Tonia Antoniazzi (Gower) (Lab) I beg to move, That this House has
considered e-petition 598986, relating to safety at nightclubs. It
is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Gray, to discuss
petition 598986 on making it a legal requirement for nightclubs to
search guests thoroughly on entry. We have all seen the stories
from around the UK, mainly about women having their drinks spiked
and even being jabbed with drugs in some nightclubs. In Swansea,
the police...Request free trial
(Gower) (Lab)
I beg to move,
That this House has considered e-petition 598986, relating to
safety at nightclubs.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Gray, to
discuss petition 598986 on making it a legal requirement for
nightclubs to search guests thoroughly on entry. We have all seen
the stories from around the UK, mainly about women having their
drinks spiked and even being jabbed with drugs in some
nightclubs. In Swansea, the police are investigating a number of
incidents of drink spiking and as
of last week the police in Nottinghamshire were dealing with 15
separate incidents of spiking with something sharp. We now see
nightclubs such as Sin City in Swansea taking action by ordering
12,500 StopTopps—anti-spiking lids—as well as implementing a
policy that allows those who think their drink might have been
spiked to get a replacement for free. In the absence of
comprehensive drinks testing, that makes sense.
While those steps from some nightclubs are welcome, what will
happen after the media interest has died down? It is not good
enough for this issue to be in the hands of some nightclub
owners. The Government must realise that something has to be
done. A number of clubs have extra security staff on the floors
of their nightclubs, so surely it is not beyond the owners’
financial capabilities to invest in making security checks a
permanent feature across all clubs in the UK. I understand that
this has been a financially difficult 18 months for many venues,
but does the Minister agree that some investment in keeping
people safe on a night out will make going out a much more
attractive proposition and therefore worth it in the long run for
club owners?
Many colleagues will have seen the Big Night In initiative, where
cities across the UK boycotted pubs and nightclubs in a show of
defiance against the increase in spiking. Many town centres were
much quieter than normal. With 51% of the population being women,
and other groups also being vulnerable to spiking, that is big
spending power not out in the clubs; they have made their voices
and concerns heard. I thank the many groups who have supported
the campaign, including student unions, bars and clubs across the
country that closed early, and the Swansea University men’s rugby
team, who were among the first to show their solidarity.
(Strangford) (DUP)
I congratulate the hon. Lady on bringing forward the debate. We
have had 21 incidents of spiking in the last month in Northern
Ireland. Does she agree that all Administrations in the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland must agree a policy
that protects women? We could do it here centrally and feed it
out to the Administrations.
I welcome the hon. Member’s comments. That is what the UK
Government need to do, working hand in hand with the devolved
countries. I thank him for that.
The petition has now been signed by more than 172,000 people,
including 180 people in Gower and 224 in the Minister’s
constituency, which demonstrates the strength of feeling on the
issue. The aim of the petition is for
“the UK Government to make it law that nightclubs must search
guests on arrival to prevent harmful weapons and other items
entering the establishment. This could be a pat down search or
metal detector, but must involve measures being put in place to
ensure the safety of the public.”
That seems wholly acceptable to me and many others. The
Government can take the lead. Working with local authorities to
put in place clear and definitive guidelines to protect the
safety of people using licensed premises seems a very sensible
thing to do. It would protect not just customers but club owners
and workers.
Perhaps the Minister can answer these questions. How many people
have to be spiked before the Government will do anything? Do we
have to wait until something terrible happens for the Government
to act? Local authorities will be key in making these changes.
Under their licensing powers, they should take measures to make
clubs and pubs safe places to go. What discussions has the
Minister had with local government to address this?
I thank Hannah Thomson, who started the petition, for her hard
work in promoting it and for speaking to me last week. Hannah was
a student in Edinburgh for four years, and though she graduated
last year, she still has friends based there. A friend showed her
the story about spiking with needles in Edinburgh, and they both
questioned how needles were getting into clubs undetected. Hannah
realised that in her entire time as a student, she had never been
searched when entering a club. That prompted her to do some more
research. She found that there is no law on this, and she felt
that she could change that.
(Swansea West)
(Lab/Co-op)
My hon. Friend mentioned very good work by Swansea police, but
she may not be aware of a case that I had where a person was
spiked with a needle, and the day after, their arm came up with a
massive swelling. They went to the police, who said that the
person was just drunk and they refused to look at the CCTV
evidence. Does my hon. Friend agree that, while that may be an
isolated case, it is important that the police take these
incidents very seriously? Any CCTV evidence should be examined,
and we should consider testing drinks, which has been piloted in
Cornwall.
My hon. Friend makes a valid point. I do not think his case is an
isolated incident. These incidents are becoming increasingly
visible and are happening in nightclubs across the country. My
evidence is anecdotal, but A&E departments have seen a rise
in cases specifically as a result of university terms starting.
That needs to be reported. That is why it is important that the
Government take responsibility and find out what the data is.
They must raise awareness, working with local authorities and the
police to ensure that these are not seen as drunken
incidents.
My point is that it is imperative that the police take these
issues very seriously on all occasions and do not, as I
understand they sometimes do, dismiss them as, “Oh, she was
drunk.” Sometimes these people have been spiked or drugged.
I agree with my hon. Friend. He is right––there can be no
excuses. The police need to investigate every incident.
Hannah also explained that when she went to a festival in
Manchester, she was thoroughly searched and her bag swabbed to
ensure that she was not carrying any drugs. She was then
given a stamp that required her to be searched again a couple of
days later. There is no reason why that could not be introduced
in clubs. Safety should never be about cost. What would the cost
of serious injury, rape or even death be for a club owner? It
would be much, much worse.
When I spoke to Hannah about her petition last week, she outlined
some of the comments that she had received. I have looked at her
Instagram account and even though she has deleted many of the
worst comments, there is a real misunderstanding of what the
petition is trying to achieve. She sent me some screen shots.
While she did not call them abuse herself, they clearly
constitute aggressive and sometimes threatening behaviour, mainly
men saying that she was a feminist––I do not see that as an
insult––and a racist. This requirement would cover everyone
entering a nightclub and is for everyone’s safety.
One theme of the comments was that men were saying that women
should not be on a night out if they cannot protect themselves.
Now, some people are not fortunate enough to have played rugby
for Wales, like me, and be able to look after themselves. But
that is not the point; that is not what this is about. Those
comments are not welcome. How about men stop attacking women when
we are just going about, and carrying on, our lives? How about
men start calling out other men on their behaviour? As the
Duchess of Cornwall said the week before last,
“rapists are not born, they are constructed.”
Toxic masculinity, extreme porn and the normalisation of violence
against women in all areas of popular culture drive this level of
violence against women. That is what the Government need to
address.
(Bethnal Green and Bow)
(Lab)
Does my hon. Friend agree that there is a real need for a
systemic approach to capturing data on the number of incidents
from across universities, the police, and health services? Does
she also agree that some universities are falling way short and
not taking responsibility by providing healthcare in clinics
24/7? After facing an incident, young people, particularly women,
do not want to go to accident and emergency or to the police
straightaway; they need on site, on-campus support that they know
how to access, but that is not the case in many universities
across the country.
My hon. Friend has made absolutely wonderful and excellent
points. This should be data driven, and the universities must be
working in concert. There has to be consistency across the whole
United Kingdom. There need to be guidelines. That is why this
petition calls on the Government to take control of the
situation.
Let me go back to think about how Hannah felt. This young woman,
a year out of university, feels so motivated to make a
difference, and she is in Edinburgh, just going about her
everyday life. We have to take notice. This issue is happening
everywhere. I will go back to talk about Hannah’s social media
posts. What happened when she reported some of the comments? What
support was she getting from Instagram? Absolutely nothing. It
said that it would not take action against those posting the
comments, so in the end she had to delete them. It became a
really difficult thing for one person, one young woman, to have
to deal with. I say to those social media platforms that are
unwilling to act: get your house in order; you may be able to
change your company name, but we still know who you are, and we
will be taking action to make sure that you clean up the cesspit
that social media can be.
Clubs themselves also have to take responsibility. When Hannah
went on one radio show to talk about this issue, a nightclub
owner was arguing that the rise in reported drink-spiking
incidents was because students going out were not used to
drinking so much after being stuck indoors because of covid and
were reporting it as spiking. Fortunately, that attitude seems to
be limited to a few uncaring club owners. In fact, Mike Kill,
chairman of the Night Time Industries Association, has called on
the Government to hold an inquiry into spiking. The association
would like a review of the way in which spiking is classified and
recorded, meaning that it could look at solutions based on the
full facts. It has also highlighted a scheme put in place by
Devon and Cornwall police that provided on-site testing as soon
as there was a report of spiking. That meant a uniform approach
to reporting, assessment and evidence gathering, which increased
confidence and reduced fear of crime among customers. Will the
Minister today agree to meet me and the Night Time Industries
Association to discuss the scheme trialled in Devon and Cornwall
and see how we can roll this out across the country? Where there
are patterns of this behaviour that can be identified, it is much
easier for effective policies to be put in place, and this could
be put in place quickly.
I thank Hannah for talking to me about how she and her friends
felt. I really appreciate her efforts on this issue and hope that
we can get some concrete commitments from the Minister today.
The last 18 months have been particularly hard on women. I am
thinking of Sarah Everard, Nicole Smallman, Bibaa Henry and
Sabina Nessa and of those women who were locked down with their
abusers. The subject of today’s debate is just part of a wider
picture for women all over the United Kingdom. Violence towards
women and girls is an epidemic of epic proportions, and the
Government must act now to stem it.
(Sheffield Central)
(Lab)
The issue that we are addressing today was raised with me, before
the recent media attention, by school students at King Edward VII
School in Sheffield. The prevalence that they describe, in terms
of their experience, is distressing. I have also had reports of
incidents at house parties. Does my hon. Friend agree that the
issue does not simply end with nightclubs but is about a wider
spectrum of behaviour? There have been some good campaigns. My
own student union in Sheffield has a good initiative and some
nightclubs are working well, but, as she has said, but there has
not been a comprehensive approach, which is what we need to
address this.
Does my hon. Friend agree that the Government need to work with
the police and other authorities to treat the issue more
seriously and view it in the wider context of violence against
women and girls? Does she also agree that the strategy needs to
challenge the whole spectrum of behaviour, which starts with
casual harassment and ends with sexual violence?
I thank my hon. Friend for his comments. It is really shocking to
find out that school students in his constituency were raising
this issue with him before it even came to the public eye. That
shows that they know about it through social media platforms and
have an understanding of this danger. I am concerned that this is
happening not only in nightclubs, but in the wider community, in
house parties. It is becoming a craze and a trend. It has to be
taken seriously by everybody. That is why education is key. We
have issues in this country around access. More young people are
online now and they have access to all sorts of very dangerous
pornography and materials. That needs to be addressed as a
cultural issue.
(York Central)
(Lab/Co-op)
Tomorrow, North Yorkshire police will have a multi-agency
meeting, including with universities and higher education
institutions, to discuss the issue of spiking. Does my hon.
Friend agree that we need to talk about the availability of
trauma services, which are seriously underfunded and
understaffed?
I thank my hon. Friend for her comments about trauma services. As
we have seen, those services are needed 24/7 at universities.
They are needed at police stations. They are needed everywhere
and the issue needs to be addressed.
We cannot go on like this. Radical action needs to be taken.
Misogyny should be a hate crime. Support for women facing
domestic abuse needs to be restored. Education for boys and men
needs to be put in place. This is a specific debate, but it
speaks to a much wider issue—one which needs action, not words,
today.
18:17:00
(Wycombe) (Con)
I welcome today’s extremely important debate. I agree
overwhelmingly with what other Members have said.
I came to speak in this debate because I was contacted this
morning by a concerned parent about what was, to me, a new
horror: spiking by injection. It is fair to say that when I was
young enough to go to nightclubs—a very long time ago—we may have
feared that people would spike our drinks with spirits. The idea
that today, people—overwhelmingly young women, I understand—might
be spiked by injection is a grave horror. I want to use the word
“grave” a few times.
To inject a person against their will should be regarded as a
grave assault—one of the most serious assaults. They are injected
not only against their will, but with a substance unknown, with
the purpose of intoxicating them and, presumably, with a view
towards raping them. That is the most extraordinary horror. Yet,
as we heard earlier, the police do not always take it as
seriously as they might. I want to know what my hon. Friend the
Minister is going to do to make sure that what is the most
exceptionally serious assault is treated as such. This kind of
crime should attract the most serious penalties, and no one
should be in any doubt about how serious it is. That includes
security staff at nightclubs and police officers, though I do not
wish to assign blame to any of those groups. Ambulance crews
should also be aware that while somebody they pick up may seem to
be intoxicated, they might in fact have been injected with a
drug.
This morning, after hearing such an alarming account, I called
Michael Kill, the chief executive of the Night Time Industries
Association, and asked him about it. I will not repeat the
remarks that the hon. Member for Gower () made about his comments,
but I will add an extra quote:
“Our industry has been deeply concerned by the rise in reported
spiking incidents across the country, and have been extremely
proactive in our reaction so that everyone can enjoy a night out
free from fear of being spiked, as it should be.”
He goes on to refer to the Home Office inquiry sought by the
association and to which the hon. Lady has referred.
I strongly endorse the call for action on spiking by injection.
Of course, I care about spiking through drinks as well, but we
should draw the distinction that injecting somebody with a
substance unknown ought to be treated as among the most grievous
assaults that could be carried out, partly because of its
motivation, which is probably that of rape. I am so horrified
that I find it difficult to put it in words, so I do not wish to
labour the point.
My final point is a difficult one to make. It is about the hon.
Lady’s point about men as a class. I do not doubt for a moment
that men as a class conduct most of the violence that is
conducted against others and against women. I am very much
inclined to take the position that she set out that men should do
this or that. However, one of the women in my team, who has
worked in the past with abused men, asked me not to do that,
because the vast majority of men are decent, civilised and
law-abiding people who want women to be treated with respect and
do not perpetrate violence. I have been asked, despite a mistaken
chivalry on my part, not to blame men as a class.
I totally respect the hon. Member’s comments about men. It is
just that the victims in this case tend to be women and the
perpetrators tend to be men, but I completely respect that my
comments may have come across like that. We do have an issue that
we need to address—let us work together and not make it an issue
of sex, but of how we can keep people safe.
Mr Baker
I absolutely welcome what the hon. Lady says, and I am grateful
to her for it.
rose—
(Bath) (LD)
rose—
Mr Baker
Suddenly we are having a debate.
I totally respect what the hon. Gentleman says. Of course, we
should not undo the fact that many men behave well and are decent
towards women. However, we have a culture where women are not
treated with respect where, through banter and all sorts of
things, it goes into more horrible and violent behaviour. It is
the underlying and, unfortunately, still prevalent culture of
disrespect to women that we need to address.
Mr Baker
As I have said, my instinct is with the hon. Lady and the hon.
Member for Gower, but I have been asked to swallow my pride and
to not demand that fellow men as a class change their behaviour;
it is men who commit wicked acts who need to change. It is men
whose attitudes towards women are appalling who need to change.
It is people who do wicked things who need to change, and we need
to be a bit careful about painting all men as some kind of
criminals.
The basic point is that 5.2% of sexual assaults involve drugging
people. Of those, 5% are against women and 0.2% against men. In
other words, the incidence is twenty-fivefold for women, so we
have to put this in context. Men and women are victims, but it is
basically about men attacking women, so let us not pretend that
it is not.
Mr Baker
I hope the hon. Gentleman will not mind me saying that any
fair-minded person listening to my remarks will not suggest for a
moment that I have pretended what he suggested. What we need to
do is carry all men with us. All men need to understand that we
have a duty towards women and to treat women equally, but we also
must be careful to not do what I have perhaps done in the past,
which is to have a chivalry, which is seen as misplaced these
days.
I do not think my wife would mind me saying that I am married to
a retired Royal Air Force wing commander who has been on
operational service a number of times, and I think I can fairly
claim to be capable of treating women equally. Indeed, I
recognise that my military service was not anything like my
wife’s military service. I yield to no one in my willingness to
treat women with respect and equally, but I recognise the
statistical reality the hon. Gentleman gave. We need to recognise
that we need to carry men with us if we are going to solve the
problem of violence against women and girls.
(Vauxhall)
(Lab/Co-op)
The hon. Gentleman makes a valid point, but I hope he will agree
that we have to educate our young boys so that they become men
who will righty treat women with the respect they deserve. It
starts from school. Those young boys will grow up to become the
men who will stand up and protect women and girls, and carry
society with them.
Mr Baker
I am grateful to the hon. Lady for raising the issue of schools.
Every time I listen to teachers, particularly headteachers, I
hear inspiring messages about how we should behave and the values
we should have. Indeed, I wish those messages were heard far more
often among the adult population, not least Members of
Parliament—excluding, of course, everyone present at this
debate.
I agree with the hon. Lady on schools and education. We must ask
ourselves, however, how can it be that, even though headteachers
and teachers articulate values of which we can all be proud,
somehow people who make it through the system end up conducting
violence against women and girls. Sometimes that begins with
relatively minor behaviours, which then escalate out of all
proportion into the most heinous crimes. We have to challenge
ourselves on all of these matters.
To conclude, we ought to be taking much more seriously the
problem of spiking people by injection, which is part of an
escalation of abuse directed overwhelmingly towards women. It is
among the most grievous crimes that one could conceive. It seems
to lead overwhelmingly towards an intention to rape women, and it
must be treated with the gravity that those implications deserve.
I very much hope that my hon. Friend the Minister will reassure
us all that spiking by injection will be dealt with in the proper
manner.
18:27:00
(Warwick and Leamington)
(Lab)
I will pick up on some of the points made by the hon. Member for
Wycombe (Mr Baker) and by my hon. Friend the Member for Gower
().
This has not come out of nowhere, but the incidence, escalation
and scale of the issue are extraordinary. Although date rape
drugging was on my radar—and, I am sure, that of many others—this
sudden phenomenon of spiking through needle is a shocking
escalation.
In terms of the wider issue, the figures obtained by the BBC back
in 2019 showed an increase in recorded cases of drink spiking of more
than 2,600 since 2015. This is a significant problem in our
society. Just this week, Nottinghamshire police said that they
had received a total of 15 reports of alleged spiking with a
sharp object since 2 October. That is from a month ago, and that
is just in Nottinghamshire. Her Majesty’s inspectorate of
constabulary and fire and rescue services has called violence
against women “an epidemic”, and says that the authorities have
to treat it with as much urgency as they fight terrorism.
I am sure that many of us will have been horrified by the
incident in Texas, which illustrates that this is not just a UK
problem. There is a phenomenon and copycat behaviour, as
mentioned by my hon. Friend the Member for Gower, in terms of
social media and how quickly these things get shared, perhaps
among males, not just across campuses, towns, cities and
countries but globally. In Texas, where eight people died and
hundreds were hurt, police are investigating reports that
somebody in the audience was injecting people with drugs, such
that several concert goers had to be revived with anti-drug
overdose medicine.
As of 23 October, the National Police Chiefs’ Council had
collected 198 reports of drink spiking in
addition to the 56 reports of incidents involving a needle. This
is not necessarily an epidemic at this stage, but it is a
seriously concerning phenomenon. Freedom of information requests
from “Sky News”, which were published back in 2018, found that
reported incidents of spiking had doubled in the three years
before. Although I do not have the data to hand and did not have
time to put it all together, it is really alarming to see where
this phenomenon is taking us.
Does my hon. Friend agree that this problem has a new face to it
but, as he has pointed out, it has been there in the form of
drugs being used for rape? I have certainly come across examples
in my constituency in the past. Does he agree that the use of
needles adds another health dimension, with the potential spread
of diseases such as HIV, and that hospitals need to respond to
that risk as well? Does he agree that Universities UK needs to
come together and address some of the challenges at university
level in order to support students? Finally, does he agree that
conviction is required for those who are perpetrating, and that
we need to know what the police are being instructed to do by the
Government in order to get a grip on this issue before more
fatalities occur?
I agree entirely with my hon. Friend that there is an urgent need
for the data, which I think was mentioned earlier in the debate,
but also for multi-agency meetings through the local authorities,
the police, and universities—wherever. Some of the work being
done by Devon and Cornwall police, which was discussed earlier,
is really interesting. We as parliamentarians should certainly be
pushing for that, but so should the Government be urging the Home
Office to call on chief constables to work with local
authorities, those on campuses, universities and further
education colleges to lead on and to try to address this
phenomenon.
It is certainly really alarming to the National Union of
Students, which is rightly urging that any case needs to be
investigated quickly and that the findings need to be shared
across the country through different authorities, because there
is an information vacuum at the moment. We just do not have the
data, as has been discussed, and we need to know the scale of the
problem, particularly with the spiking by injection that my hon.
Friend the Member for Bethnal Green and Bow () referred to. Students across
the country are understandably very anxious and are panicking
about this issue. Some are taking extreme measures, in an effort
to protect themselves when venturing out. The reports that we are
getting are extremely horrifying and need investigating, but
perhaps the NUS would be saying that we have to be cautious about
measures to increase surveillance in clubs, because that can
cause problems of its own.
(Nottingham South)
(Lab)
I apologise that I was not able to be present for the start of
the debate—I was in a Delegated Legislation Committee.
Does my hon. Friend agree that in formulating a response to the
reports of spiking by injection, and the impact that it is having
on young women and their lives because of the fear that they
feel, it is really important that the authorities, the police,
our universities and our health service listen to young women and
hear about the things that they want, the things that would allow
them to feel safe, and the things that they want to hear about
men changing their behaviour? This should not be about victims;
it should be about changing the behaviour of perpetrators.
I absolutely agree with the point made by my hon. Friend: it is
about changing behaviour among perpetrators and young men. Going
back to the points that were made earlier by my hon. Friend the
Member for Vauxhall (), the problem absolutely
starts at a very young age. We must change the norms of
behaviour—certainly among young males—at a much younger age. She
is right in the point that she makes.
I will move on to two examples; I did not want to take examples
from across the country, but these are very real examples I have
had to deal with through constituency casework, and so are
specific to the University of Warwick, which is close to me. One
constituent’s daughter was unable to seek urgent medical care, so
had to travel to her home in Manchester, and go to Manchester
Royal Infirmary, because she could not get the care that she
needed locally. The hospital has implemented a separate pathway
and recording system for spiking victims, so all credit that
Manchester should have done that. Another student is currently in
A&E at University Hospital Coventry, being treated for a
suspected spiking with a needle. That is just in the last couple
of weeks.
It is no wonder that the Girls Night In campaign quite rightly
drew attention to this nationally. If we are to bring about
change, we need to have an impact on the night-time economy, and
we need people to wake up to the immediate urgency of this. I
would echo the calls that I made earlier. It was interesting to
listen to the point made about the work being done in Devon and
Cornwall. If there is a chance of rolling that out, that would be
terrific, but we need to quickly share that information. I hope
the Minister will be listening carefully to this, because it does
need leadership from the Government.
This is a terrifying phenomenon for young women, and it is
leading to a real change of behaviour in our towns and cities.
The Government and police need to get to grips with it very
quickly, and ensure that the night-time industry meets with them
and can bring about the changes that are needed. The NUS has
called for greater training for staff, to understand and identify
those visiting their nightclubs and so on, looking at alcohol
vulnerability and the potential for sexual harassment and
assault, with a focus on how to respond and intervene if
incidents take place.
In my constituency, I want to pull together the police, the local
authorities and the university, but also meet with a panel of
young women to understand what is really going on. This is
happening quickly, and it needs a response from Government. I
really hope that they will look to work with all sectors to
co-ordinate some sort of response, because this issue needs
urgent leadership from them.
18:38:00
(Bath) (LD)
Going out and having fun is an important part of everyone’s life.
We need it for our general wellbeing, to switch off from our busy
working lives, and for our social lives. Nobody should be
excluded from it, or live in fear that their night out will turn
into a nightmare. Why should so many women live with that fear
when most men do not?
I am fully behind the many women, including those in my
constituency in Bath, who have taken to the streets or boycotted
nightclubs to campaign against the rise of spiking incidents.
Just imagine the fear and trauma of suddenly losing control of
your body on a night out: your vision becomes blurry; you feel
dizzy or sick; your memory disappears. You wake up in the morning
with no recollection of how you got home, or with a fear that
something really bad happened that you cannot even remember.
Spiking is predominantly an attack on women, and happens
primarily to young women. One of my constituents wrote to me to
say,
“not only have I been spiked myself—so have two of my close
friends and nameless other girls I know”.
The National Police Chiefs’ Council has reported almost 200
confirmed incidents of drink spiking across
the UK in the past two months alone. Reports of spiking by needle
have added an extra layer of fear, and I completely agree with
the hon. Member for Gower () that those reports need
to be treated with much more severity, because they represent
another level of crime. Those recent reports are not isolated
incidents: data shows that drink spiking has been
a growing problem in the UK for several years. Over 2,600 reports
of spiking have been made to the police in England and Wales
between 2015 and 2019, and that number may just be the tip of the
iceberg, as many who have been spiked do not come forward.
Some have called for increased police presence in venues, or
searches upon entry to night-time venues, but I am not sure that
that is the right approach to stamping out spiking once and for
all. As we have seen with stop and search policies under the
Government’s hostile environment policy, increased police
presence and searches often end up disproportionately affecting
marginalised communities. We need a solution that considers the
impact on all groups within our society. However, the Government
should act urgently to make night-time venues safer for
everybody. Spiking test strips should be made freely available at
every venue; if necessary, that should be backed by Government
funding. Police and venue staff should be given specific training
to spot the signs of spiking so that they can give proper support
when incidents occur. I urge the Minister to convene a conference
of senior police officers from forces across the country as soon
as possible. We need to get a complete picture of what is
happening and draw up a national action plan on spiking,
particularly the urgent issue of spiking by injection.
There is an epidemic of violence against women, and the rise in
spiking incidents is simply the latest manifestation of that. We
need to get to the root causes of why so many women are still
regarded as inferior or, worse, a target for hate. Again, I agree
with the hon. Member for Gower—
Wycombe!
I mean the hon. Member for Wycombe (Mr Baker)—I am terrible with
names. We need to bring everybody with us in order to achieve
behavioural change—I do get it—but we also need to call out what
needs to be called out, which is that this behaviour is
increasing, and it is predominantly a crime committed by men
against women. We cannot paint that fact out of the picture, but
we absolutely need to have men on our side, and we need men to
find this behaviour despicable. I know that many men,
particularly in this Chamber, find it despicable and are on our
side as women to stamp it out.
I repeat my call to the Minister to make misogyny a hate crime.
The culture that allows crimes such as spiking to continue
without sanction must change. Women must be given confidence that
the system is not stacked against them, and must feel confident
that those who are perpetrators of disrespect and hate against
women are being brought to justice. That starts by making
misogyny a hate crime, but today we are talking about spiking, so
I look for leadership and urgent action from the Government. They
should call a conference of all senior police officers across the
country in order to get a proper picture, and listen to what the
young women who have been affected by this despicable crime are
asking for.
18:44:00
(Vauxhall)
(Lab/Co-op)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Gray. As
the hon. Member for Bath () highlighted, we have seen
nearly 200 reports of drink spiking in the
UK, with 58 of those recorded by the Metropolitan police here in
London. Each of those reports represents a shocking violation of
a woman’s—and victim’s—safety and privacy. As my hon. Friend the
Member for Gower () highlighted, the vast
majority of victims are women—young women—and there can be a
devastating impact on their lives and consequences later on. The
reality is that no one is immune from spiking, and every woman
feels the impact of spiking every time they go out.
Coming out of lockdown in July, so many people were looking
forward to enjoying that freedom and to go out clubbing. For a
number of women, going out to support their local bars and clubs
was something that they wanted to do, and for some of those young
women in my constituency at the Kings College university campus
in Waterloo, the past few months have been the first time that
they have been able to go out. A number of them are students in
their first year, which is a seminal time for everyone, and they
should be enjoying that freedom. My constituency has so many
thriving nightclubs and bars—hon. Members may have visited some
of them on occasions—but, unfortunately, some of those young
women have to live in fear of becoming a victim of spiking
whenever they go out.
Too often in these debates, we hear about the steps that women
have to take to keep themselves safe. Why are we policing women’s
behaviour in response to a problem that they did not cause? That
needs to change. The tragic death of Sarah Everard earlier this
year showed that women are expected to jump through hoops to
change their behaviour and are told that they need to keep safe,
but still misogynistic violence and abuse goes on. It is not good
enough for us to tell women to avoid going clubbing, not to be
drunk when they go out and to be uber-vigilant when they go out,
especially as, even if they do all those things, they can still
be subject to harmful spiking. In a bar, in a club and on their
way home, women must be able to enjoy their night out with the
same freedom and frivolity as their male colleagues.
We need a sea change in treating violence against women and girls
to tackle misogyny and hate. If we want to make our society
safer, that must include having conversations with everybody,
including our men. I hope that the Minister will reassure us and
outline the steps that the Government will take to address the
issue fully.
Is my hon. Friend as concerned as I am about reports of
Metropolitan police WhatsApp groups containing misogynistic,
sexist and racist commentary, which is often about victims? Does
she agree that we need a wholesale review to pull the rotten
apples out of the barrel and culturally change the Metropolitan
police, as well as the education system, so that women are not in
fear and can go out in freedom?
I agree. We should highlight that one bad apple does not exist in
isolation with the Met police; unfortunately, this is an issue
right across our police forces. I hope that the Minister will
outline steps that will be taken where officers are found
guilty—in my view, they should face disciplinary action. There
should also be more training on dealing with misogyny for our
police officers.
(in the Chair)
The shadow Minister, the hon. Member for Birmingham, Yardley
(), was unavoidably detained in
the Chamber at the beginning of the debate and therefore missed
the first half of the speech by the hon. Member for Gower (). Because there was a
perfectly reasonable reason for her delay, I am content to allow
her to speak for the Opposition. I call .
18:48:00
(Birmingham, Yardley)
(Lab)
Thank you, Mr Gray. I apologise to all assembled. I tried to
leave the Chamber but was called as I was leaving—I was assured
by Mr Speaker that he wanted me to speak. I have read the remarks
made by my hon. Friend the Member for Gower () and am forever grateful
to her for making them. She is a brilliant advocate of women’s
rights, and it is no surprise to hear her speaking up with the
petitioners in this instance.
It is also no surprise to me to see the number of Members who
represent university towns, and the clear level of concern across
the country about this particular issue. I do not know what the
explanation is, and I very much doubt that the Minister knows
what the explanation is, for this sudden moment in which the
issue is reaching the headlines. It seems unusual that this
situation is occurring, apart from the fact that it is not in any
way unusual that women in our country have to run the gauntlet,
whether at home, at work, going on a night out, walking to get
anywhere, going on a bus, or—in some terrible cases—when
approaching those agencies that are meant to be there to protect
them.
I am afraid to say that spiking is by no means a new thing. In
2019, a BBC investigation uncovered 2,600 reports
of drink spiking to police
in England and Wales over the previous four years, and everybody
will know that that is only a tiny fraction of what actually
happened. Who knows? Every woman I know has been on a night out
with a group of their friends and one of them is suddenly
uncontrollable, or their legs suddenly go away from them and they
are much drunker than they should be. That is not an unusual
circumstance. The trouble is that when it is violence against
women and girls, it does not matter that there were already 2,600
reports in 2019; we never seem to be able to quite reach a big
enough number for things to actually get done.
I regularly stand in front of the House of Commons and say these
things. The Office for National Statistics told us this week that
reported rape had gone up by 8%, so it is now 62,000, 1.6 million
women are victims of domestic abuse and, only two years ago, as I
say, there were 2,600 reports of drink spiking
With this new phenomenon, this new issue, it is the introduction
of the use of a needle that is frightening. The hon. Member for
Wycombe (Mr Baker) quite rightly pointed out that such an action
needs to carry a more severe punishment. To me, carrying into a
nightclub a drug to put into somebody’s drink, or for
injection—it seems harrowing, to inject somebody—is like carrying
a knife, a weapon. In fact, it is not like it—it is carrying a
weapon. The only aim is to harm.
(Manchester, Withington)
(Lab)
My hon. Friend is absolutely right, and she is also right that we
do not really know what is going on. I wonder whether there is a
kind of dual phenomenon, whereby we have a very well-known and
long-standing problem with drink spiking which
seems even to be increasing, putting vulnerable women, mainly, at
risk, but I wonder whether there is something else going on,
which is people being stabbed by a sharp implement—a needle-stick
injury—for reasons or motivation unknown, and that becoming a
copycat thing around the country. It could be that those two
phenomena are going on at the same time.
The reason I raise this point—
(in the Chair)
Order. You must be brief.
My hon. Friend is right. Both these things are problems, which is
why it is really important that the call from the Night Time
Industries Association for an inquiry into this situation, to get
to the bottom of it, should be heeded.
I agree, although I have to say that even that kind of spiking is
not necessarily a new phenomenon. I am a little old for
nightclubs now—actually, I am not—but I remember there being a
similar phenomenon. The Minister, whose constituency is a near
neighbour of mine—at certain points she has been a nearer
neighbour as a representative in Birmingham—will remember that
there was a story about a particular nightclub in Birmingham. It
is no longer there, so I can name it and not bring it into any
disrepute—it was called The Dome. There were all these stories
about pinpricks, and I am talking 20 years ago.
I do not know whether this new form of spiking is a new
phenomenon, but the thing is that we do not know. What women
know, and what my hon. Friend the Member for Gower and the
petition are suggesting, is that they are seeking some level of
security so that they can go into a place and feel safe. We can
never stop all harm; we cannot. However, I really hope to hear
from the Minister some tangible asks and action about how we will
make sure people can feel safe.
Does the hon. Member feel, as I do, that there might be a
fatality at some point? Then we would think, why do we always
wait until something really dreadful happens before we take
action?
Every single constituency Member of Parliament who has ever tried
to get any sort of road safety measure in and has been told that
they have to wait until somebody dies on that street hears the
call of the hon. Member for Bath. I am afraid to say that a woman
is murdered every three days in the UK by violence against women
and girls; if that was happening at football matches in our
country, football matches would be banned. The reality is that
even if somebody does die in these circumstances, I do not think
that will be what suddenly changes things. I want to hear from
the Minister what exactly the Government will do to make it so
that women can feel safe, and that perpetrators are the ones who
are scared?
The reality is that this is all about an assault against a woman,
and somebody invading her space. That is the issue that needs to
be addressed. We know there is massive underreporting of violence
against women; whatever the statistics are, the reality is
probably far greater. It is about bringing about action now,
whether there is one case or several thousand cases.
The underreporting of this, and of all violence against women and
girls, is well charted. We estimate that, at best, we are hearing
about 20% of it. It used to be that only 8%—or even 4%—of people
had come forward about rape. At the very best we are only seeing
20% of the problem, and 80% is missing from our eyes. With
nightclubs, what worries me even further is that young women
especially, and I remember this because I was one, will not speak
up because of fear for their liberty—by which I mean the fear
that their moms and dads will not let them go out again. When bad
things happen when they are young, girls keep those secrets close
because they are worried about their freedom.
In nightclubs, whether we like it or not, there will be people
who take recreational drugs. That is just the world that we live
in. The idea that people will not want to come forward because
they are frightened, because they have been taking recreational
drugs, is something that we have to deal with. We do not want to
deal only with perfect victims. We must never fall foul, as so
many of us have over many years, of only seeing victims who have
a halo that allows us to see their abuses and not others.
My hon. Friend is making a very powerful speech, as she always
does on this subject. Does she share my concern that one reason
why women may not come forward, and why we do not have evidence
about whether there is a link between these sharp-object
incidents and toxicology, is because when women do seek help in
instances of spiking they are sometimes not believed, dismissed
as being drunk and, I am told, they are not seen quickly when
they attend A&E? Does she agree that this response is
discouraging women from coming forward and preventing us from
getting the evidence that we need to better understand this
latest problem?
My hon. Friend is absolutely right, and our hon. Friend the
Member for Warwick and Leamington () pointed out very clearly
that one of his constituents had that exact experience. My hon.
Friend the Member for Gower talked about good services and best
practice in Devon and Cornwall; some best practice in hospitals
in Manchester was also highlighted by hon. Members. But that
simply cannot be the case everywhere. As with all violence
against women and girls, those presenting at A&E will be made
to feel brilliant in some places—amazing and believed, and there
will be specialist workers there—and in other places that will
absolutely not be the case. But the single most important thing
that the Government have to tackle is not how victims interact
with the system. We have spent so many years trying to improve
the experience of people who end up in this situation, which is
noble—I will not stop trying to do that, and I am sure nobody
else in the House will either. However, the fundamental point is
that we have to end the perpetration. We have to make
perpetrators feel as frightened of being caught with this type of
thing in a nightclub as being caught with a knife. A rape victim
once said to me, “If I had a stab wound, I wouldn’t have to prove
that I’d been stabbed—everybody would be able to see that—but
because I’ve been raped, I have to prove it. I have to prove it
to you.”
We have heard many brilliant examples from Swansea and elsewhere
of women speaking up with one voice. I have spoken to women about
the issue, such as a local councillor in Oxfordshire who has been
dealing with around 20 cases. She is working with 25 young
student freshers who have been spiked in recent months, who were
all deeply reluctant to report it to the police, saying that they
did not want the hassle or were worried they would not be taken
seriously. Statistics are starting to flood in from big and small
organisations, and I am sure we can all see it on Instagram. I
came across a Birmingham women’s safety initiative group that had
done a survey of 100 Birmingham respondents, and more than 95%
said they felt unsafe in their local area.
As always, I stand with each and every one of these women. There
are things we can do now and I would like to hear what the
Government will do to make sure that they happen. Venues must be
clearly led to do far more robust security and search protocols,
improve training for staff and have high-quality and
well-positioned CCTV. The Minister might know that I am not
always a fan of the sticking plaster of CCTV, because I would
like someone to be stopped from hurting me, rather than it being
possible to find my body. However, I have seen CCTV work well in
clubs when something is found which shows that women were not
drunk or stupid or lying or attention seeking.
I have a slight concern about searches in nightclubs, relating to
the protocols for testing and securing staff who work on the
doors of nightclubs. There has been a series of newspaper
articles in recent weeks about the vetting of people who work on
the doors of our nightclubs. There is a live debate among Members
of Parliament about having our own security and how we vet the
people doing that. I am afraid to say that, in lots of
circumstances, journalists found what a lack of vetting had not:
door staff who had been convicted of sexual assaults. I have to
say, remembering what it was like to be searched going in and out
of clubs, that it can often feel like a sexual assault to lots of
women. We need to make sure that there are women on hand to
ensure that those searches are done properly and appropriately. I
certainly would only ever want to be searched by a woman.
It is very important that we do not treat this as just another
issue where not much can be done. The Government need to start
telling us exactly how they are going to deal with perpetrators
of violence against women and girls. They are currently
resisting, stating for the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts
Bill that they will make it a serious crime, and that local
authority areas have to—not can choose to, if they like, which is
the sort of standing we give violence against women and
girls—have a violence against women and girls prevention plan, as
they would for crimes such as county lines. They have to have a
public health approach to that locally. In this instance, the
Government could be working with licensing; it would be
incredibly helpful to have a protective duty.
I would hope to see the Government committing, finally, to make
violence against women and girls a serious crime with a serious
crime prevention duty. Mainly, I hope that they will take the
advice of Her Majesty’s inspectorate of constabulary and fire and
rescue services. The former Prime Minister, the right hon. Member
for Maidenhead (Mrs May), did lots of good work in this area, but
the inspectorate’s very long name is not something I will ever
thank her for. It is a ridiculously long name. Her Majesty’s
inspectorate has clearly set out a timeline and a timeframe for
exactly how police forces could be working to tackle perpetration
and build up trust in victims to come forward. The Government
are, for some reason, still resisting saying how they are going
to do this.
I will sit down now so that the Minister can speak, but I want to
finish by saying that my parliamentary assistant, as I was
preparing for the debate, told me this morning that at the
weekend her and her mates had had to compare the features of
their new safety keyrings, which included whistles, seatbelt
cutters and rape alarms, just so that they could go on a night
out. It is no longer on the young people and women in this
country to make themselves feel safer. It is on the Government
now.
19:06:00
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home
Department ()
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Gray. I am
extremely grateful to all Members who have spoken in this debate.
It has been wide ranging and excellent, with some good
contributions from across the House.
I am incredibly grateful to Hannah Thomson for starting the
petition. The hon. Member for Gower () has outlined her
tribute, and I want to add my voice to that. It is not a small
undertaking to present a petition to Parliament at any age,
particularly at Hannah’s. I want to pay tribute to her and all
the other campaigners in this space, who have successfully
brought a debate in Parliament. We are now discussing these
issues and I hope we are according them the seriousness that they
deserve.
I agree with the hon. Member for Gower when she said that we
women are 51% of the population and we wield considerable
financial muscle. Part of the natural financial muscle is going
on a night out. That is something I am absolutely sure all of us
have enjoyed in the past. For some of us it is the more distant
past—Mr Gray, perhaps?
(in the Chair)
No, no, no.
Perhaps not. I certainly, in common with the hon. Member for
Birmingham, Yardley (), remember many nights out in
various Birmingham nightclubs, including the one she referred to
and many others.
On the point of going out in the past, would the Minister agree
that we need to see more women and girls going out and supporting
our full range of businesses in the night-time economy, because
of that financial muscle power? That will not happen until they
feel safe.
The hon. Lady is absolutely right that the night-time economy is
vital. It is very important that we have thriving local
economies. It is a vital to our financial prosperity, and it is
part of our building back better agenda.
Turning to the issue and petition at hand, there are, of course,
growing concerns about safety in the night-time economy. The
specific focus on searches in nightclubs comes as no surprise. We
know that over 172,000 people have added their name to the
petition. I am sure that that is driven by concern over the rise
of media reports on spiking. It is perhaps not a completely new
issue, but there has been a focus on the needle aspect as
something that is new. It is certainly receiving a lot more
attention than it has done in the past. However, Members have
rightly said that the spiking of drinks is something we have seen
for some time.
Reports of spiking, whether that is adding substances to drinks
or injecting people with needles, are extremely concerning. I
have every sympathy with victims and anyone who might feel unable
to go out and enjoy a night out without fear. The fear factor is
very serious, and no one should feel frightened or vulnerable
when they go out. We utterly condemn the people who perpetrated
those attacks, and they should be brought to justice. I want to
begin by saying very clearly that I want to reassure Members that
this is something that we are taking seriously. The day on which
we heard the first accounts—I think it was a few weeks ago—the
Home Secretary wasted no time in getting reports, requiring
additional data and convening police chiefs at the highest
level.
Let me be clear: any spiking constitutes criminal conduct. The
necessary offences are on the statute book. In response to my
hon. Friend the Member for Wycombe (Mr Baker), where a drink is
spiked and where there is sexual motivation, administering a
substance with intent is an offence under the Sexual Offences Act
2003 and could carry a 10-year sentence. Depending on the
specific nature of the assault and offence, it could also be
classed as common assault, which includes grievous bodily harm,
and could carry a sentence of five years up to a maximum of 10
years’ imprisonment. I want to reassure him that this is a
serious criminal offence. As with any crime, it falls to the
police to investigate it and ensure that those responsible are
dealt with in accordance with the law.
I want to update the Chamber on the fact that there is no doubt
that police are taking this seriously and are working at pace to
gather intelligence and identify perpetrators. It is a changing
and evolving picture. We have been gathering reports from forces
across the country, and at the time of my making these remarks,
we have 218 reports of needle assaults and injections since
September. Over the same period, the police are aware of 250
drink spikings. Those numbers broadly chime with what Members
have reported to me. Those numbers are subject to change as the
police continue to gather information. The hon. Member for
Birmingham, Yardley is right in saying that this is a crime in
which not all instances are reported. I strongly encourage anyone
who has been a victim to report it to the police. It is difficult
to make comparisons with the past, and I have stressed to my team
that we need to understand more about this crime, and that is
absolutely what we will do.
Members may be pleased to know that there have been at least
three recent arrests for this and a number of active police
investigations are under way. I very much hope that we will be
able to bring more perpetrators to justice in the coming
weeks.
I am very grateful for what the Minister has said. Will she
undertake to carry out some kind of public information activity
to make sure that potential perpetrators are aware of the gravity
of the offences that they are considering? We need to make sure
that people are dissuaded from what, I think we all agree, is a
very serious set of crimes.
My hon. Friend makes an extremely good point. We have a number of
communication plans within the wider violence against women and
girls strategy, and we will absolutely make sure that this issue
is included in that work, which I am sure he will welcome.
The Home Secretary has already asked the National Police Chiefs’
Council to urgently review the extent and scale of the issue, and
we are receiving regular updates from the police. We are working
locally, regionally and nationally, including with our partners
in the National Crime Agency. The NPCC has convened a group of
policing leads, including Jason Harwin and Maggie Blyth—the
Government’s new lead on violence against women and girls—which
is meeting several times a week, with the aim of understanding
the issue and ensuring that there is a strong police
response.
Turning to the licensing regime, I think it was the hon. Member
for Warwick and Leamington () who referenced the fact that
not all of these cases occur in nightclubs. [Interruption.]
Apologies, it was the hon. Member for Sheffield Central (). Not all of these attacks
occur in nightclubs, but our understanding is that the majority
of these settings are probably targeted specifically by
offenders.
There are lots of numbers floating around, and many of them
probably underestimate the scale of the problem. My understanding
is that the Alcohol Education Trust has done some work on this,
and has suggested that there are slightly more incidences
of drink spiking in house
parties than in nightclubs. How will the Government reflect that
in the strategy that they are looking at?
I welcome the hon. Gentleman’s remarks, and it is important that
we continue to ensure that we gather data from all these
incidents, regardless of whether they take place in homes or
nightclubs.
I turn now to the issue of nightclubs, which is the subject of
the debate. It is really important to say that there is nothing
preventing a nightclub from introducing searches on entry, and a
number of nightclubs are doing that already. Lincolnshire police
are working with their local licensing authority and a local
nightclub to address concerns about spiking. The club has made an
extra search on going into the premises a condition of entry and,
additionally, it is using stickers to place over the tops of
drinks at key locations within the premises. Many other clubs
across the country are doing that as well, and we have heard
references made to the work in Devon and Cornwall. In fact, I did
a quick straw poll with my children, who are all of clubbing age.
Two of them had been out clubbing in London over the weekend and
had seen in action some quite detailed and thorough searches when
they went into clubs.
Will the Minister clarify what she will do quickly to make sure
that all nightclubs follow the good examples that she is citing?
She is responsible for making it happen and for giving families
across the country the reassurance they need that, whichever
nightclub young people go to, they can go safely.
I am coming to that, and I very much hope to satisfy the hon.
Lady. It is important that I make it clear that premises such as
nightclubs have a responsibility, which I will set out, if she
will bear with me.
Premises that have a high volume of customers are required to
assess what steps they think are needed for the venue, but we are
not solely reliant on venues taking action themselves. The law
already allows relevant conditions to be imposed. The Licensing
Act 2003, which governs the control and issuance of licences to
sell alcohol, allows local licensing authorities to take a
tailored approach to granting premises licences in order to
uphold the four licensing objectives. The most relevant is of
course the objective to prevent crime and disorder. It is
important to state that the Act applies only to premises in
England and Wales, as licensing is devolved in Scotland. I note
that the petitioner is from Scotland, so I definitely encourage
her to have similar conversations with her local authorities. I
very much hope that they will consider those issues.
In order to reduce crime, licensing authorities can impose
conditions on any business that wants to sell alcohol, which can
include requiring the presence of suitably trained and accredited
door staff or CCTV. A licensing authority can also require a
licence holder to introduce entry searches as a condition of a
premises licence.
We have a rich and diverse night-time economy across the country,
catering to many different communities: big cities with a large
student population—many Members have referred to their local
universities—towns with a high proportion of families and holiday
visitors, and rural areas with local pubs. We have venues and
villages, and everything in between. It is a fundamental and
important premise that, with very few exceptions, decisions on
which licences to grant, and on how premises should be managed,
take into account local issues, demographics and circumstances.
There is no one-size-fits-all approach to licensed premises. We
do not wish to see mandated national conditions, which could be
disproportionate and burdensome to some venues. Even among
nightclubs, there is a huge diversity of premises, so what is
required for one will not work for another.
Will the Minister give way?
I will allow the hon. Lady to intervene, but I also need to allow
some time for the hon. Member for Gower to sum up.
How many licensing committees does the Minister think have their
eye on violence against women and girls across the country and
will be paying attention to this issue?
I can assure the hon. Lady that we insist on it and require them
to do so, and it is part of their statutory duty. They are of
course accountable to their populations, and they are staffed by
locally and demographically accountable members of their
council.
I want to make the House aware that the police already have
considerable powers to take action where they think there is a
problem. They can call for a review of a premises licence and
work with the management and licensing authority. Local
mechanisms can introduce searches where they are needed more
quickly than waiting for a national mandate to be brought into
effect. Licensing laws allow longer-term measures as well, to
improve management of the night-time economy. For example, the
night-time levy, with which some Members may be familiar, enables
local authorities to collect a financial contribution from
businesses. Some of the initiatives are really helpful and have
been used to fund additional police officers, community
protection officers and local projects, such as club hosts and
taxi marshals, all of which can help keep people safe.
The Act also allows the licensing authority to carry out a
cumulative impact assessment, to help it to limit the number of
types of licence applications granted in areas where there is no
evidence to show that the number or density of licensed premises
in the area is having a cumulative impact and leading to problems
that could undermine the licensing objectives.
As I have said, the night-time economy is varied and diverse, and
covers many types of areas. Alongside the specific measures I
have outlined, there are other things that local areas can and
should be doing. I have been impressed by some of the initiatives
I have seen around the country. Some areas have introduced safe
spaces, where a combination of medical assistance, supervised
recovery and other support services are provided to intoxicated,
injured or vulnerable individuals.
In another area, I saw a scheme where door staff convert into
street marshals at the end of the night, across the whole city
centre. I pay tribute to other organisations, such as Street
Pastors, who provide invaluable assistance. Members have
highlighted good work going on in their local forces and in some
of their local universities. In addition, initiatives such as Ask
for Angela, X Marks the Spot, Safe Havens and Good Night Out
provide opportunities, help and support to everyone who is
concerned for their safety.
Many Members talked about the wider and broader issues of
violence against women and girls, which I come to now. We
published our new cross-Government tackling violence against
women and girls strategy this summer, to help to ensure that
women and girls are safe everywhere. I fully agree with all the
comments that have been made by hon. Members that this is not
about blaming women, or requesting or expecting women to change
their behaviour. It is about tackling the root cause of the
violence.
I recognise what my hon. Friend the Member for Wycombe said about
this not being about all men perpetrating these crimes, but about
recognising that in the majority of the spiking incidents the
victims that we know about are young women. It is at the
forefront of the Government’s mind and our priority is to tackle
the perpetrators and prevent this from happening.
On the specific work we have already funded, we are delivering a
pilot £5 million safety of women at night fund, focused on
preventing violence against women and girls in public spaces at
night, particularly in the night-time economy. That is in
addition to the £25 million safer streets fund, which focuses on
improving public safety, with an emphasis on the safety of women
and girls, and their feelings of safety in public spaces.
The hon. Member for Birmingham, Yardley referred to doorkeepers
and their qualifications, which is an important issue. I have met
the Security Industry Authority and I assure her that it is
cognisant of the issue. It is working to ensure that
qualifications for door supervisors and security guards include
specific content relating to violence against women and girls. It
is now working at pace to remind the industry and those
operatives of their role and responsibility to keep people safe,
with a focus on women’s safety. In our violence against women and
girls strategy, we have committed to further work to see what
more we can do to strengthen those safeguards.
I want to conclude my remarks and allow time for the hon. Member
for Gower to respond. Violence against women and girls is
abhorrent. As I have set out, the Government are taking
wide-ranging action to prevent these crimes, support victims and
pursue perpetrators. I congratulate the hon. Member for Gower on
her speech. I fully agree that some of the issues that she
highlighted around our sexist and victim-blaming culture are
wrong and need to stop. We in the Government are completely
behind that. The measures that I have set out, and more, are the
measures that we will be using to bear down on this abhorrent
behaviour. We are putting the full force of the Government behind
tackling the issue, because we want women and girls to feel safe
when they are going out at night.
19:24:00
I welcome the comments that the Minister has made in response to
the petition and I thank everybody who has participated from the
Back Benches for their comments. One thing that comes across is
the need for consistency, for people to work together, and for
all organisations to ensure that this behaviour does not continue
but is addressed by the Government. I welcome the comments made
by the hon. Member for Wycombe (Mr Baker): he says that we need
to have a campaign that raises the profile of the issue. The
Minister spoke about the public information and the communication
plan; I hope to see this at the forefront, especially now, with
young people in university and more active—going out—in the
night-time economy.
I will just refer to some of my notes. My hon. Friend the Member
for Warwick and Leamington () talked about pulling the
local authorities together with young people to discuss what is
happening in his constituency. I will be suggesting with my
Swansea colleagues some of the things talked about today—meeting
the local night-time industry and also working with the licensing
agencies. It is important that people who set up campaigns in the
UK know the situation with the licensing laws and the local
authorities and where those responsibilities lie, so that they
can take this further.
I thank Hannah Thomson, because what she set up has brought about
a debate in this House, which is important. This is not about
chivalry; it is about working together. It is not about calling
out any particular people, but we do need to raise the fact that
the way we treat women and girls in this country is, frankly, a
disgrace. I am fed up of hearing about how we are just putting
them aside. I hate the word “banter”. I have a 17-year-old son
who thinks banter is hilarious. It is not hilarious, because it
has consequences. We have to change our mindset and our culture.
We have to deal with the online harms Bill. We have to ensure
that our young people, our women and girls, are safe and that we
have a respectful culture in this country whereby we can all go
about our lives and live our best lives. I thank the Minister; I
thank those on our Benches; and thank you, Mr Gray.
Question put and agreed to.
Resolved,
That this House has considered e-petition 598986, relating to
safety at nightclubs.
|
