There’s been over 1,300 needle spiking incidents in the last six months, according to evidence given to the Home Affairs Select Committee.

The National Police Chiefs Council told the committee there has been 1,382 reports since September.

Speaking to the committee last week, Cllr Jeanie Bell, member of the LGA’s Safer and Stronger Communities' Board said, “Venues may be reluctant to come forward and say, '' we think we might have a problem here” because they're then concerned about whether they will be penalised because the licencing authority does actually have quite a considerable amount of power in terms of how to manage premises effectively.”

Speaking at the Committee today, Lincolnshire Police Deputy Chief Constable Mr Harwin said needle spiking is a new UK-wide phenomenon, with some localised hotspots.

He said forces have started receiving an unprecedented volume of calls, while universities are also raising the issue. 

He told MPs: 'What we have seen since September is the emergence of a new phenomenon in the UK around needle spiking - and it is an assault.

'What I can say is that between September and to this week, in terms of needle spiking, the exact figures are 1,382 reported crimes of needle spiking throughout the UK. 

He added: 'In terms of prevalence we've clearly got an issue here in the UK... We've not seen that before - the scale of that before - we've never seen that before.'

Source: The Mail