Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of trends in the rate of (a) convictions and (b) arrests following allegations of drug spiking.

The recent reports of spiking of drinks and through injections are of course concerning. Data held by the Home Office on arrests by police in England and Wales are collected at offence group level only (such as ‘drug offences’ and ‘sexual offences’). Further details on the offence are not collected, so it is not possible with the data available to the Home Office to determine the rate of arrests following allegations of drug spiking.

Information on the number of convictions recorded for such offences is held by the Ministry of Justice.

This is an ongoing matter which the police are investigating, and the Home Secretary has asked police forces to provide an update.

The Government is supporting the rollout of pilot initiatives to improve the safety of women in public spaces at night, including in the night-time economy. We have committed to delivering a £5 million ‘Safety of Women at Night’ fund, in addition to the £25 million Safer Streets Fund Round 3. These funds will support projects that target potential perpetrators, seek to protect potential victims, or deliver programmes intended to address offending behaviour.