Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to help tackle the spiking of people in social places in the UK.

The Home Office is leading the cross-government approach to understanding and tackling spiking in England and Wales. In 2021, the then Home Secretary asked the National Police Chief's Council to urgently review and coordinate the national policing response to spiking. Since then:

• Spiking has been incorporated into the Government's communications campaign to tackle violence against women and girls, known as 'ENOUGH'. This includes providing important information about the crime on the campaign website and signposting victims to support services.
• We have worked closely with the Festivals and Outdoor Events sector to ensure the safety of the public at summer events, ensuring that sufficient protocols, training, communications, and guidance was in place for event organisers, the police, security personnel and audiences.
• Government have supported Universities UK to provide guidance to universities on spiking published ahead of the Autumn 2022 term and the ‘freshers’ period. We provided further communications on spiking to local authorities and supported NPCC targeted communications.
• The Police have produced a forensic strategy and have worked with the forensic provider Eurofins to develop an accredited, rapid testing capability, enabling law enforcement to better support victims, and also build our understanding of what drugs are being used and how common they are. The Home Office has provided £70,000 in additional funding to enable the police to submit an additional 200 samples through the accredited process.

This is just a snapshot of action being taken to address spiking and the Home Secretary will be publishing a report on the nature and prevalence of spiking, and action that government has taken, and will take, to tackle it. This report is now expected to be published following the May local elections.