MPs on the Home Affairs Select Committee have been told that the number of spiking cases in the UK is likely to be ‘underreported quite significantly’.

Councillor Jeanie Bell, a member of the LGA’s Safer and Stronger Communities’ board, said:

“You’ve almost got a two-fold problem, where you’ve got people underreporting from people attending venues, and often they’ll leave the venue before they realise they’ve been spiked. But then you’ve also got venues who may be reluctant to come forward because they’re then concerned about whether they will be penalised by the licensing authority.

“But then you’ve also got venues who may be reluctant to come forward and say, ‘Look, we think we might have a problem here with spiking in our venue, we’re not getting reports but we think that could be an issue’, because they’re then concerned about whether they will be penalised – whether there will be licence revocations – because the licencing authority does actually have quite a considerable amount of power in terms of how to manage premises effectively.”

Reported in a number of national newspapers, Paul Fullwood, of the Security Industry Authority (SIA), said:

“Our evidence is that this is underreported quite significantly from what we can see.“This is not taking away all the hard work and diligence from people trying to look for these sort of things going on, but it’s underreported.“There’s a lack of awareness. There’s a lack of understanding.”

Spiking Inquiry

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

As part of this inquiry, the Committee has also launched a public survey to give individuals who have experienced or witnessed these incidents 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.