Treatment and Testing Order

The original Drug Treatment and Testing Order (DTTO) was a distinct sentence, but community sentencing was later consolidated so that courts build a single community order out of a menu of requirements rather than choosing between free-standing named orders. Section 201 of the Sentencing Act 2020 sets out the 'community order requirements table referred to in sections 200, 206 and 208', which lists the available requirements alongside the Schedule 9 Part governing each: these include the 'drug rehabilitation requirement' (Schedule 9, Part 10) and, added later, a separate 'drug testing requirement' (Schedule 9, Part 10A, tied to s.207(3A)), alongside the unpaid work requirement, rehabilitation activity requirement, curfew requirement and others in the same table.

In current sentencing practice, what used to be called a DTTO is achieved by a court including a drug rehabilitation requirement (and, where separately appropriate, a drug testing requirement) as one or more of the requirements attached to a community order or suspended sentence order, rather than by imposing a free-standing DTTO. The drug rehabilitation requirement compels the offender to undergo treatment for dependency on, or propensity to misuse, drugs, with provision under the Schedule for periodic court review of the offender's progress.