The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department
(Laura Farris): With permission, I will make a statement about the
Government’s action to tackle spiking. Spiking is an insidious act
with potentially life-threatening consequences. We know it
constitutes a danger to people, particularly women, in nightclubs,
bars, on student campuses, at festivals or in any social setting.
No one should have to worry that a substance has been put into
their drink or that they...Request free
trial
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home
Department (): With permission, I will
make a statement about the Government’s action to tackle spiking.
Spiking is an insidious act with potentially life-threatening
consequences. We know it constitutes a danger to people,
particularly women, in nightclubs, bars, on student campuses, at
festivals or in any social setting. No one should have to worry
that a substance has been put into their drink or that they could
be targeted with a needle. More than 5,000 cases were reported
last year, and that is perhaps only the tip of the iceberg.
These offences have potentially devastating effects. First, there
are the immediate physical effects, which can include struggling
to speak or to stand up, loss of consciousness and
hospitalisation, to name just a few. Secondly, there is the
psychological trauma, which can manifest itself in a number of
ways, including anxiety or, most acutely, shame about what
happened and what may have ensued. The impact can last for
months, years or a lifetime. Some will be victims of secondary
offending, which they may struggle to recall, that may well be of
a sexual nature. Thames Valley police told the Home Secretary and
me just last Friday that spiking is the hallmark of the sexual
predator. Anyone who has read the harrowing accounts of victims
will understand why it is vital that we crack down on these
crimes. We owe it to all of them to redouble our efforts, and
that is precisely what this Government are doing.
As Members will be aware, the Government were required, under
section 71 of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022,
to produce a report on the nature and prevalence of spiking and
the action we intend to take. Publication has been delayed, and I
understand why the hold-up has been a source of frustration, but
that delay has enabled the Home Secretary and I—both new in
post—to take a step back and consider how best we can focus our
efforts to address this crime.
We want the law to be crystal clear and for individuals to have
no doubt as to their rights and remedies. We have concluded that
there is a case for a legislative change to capture the modern
and insidious nature of this crime. I can therefore confirm to
the House that the Government intend to bring forward amendments
to the Criminal Justice Bill that modernise the language of the
Offences against the Person Act 1861. This will remove any
ambiguity and make it clear that the offence covers spiking in
every form, be that via food or drink, vape or by needle. We hope
that this step will improve public awareness but, most
importantly, encourage victims to come forward.
I will add two points. It has been said, and we of course accept,
that the existing laws already cover the range of behaviours that
incorporate spiking. While it is not in dispute that that is the
case, we recognise that some of the existing offences on which we
rely are not readily seen to cover spiking. We give the
illustration of sections 22 to 24 of the Offences against the
Person Act 1861, which use the language of poisoning for
nefarious purposes, which we believe we can clarify through this
change.
By their very nature, spiking cases are complex. The work we have
done tells us that there are particular challenges in identifying
perpetrators and gathering evidence. To bolster our legislative
plans, we have developed a package of practical measures to
improve public safety. The police have already developed a rapid,
lab-based urine testing capability, but we want to go further.
First, the Home Office will be funding efforts to research the
capability and reliability of existing rapid drink testing kits.
There are never any guarantees with this sort of work, and we are
only at the beginning, but to understand what is possible, we
have to gather evidence on testing efficacy, and that is what we
will be doing in the months ahead.
Secondly, additional funding will be provided to the police to
run several spiking “intensification weeks”, which we have seen
successfully deployed for other types of criminality, including
county lines and knife crime. Thirdly, the Security Industry
Authority, the regulator of the UK’s private security industry,
has committed to introduce spiking training for door supervisors
as part of its existing licence-linked qualifications. This will
enable them to better and more quickly identify victims
onsite.
Fourthly, we will support the police to roll out their spiking
reporting and advice tool, to improve the quality of data. This
enables the public to report cases of spiking quickly and simply,
including anonymously if they so wish. It has been successfully
rolled out across 20 forces as part of a pilot programme in
England and Wales, and will be expanded to the remaining 23
forces shortly. Several other measures are detailed in the
statutory report, but I am conscious of the time, so I will
simply add that the report is available on the gov.uk website and
emphasise that we are strengthening our response across the
board.
Before I conclude, I take this opportunity to urge the public to
remain vigilant, particularly over Christmas. If anybody believes
that they or someone around them has been spiked, they should
report the incident to the venue and the police. I also want to
offer my thanks to the campaign group Stamp Out Spiking and
Members on both sides of the House. I will not mention them all,
but I particularly thank my hon. Friend the Member for Gloucester
(), my right hon. Friend the
Member for Chelmsford (), the hon. Member for Bradford
South (), my right hon. Friends the
Members for Romsey and Southampton North () and for Witham (), my hon. Friend the Member for
Mid Sussex () and the right hon. Member for
Kingston upon Hull North ( ), who have campaigned so
assiduously on this issue. Their insight and commitment have been
instrumental, and they will no doubt continue to provide support
and scrutiny as our work progresses.
Spiking is an appalling, predatory crime that ruins lives. As we
have shown time and again, this Government will do everything in
their power to protect the public and reduce violence against
women. I commend this statement to the House.
(Pontypridd) (Lab)
I thank the Minister for advance sight of her statement. Once
again, I welcome her to her role. She has been a long-standing
advocate for action on tackling violence against women and girls,
and I am confident that there will be opportunities to work
together to make progress on these incredibly important
issues.
Let us be clear: Labour completely welcomes today’s announcement
on spiking, although action to crack down on this dangerous and
devastating crime is long overdue. The scale of the problem, as
the Minister well knows, is vast. As the Government’s own report
makes clear, between May 2022 and April 2023 the police received
6,732 reports of spiking. Of those, just four—0.05%—resulted in a
charge. On average, we had 561 reports a month, with the majority
coming from females who believe their drink was spiked, although
spiking can affect anyone. Some 957 of the more than 6,000
reports included needle spiking.
Spiking is a dangerous and invasive crime that creates both
immediate physical danger for victims and long-term psychological
impacts. The words in the statement are all well and good, and
the Minister knows she has my full support, but we must also
recognise that this Government’s record on issues relating to
violence against women and girls has been one of dither and
delay. Stronger action is always welcome, but why has it taken
the Government so long to act? The Home Affairs Committee
published its report on spiking in April 2022, which is more than
a year and a half ago.
Labour has repeatedly called for action on spiking, including the
creation of a stand-alone criminal offence that would make it
easier to prosecute, easier to raise awareness, and easier for
people to come forward to report what has happened and point to
crystal-clear breaches of the law. There has been years of
campaigning and advocacy about the epidemic of spiking here in
the UK but, once again, the Government have sadly dragged their
feet. Since the Select Committee published its report, there have
been two freshers weeks, two years of festive parties and two
years of music festivals. During that period, more victims have
been left vulnerable to this awful crime.
Where is the urgency when it comes to tackling violence against
women and girls? The Government’s response has been pitifully
slow. The report published by the Government today on the nature
and prevalence of spiking, which is required as part of the
Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022, was originally due
to be published on 28 April—nine months ago—but has been delayed
time and again. That simply is not good enough. In the months of
delay, dangerous criminals will have been let off, and victims
have been consistently let down.
While it is positive that the Government are now bringing forward
legislative changes to create more clarity about the criminality
of spiking, it has taken too long for them to accept the
significance of the problem. Last year, the National Police
Chiefs’ Council told the Home Affairs Committee that poor data
quality and the absence of a clear criminal offence presented a
challenge in policing spiking. It said:
“A more defined standalone offence of spiking would help
understand the scale of the problem”
and
“enable a far more accurate picture to be realised”
than through the current approach. Chief constables told the
Committee that a defined offence for spiking would also allow
enhanced support for victims, but last December, in response to
the Committee’s report, the then safeguarding Minister, the hon.
Member for Derbyshire Dales (Miss Dines), said
“we have concluded that there is no gap in the existing law which
a new offence would fill”
and that introducing a new specific spiking offence
“would not increase the likelihood of charging or prosecuting an
offender for spiking offences.”
Yet we now understand that there will be legislative amendments
to update and modernise existing offences to make the offence
explicit and capture the modern-day nature of the threat. The
Minister has acknowledged:
“Whilst the offence is nominally covered by existing laws, this
comprises a patchwork of different laws—some now well over a
hundred years old—which were drafted to cover other kinds of
offending.”
That is a clear admission that the current legal framework is not
fit for purpose, but it has taken the Government more than 18
months to accept and put forward changes to rectify that.
The Minister has made a personal commitment in her new role to go
further than her predecessors, and I commend her for that, but
Labour remains concerned that these tweaks to existing laws will
fall short of doing the right thing of creating a stand-alone
spiking offence. We fear that the Government’s approach simply
will not go far enough and will not provide the clarity and focus
required for all involved. That being said, we will eagerly await
the detail of any amendments and will scrutinise the proposed
legislative changes in Committee.
The Government are right to say in their report that night-time
economy venues are areas of opportunity for safeguarding and
prosecutorial support, and that the early collection of evidence,
identification of perpetrators and the ability to support
customers are key. There is no doubt that as well as getting the
criminal justice system to take spiking more seriously, we need
much more prevention work in clubs, bars and pubs and joint
working between premises and the police to catch perpetrators.
The Government’s new training plan sounds like a step in the
right direction, but we are concerned about the small scale of
the new programme. The announcement talks about training hundreds
more door staff, but we know that there are tens of thousands of
venues up and down the UK where these crimes are being committed
regularly. How on earth does the Minister expect even to scratch
the surface of the issue with those numbers?
We urgently need to see more detail to understand how impactful
the changes will be. For example, can the Minister set out
exactly how the new training will work, including how many venues
will receive training, whether it will be voluntary or mandatory,
and what happens if venues fail to engage or repeatedly ignore
spiking incidents at their premises? We need a robust and
comprehensive approach across the country; this should not be
opt-in. We also need a proper national strategy for dealing with
this abhorrent crime, which would include looking at the
licensing arrangements for late-night venues where these crimes
take place.
Tackling spiking at its root is a huge challenge. The Government
have had 13 years to get it right, but the simple truth is that
the Tories have been too focused on their own in-fighting rather
than tackling issues such as spiking, which pose a genuine risk
to women up and down the country. I urge the Minister to be bold
in her commitments—I know that she will be—and I sincerely hope
that she will work hard to rebuild the trust that women and girls
have lost over the last decade when it comes to feeling safe in
our communities.
I will come back on two or three of the hon. Lady’s points.
First, on the hon. Lady’s observation that few such cases result
in a charge, if I may correctly her gently, the principal reasons
the police have given for that are: too few people coming forward
in the first place, which we hope this legislative change will
address; the narrow window of time in which a urine sample can be
accurately tested, which is one reason why we are funding further
research into rapid, on-site testing; and the difficulty in
establishing who is doing the spiking. Simply, the difficulties
that we have identified and spoken to the police about come at
every level in the process. We are changing the law to make
spiking crystal clear so that public confidence is improved and
victims feel encouraged to come forward, because that is the
first bit of the jigsaw.
Secondly, on the scale of our response, from the bouncer on the
door of the club in the small town to the statute book, we want
to change the response to spiking at every level. Whether it is a
question of a friend reporting an incident, a victim coming
forward, a test being done more rapidly, or the police having any
doubt about which of the provisions under statute apply, it will
be crystal clear.
Thirdly, the hon. Lady talked about developing an accurate
picture of where spiking takes place and how we develop the
response accordingly. That is the focus of the reporting tool,
which a member of the public can use to report an incident of
spiking even if they are not affected and it appears to have
happened to someone at a table on the other side of the room. The
tool will enable the police to develop an accurate picture—some
of which we already know, some we are less clear about—to see the
extent of it, where it happens and how we can focus
resources.
(Romsey and Southampton
North) (Con)
My hon. Friend will know that last week there was a debate in
Westminster Hall on this subject. Afterwards, I spoke to Dawn
Dines at Stamp Out Spiking and had an email from Colin Mackie of
Spike Aware, who made the point that none of us had mentioned
vape spiking. That was our omission, and I am pleased that this
afternoon it has not been the Minister’s, as she included it. We
need a 21st century solution to 21st century crime.
Could the Minister expand a little about perpetrators? We know
that spiking is done for a variety of reasons: perhaps to effect
a sexual assault, physical assault or robbery; or just for
entertainment, particularly to humiliate individuals. What other
steps are the Government taking alongside this legislative
clarity—which I welcome—to ensure that those people who still
think it is okay to humiliate, embarrass and assault women get a
clear message that it is culturally unacceptable?
I thank my right hon. Friend for her typically wise question. She
is right to mention the vape issue, which I was not previously
aware of. That proves the point that whatever legislative changes
we make will have to be fit for the future and envisage how the
crime might evolve and develop over time. She makes a good point
about perpetrators. That was exactly what Thames Valley police
told the Home Secretary and me on Friday: a critical part of the
VAWG strategy that it and the police nationally focus on is
perpetrator behaviour. As part of licensing conditions, the
police increasingly work with bar staff, who make a note to
establish who is behaving in a certain way in the bar, and who is
often on their own or looking to isolate people. Using CCTV can
be a critical first step in the police identifying the
perpetrators, where they are working, which locations they
frequent and who poses the greatest risk to women in a local
community.
(Kingston upon Hull North)
(Lab)
I welcome today’s statement and pay tribute to all those who have
campaigned for changes in spiking law. But it is almost 20 months
since the Home Affairs Committee produced our report, and more
than seven months since the statutory deadline for the Government
to publish their own report on the issue was missed. The report
tells us that the Government are still considering many of the
Committee’s recommendations, including the gathering of vital
data on crime recording and perpetrators, options for the
delivery of a training programme for the night-time economy and
options for joint communications on spiking, including working
with festivals ahead of summer events and engaging with
universities over freshers week. As the report is late, can the
Minister explain why it has not accepted the clear, full
recommendations on all these points, and why there is still
consideration going on in the Home Office?
I pay tribute to all the right hon. Lady’s work individually and
as part of the Home Affairs Committee. I do not want her to be
left with the impression that there is a lack of complete
commitment on this issue. As I hinted at in the statement, and
for the purpose of brevity, some training happens already for bar
staff. There is probably a gap with how much those working on the
doors know, and they are critical first responders to these
cases, which is why I mentioned them. She should not interpret
anything in this report as evidence of a lack of ambition by the
Government. My statement today is to assure her that we have
given this issue our full commitment.
(Chelmsford) (Con)
Chelmsford is home to a vibrant night-time economy, with lots of
very popular bars, clubs and restaurants. We also have a really
strong reputation for being a safe place to enjoy a night out,
but from time to time even in Chelmsford stories of spiking come
to light. I therefore warmly welcome this package of initiatives,
in particular the promise to modernise the law to make it crystal
clear that spiking, whether in a drink, through a needle or via a
vape, is illegal. It is very timely, as the Criminal Justice Bill
is going through Parliament right now and we can put it into law
quickly. Does the Minister agree with me and very many
campaigners that clarifying the law will act as a strong
deterrent to perpetrators and thus help keep women safe?
I absolutely agree with my right hon. Friend and thank her for
her question. First, as I said, the purpose of clarifying the law
is to empower more people to be clear on their rights and to come
forward. But it is also the case that by having a clear offence
in which spiking is defined, the police will be able to use the
data of people who come forward and report a spiking incident.
That will allow us to build a much more accurate picture, through
the criminal justice system, of the extent to which this offence
occurs.
(Bradford South) (Lab)
I thank the Minister for the statement. I welcome any measures to
tackle this awful crime of spiking, so I look forward to the
Government’s amendments to the Criminal Justice Bill. The
National Police Chiefs’ Council has stated that a stand-alone
offence would help it to understand the scale of the problem,
enable a more accurate picture to be realised and allow enhanced
support for victims. Will she outline her reasons for ignoring
the NPCC’s concerns and missing a clear opportunity to create a
stand-alone offence of spiking? It is welcome news that, as she
has just stated, hundreds of door staff will be trained to change
the response to spiking at every single level, but I am at a loss
as to the logic for why the Government have not included training
for staff at outdoor music festivals, where tens of thousands of
under 18-year-olds attend, often camping out, and where private
security firms are tasked with their safety. Will the Minister
extend the training to outdoor music festival staff in order to
protect our young people?
I thank the hon. Lady for her question and for all her work on
this issue. I think we are arguing on two sides of the same coin.
We agree, without reservation, that there is a need to define
spiking in law and that is what we are committing to do.
Effectively, it could be viewed as an offence, which will enable
people to report clearly and the police to record data in the way
that I have suggested. Essentially, there is no particular
difference between where the NPCC is and where we are on this
issue. I hope that will satisfy her. I encourage her to have a
look at the report itself. The ambition is very much to work with
staff at every level. We are in no doubt about who the frontline
responders are. Yes, festivals are a primary location, as are
student campuses. Of course bar staff come into this. The
direction of travel is absolutely to further their work in
recognising and—ultimately, if our research goes further—perhaps
playing a role in testing and supporting the police effort on
this particular crime.
(Gloucester) (Con)
This is the best early Christmas present for thousands of our
constituents who have been spiked and the many tens of thousands
who worry that they may be spiked. It is testimony to the new
safeguarding Minister that in my hon. Friend’s first statement to
the House she has announced the updating and modernising of the
Offences Against the Person Act 1861, which so many of us who
have been campaigning on this issue believe is overdue. She has
done this in the presence of both the Home Secretary and the Lord
Chancellor, both of whose unwavering support on this matter I
much appreciate. Will my hon. Friend tell the House when she
believes it might be possible to start the process of training,
when we might be able to expand the roll-out of the police
reporting pilot project, and when we might expect to get an early
report back on the results of the drink testing kit, which is so
important to a successful implementation?
I pay tribute to my hon. Friend for the exceptional work that he
has done in driving this forward, working with Ministers and
explaining to us issues that we may not have considered
previously. I think that was one of the best examples of MPs and,
I hope, Government working together—along with other MPs, of
course.
My hon. Friend asked, very properly, questions about the
reporting and the timeframe. I do not have an answer for him, but
I will take his questions back to my officials and see whether we
can set a sensible timetable for when he and others can expect
some report from the Home Office on what is being done, how
effective it is, and what difference it will make. On the
question of updating legislation, everyone who has read the
published report will be aware that there was a difference of
opinion, with some police officers expressing the belief that
existing law covered this offence. However, in the life of the
current Parliament there have been other important ways in which
we have changed the law when some would have said that an offence
was already covered. One example is non-fatal strangulation. I
have spoken to criminal barristers who say they are securing
convictions for that offence in circumstances in which they would
not have necessarily done so in the past, and I hope that we will
see the same difference in this instance.
(Twickenham) (LD)
I welcome some of what the Minister has announced. When the
National Police Chiefs’ Council ran a data collection for spiking
incidents at festivals and other events last year, they found
that the average age of a spiking victim was just 21, with some
victims, shockingly, as young as 14. We know that spiking victims
are disproportionately young women, and it is therefore vital
that we tackle sexist attitudes early. I am proud that some of
the schools in my constituency are taking innovative approaches,
but may I ask the Minister to commit to working with her
colleagues in the Department for Education to improve and
strengthen the sex and relationships education curriculum? In
particular, will they look at the recommendations from Women’s
Aid for reform of the curriculum so that it directly addresses
misogyny and violence against women?
I am glad that the hon. Lady has asked me that question, because
I have had discussions with Women’s Aid and Ministers in the
Department for Education very recently to discuss exactly that. I
have formed the view that there is a strong imperative for us to
look carefully at how we teach children about relationships and
about attitudes on these subjects at the start of secondary
school, and even, I think, at the end of primary school. Once
these issues develop, they are much more difficult to shift, and
the key is to prevent them from developing in the first place.
There are some good precedents for that being highly effective in
other areas, which is what I am exploring at the moment.
(Horsham) (Con)
I warmly welcome my hon. Friend to the Dispatch Box for what I
believe is her first statement—the first of many, I am certain. I
was alarmed to hear in the statement that the 5,000 cases
reported last year were
“perhaps only the tip of the iceberg”.
Will the reporting tool enable anonymised cases to be reported,
so that we can have a better sense of the scale of this
crime?
I thank my right hon. Friend for his kind words. Yes, absolutely;
that is a key feature of the reporting tool. The purpose is
partly to address some of the issues that prevent people coming
forward: they do not think they will be believed, or they think
that they made a fool of themselves, or they cannot really
remember what happened on the night. The ability to report the
incident using an anonymous tool without having to go through the
entire criminal justice process—if that is not what the victim
wishes to do—is an important element. It has been piloted very
successfully in 20 forces so far. We hope that it will encourage
people to come forward, and will also help us to develop an
accurate picture of what is happening across the country.
(Rotherham) (Lab)
I have to say that I was surprised by the rapid onslaught of both
the spiking of drinks and the use of needles. I do not know many
young women who do not put their the hand over their glass when
they are out. I hope that I am not being pedantic, but I want to
press the Minister: will spiking be a stand-alone offence? She
has talked about its being effectively seen as an offence, and
about modernising the language, but it is extremely important for
it to be a stand-alone offence. Can she please commit herself to
that?
Let me be completely clear about this. We will be amending the
Offences against the Person Act 1861 so that the language of an
existing statutory provision will capture the modern offence of
spiking in all its forms, because we recognise that the language
in that Act, although it nominally covers the offence of spiking,
will not be clear to a member of the public.
(Harrogate and Knaresborough)
(Con)
I thank the Minister for her statement. Very serious and worrying
cases have been raised with me locally, but I know that this is a
widespread, national problem, so I strongly welcome these
measures, and I pay tribute to the Minister and all who have
campaigned on the issue. May I return to the answer she gave on
the ability to report anonymously? Does she agree that that is
critical both to gaining a better understanding of what is going
on and the scale of the problem, and to making it easier for
people to come forward and report?
I do indeed think that the ability to report anonymously is a
critical part of this. I hope the use of that tool on a national
basis will mean that people become accustomed to being able to
report these incidents, and that as a result they are reported
more widely. I hope that today’s statement will generate
publicity, and that we will collectively make this an offence
that people will feel much more ready to come forward and
report.
(Brighton, Kemptown)
(Lab/Co-op)
I welcome the Minister’s statement. Brighton has a thriving
night-time and entertainment economy—that is what we are based
on—but far too many people I know personally have been spiked,
predominantly women. When they try to get a test via the health
services, very often the pathways are closed to them. Will the
Minister ensure that pathways to testing are available not just
through the criminal justice system but through the health
system, and that it will be a licensing requirement for venues to
direct people to the right place—to safety, and then the criminal
justice system? Will she also ensure that licensing rules are
focused on people’s safety? I hear many reports that licensing
rules prevent people from taking a glass out of a venue to get
some air, so they leave the glass inside and leave themselves
open to danger. Some of this needs to be changed, but outdated
licensing rules prevent that from happening and end up putting
people at risk.
The hon. Gentleman has made three excellent suggestions. I will
take them all back and write to him.
(Hemel Hempstead) (Con)
These measures will be welcomed by the police, who have been
calling for them for many years. When I was Policing Minister,
they were starting to inquire about this. Most important,
however, is the fact that we worry about our loved ones when they
go out. My daughter lives in Sydney, Australia, and spiking is
rife there too. I heard an alarm bell ring when the Minister
spoke about testing. I am a former Roads Minister as well as a
former Policing Minister. When I first introduced the concept of
drug-driving, the response was, “Oh, this is very difficult and
technical, because there are so many different drugs.” There was
discussion of urine testing and how that could be done. The
saliva test leads to the prosecution of most drink-drivers and
drug-drivers who are stopped. The type approval that the Home
Office is looking for needs to be very open-minded. The
industries will come forward with the technology. The Minister
will be told that it is very expensive—tough; the more we use it,
the more the price will come down.
I am grateful to my right hon. Friend for his wise observations.
I hope that he was able to infer from my statement that what
currently exists is a urine test that the police can roll out. On
more than one occasion, the police have told me that they are
sometimes inhibited by the fact that even if they do the test, it
is not within the window when the drug is still in the
bloodstream, so they do not obtain an accurate reading. The
reason the Home Office is funding research on rapid drink testing
tests—it is still at an early stage—is that, hopefully, it will
be possible to test the drink on site. If someone reports
symptoms, the venue will be able to work out very quickly what
might have happened, using a kit, and the path to redress for the
victim can begin on the night itself.
(Reading East) (Lab)
I thank the Minister for her statement but urge her to go much
further in tackling this terrible crime. In particular, I ask her
to look again at further work at music festivals. Thousands of
vulnerable young people attend the Reading festival in my
constituency, many of them teenagers. It would be good to hear
that work is under way to protect them and other young people at
such festivals.
I would like to write to the hon. Gentleman —I have said the same
to others—about what we are doing in relation to festivals, but
the Reading festival resonates, and not just because my
constituency is nearby. When I spoke to Thames Valley police
about this issue recently, they said that the Reading festival
was not just a festival where they saw spiking, but the festival
where they saw the highest correlation with a secondary
offence—namely, a sexual offence that was perpetrated afterwards.
The hon. Gentleman does not need to impress on me the urgent need
for us to look specifically at festivals as a particular danger
zone for this type of crime.
(Buckingham) (Con)
I very much welcome my hon. Friend’s statement and her clear
determination to stamp down on this evil crime. She mentioned the
police intensification weeks, which I suspect will be very
successful, largely down to the use of police power to stop and
search in venues in order to find spiking paraphernalia on the
perpetrators. However, in the long term there will be a need for
training of door staff and bar staff, as she mentioned. Can she
give a commitment that if further powers need to be handed down
in a very limited scope to door staff—be it at a music festival,
a nightclub or a late-night venue—she will not rule that out, to
ensure that these crimes can be prevented in the first place?
My hon. Friend is quite right. Spiking intensification is a form
of training that develops how the police think about this issue,
but it is likely that it will have to be complemented by what
happens among door staff and bar staff, as I mentioned in my
statement. We have had feedback from the police that additional
powers in both regards would be helpful to them, and we are
giving serious consideration to that.
(North East Fife)
(LD)
Spiking is such a degrading crime. I remember the sense of shame
felt by the victims I dealt with when I was taking down the
reports of the offences as a sexual offences operational police
officer. We need to change the culture in the longer term so that
perpetrators do not even think about committing such offences,
and I commend the University of St Andrews in my constituency for
its consent module in that vein. We need to look at how we can
actively prevent these offences, and I welcome the proposals for
door staff training. Will the Minister give consideration to the
amendment to the Victims and Prisoners Bill tabled by my hon.
Friend the Member for Edinburgh West () on mandatory training
for certain police officers and the Crown Prosecution Service in
relation to violence against women and girls?
The hon. Lady is right to say that spiking is a form of violence
against women. The data is irrefutable: the principal victims are
young and predominantly women. It is a classic gateway offence by
somebody who is at risk of going on to commit a much more serious
form of offending, so this is not just about stamping out the
crime; it is about making it impossible for perpetrators to
behave in this way in the first place. The hon. Lady talked about
the police training, and I want to provide her with some
reassurance. I hope I am answering her question when I say that
we now have 2,000 police officers in England and Wales who are
undergoing specific rape and serious sexual
offence—RASO—training. I met some of them on a visit to Bristol
recently and I am due to see more in the new year. I would be
happy to update her on how that is going and how effectively I
think it is being rolled out across forces in this country.
(North Devon) (Con)
I want to put on record my thanks to the new Minister for her
rapid work in this area and to colleagues who have worked so hard
to secure these changes to our spiking laws. Will she join me in
thanking Braunton Councillor Pru Maskell and Barnstaple’s
Soroptimists for their campaigning to tackle spiking and their
promoting the use of Spikey bottle tops and stop-tops for glasses
in North Devon?
What a brilliant idea! Of course I thank the local organisations
that my hon. Friend mentions. This has been a collective effort.
Perhaps representing Parliament is at its best when so many MPs
have worked with their local authorities or local charities, or
have heard the voices of victims who have come to see them in
their surgeries, and relayed all that into Government. We have
drawn all that information together and got to where we are today
but, honestly, without the testimony and hard work of so many
local groups such as the ones she mentions, we probably would not
be here now.
(Strangford) (DUP)
I thank the Minister very much for the second good news story
that we have heard today in this Chamber. We are very pleased to
have that. Can I also thank the hon. Members for Gloucester
() and for Bradford South
() and others in this House
who have contributed to this potential legislation? It is great
to hear these announcements on tackling spiking, especially as we
approach the Christmas period when so many young people—and
elderly people as well—are attending Christmas parties and events
across the whole of the United Kingdom. As I understand it, the
changes to the legislation will apply to the 43 police forces in
England and Wales. The Minister referred to 5,000 cases on the UK
mainland. Just to give her an idea of the impact in Northern
Ireland, we had 120 cases there in one month. Will she ensure
that discussions take place with the Police Service of Northern
Ireland and the relevant Government Departments to ensure that we
in Northern Ireland can adopt this same legislation and keep our
people safe as well?
I am rapidly doing the maths, and it looks as though the scale of
the problem in Northern Ireland is at the same level as it is
everywhere else in the country. I will make a note that we
undertake to work carefully with that force and ensure that there
is standardisation across the United Kingdom.
(Hastings and Rye)
(Con)
I congratulate the Minister on tackling this issue and my hon.
Friend the Member for Gloucester () on his persistence in
bringing it to her attention. Sussex police actively helps to
prevent spiking by providing anti-spiking drinks covers and
stop-tops and by using a drone in Brighton, where there are four
universities, to act as a mobile form of CCTV. Can the Minister
provide further details on how the Home Office will work with the
National Police Chiefs’ Council to target key weeks when spiking
tends to be more prevalent, in order to crack down on the number
of incidents and to ensure that police forces share best practice
to avoid a postcode lottery?
I pay tribute to my hon. Friend, who has been really vocal on
this issue and deserves credit for everything she has done on it.
She made two excellent points. The first was about whether the
Home Office would respond to flashpoint time periods such as
freshers’ week. I think that that is absolutely within our
purview and it is set out in the spiking report, which I hope she
has had an opportunity to read. The second was about best
practice, and that is an excellent point on which I hope to
update the House over the course of next year. We can create as
many new offences or practices as possible in this House, but
unless they are being applied evenly across every force, we
cannot be sure that they are working as well as they should be. I
hope my hon. Friend will continue to scrutinise the Government on
that issue in the months ahead.
(Penrith and The Border)
(Con)
I hugely welcome this statement from the Minister and thank the
Government for taking strong, positive action on tackling the
horrific crime of spiking, which affects young and older people,
including students and non-students, and hugely negatively
impacts public safety. Can my hon. Friend reassure the House and
the public at large that the police and hospitality businesses
will be supported to better detect this crime and so ultimately
bring these perpetrators to justice?
I can provide my hon. Friend with that reassurance. The critical
part of our response today is that we are working at every single
level from the barman to the bouncer to the statute book. We
recognise it as critical that people are protected when they are
out at night and if they have cause to go to the police the
following day. Our objective is to stamp out spiking.
Mr Deputy Speaker ( )
I would like to thank the Minister for her statement and for
responding to questions for over 40 minutes. I am now going to
seamlessly hand over to .
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