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Call for Evidence

Spiking

Background

As part of the Committee’s overarching work into violence against women and girls, the Committee wishes to explore the incidence of spiking at nightclubs and pubs, festivals and private house parties.

Drink spiking has been prevalent for many years. Research by the BBC found there were at least 2,650 reports of drink spiking in England and Wales between 2015 and 2019. A recent poll found that 1 in 9 women and 1 in 17 men in the UK say they have been the victim of drink spiking, and one in three women and one in five men knew someone who had been a victim of drink spiking.

In October 2021, the press reported several incidents of drink and injection/needle spiking, the victims often being students. The Home Secretary has asked the police for an urgent update on the issues reported, including what steps they are taking to prevent the offences and to catch those responsible.

Terms of reference

The Committee invites evidence on the following points:

  • The prevalence of spiking
    • How common is spiking?
    • Where and when does it happen?
    • Who is vulnerable to spiking?
    • Who commits spiking offences and why do they do it?
  • How spiking should be prevented and addressed
    • How effective is partnership working between the police and others (such as local authorities, the health service, night-time industries, universities and third sector organisations) in safeguarding potential and actual victims of spiking?
    • How effective are the measures used to prevent spiking, including the advice and guidance that is used to train, educate and support those involved in handling this type of crime (such as police officers, nightclub security staff and A&E staff)?
    • What barriers do victims face in reporting spiking incidents and obtaining treatment and support?
    • Are the police doing enough to identify perpetrators and bring them to justice?
    • What role should Government play in tackling this crime?

Submissions on the terms of reference set out above should be received by 12 noon on Wednesday 19 January 2022.

If you wish to submit written evidence after this date, please contact us by e-mailing homaffcom@parliament.uk for more information.

Survey

The Committee wishes to explore the police and others’ response to reported incidents of spiking. As part of this inquiry, the Committee has therefore launched a public survey to give individuals who have experienced or witnessed spiking the opportunity to explain what happened and what support was provided following the incident, including what happened if the incident was reported. You can also share why you might have chosen not to report an incident.

This survey closed on 31 January 2022.

If you have any questions, please contact homeaffcom@parliament.uk

 

Important information about making a submission

Written evidence must address the terms of reference as set out above, but please note that submissions do not have to address every point. Guidance on giving evidence to a select committee of the House of Commons is available here.

In line with the general practice of select committees the Home Affairs Committee is not able to take up individual cases. If you would like political support or advice you may wish to contact your local Member of Parliament.

The Committee will decide whether to accept each submission. If your submission is accepted by the Committee, it will usually be published online. It will then be available permanently for anyone to view. It can’t be changed or removed. If you have included your name or any personal information in your submission, that will normally be published too. Please consider how much personal information you want or need to share. If you include personal information about other people in your submission, the Committee may decide not to publish it. Your contact details will never be published.

Decisions about publishing evidence anonymously, or about accepting but not publishing evidence, are made by the Committee. If you would like to ask the Committee to accept your submission anonymously (meaning it will be published but without your name), or confidentially (meaning it won't be published at all), you can make this request when you upload your submission.

The Committee has discretion over which submissions it accepts as evidence, and which of those it then publishes on its website. We may anonymise or redact some of your submission if it is published. The Committee may decide to accept evidence on a confidential basis. Confidential submissions remain available to the Committee but are not published or referred to in public. All written evidence will be considered by the Committee, whether or not it is published.

If your evidence raises any safeguarding concerns about you, or other people, then the Committee has a duty to raise these with the appropriate safeguarding authority.

If you have immediate safeguarding concerns about yourself or someone else, you should contact the Police on 999.

We can’t publish submissions that mention ongoing legal cases – contact us if you are not sure what this means for you.

Submissions on the terms of reference set out above should be received by 12 noon on Wednesday 19 January 2022.

Click on the start button at the bottom of this page to submit written evidence.

 

Signposting

We understand that the issues raised in this work may be sensitive or upsetting. If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this inquiry, you may wish to contact your GP or the following organisations:

Victim Support 08 08 16 89 111

Samaritans 116 123 

This call for written evidence has now closed.

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