Guidance

Spiking: information for council, education and health services

Published 21 December 2023

Information for local authorities

Local authorities can play a key role in preventing and tackling spiking, through:​

• their local convening power​
• prominent statements in local licensing policies
• licensing actions relating to individual premises ​

​Local convening power

Local authorities should use their local convening power to bring together local stakeholders – police, businesses, voluntary groups – to consider strategies to address spiking. ​

​Local licensing policy

The statutory guidance issued under section 182 of the Licensing Act 2003 has been updated to include a full definition of spiking. It highlights how both applicants and licensing committees can have due regard to spiking in venues and make sure appropriate safeguards and licensing conditions are in place. ​

​In addition, a council can use its statement of licensing policy to effectively set standards. For example, in their policy, councils might:

• refer specifically to spiking prevention
• refer to training schemes which venues can use to tackle spiking
• highlight examples of good practice

Alongside the statement of licensing policy, councils should consider running a communications campaign to demonstrate their zero-tolerance stance towards spiking.​​

Individual premises

There are also actions which councils can take relating to individual premises. For example, they can work with the premises after any allegations of spiking to understand whether the reports are random occurrences or represent failures at the venue. If it is the latter, the council can support the premises to make improvements to prevent spiking.

The licensing committee can review a licence and decide whether to apply additional conditions to help make sure the premises has suitable measures in place to tackle spiking. A venue can also apply to vary its licence and have conditions added as a way of making improvements.

If there are clear and persistent failings, the licensing committee also has the power to suspend or revoke the venue’s licence.​

​This guidance note on drink spiking prevention from the Local Government Association (LGA) sets out advice in more detail, including case studies on actions taken by councils to tackle spiking.​

Information for higher education institutions

Spiking can be a particular problem in universities and colleges – a large proportion of the reports of spiking in 2021 related to those. A number of reports of needle spiking have involved spiking on university campuses, including students’ unions, and at night-time venues aimed specifically at students, including ‘freshers’ events.​

​In August 2022 Universities UK created Spiking: what universities can do - practice note [PDF, 374KB] to help universities to address spiking. It contains many recommendations, including that universities should:​

• communicate to their staff and students that spiking is a serious crime, that anyone can be a victim of it and that it is not always linked to sexual assault
• avoid using communications campaigns which could be seen as ‘victim blaming’ (implying that the onus is on the victim rather than the perpetrator to change their behaviour)
• develop relationships with local partners to address spiking together – both internal partners (such as students’ unions and student wellbeing teams) and external (for example, A&E departments and businesses such as bars, clubs and taxi firms)
• reassure victims and witnesses that the information they provide through reporting will not be used against them, but will be used to target perpetrators through university disciplinary processes​
• ensure that they strike a balance between giving students essential information and not inducing panic that might stop them participating in social events

​The practice note includes examples of good practice undertaken by universities to tackle spiking.​​  An update to its practice note - How have universities taken action on spiking? which Universities UK issued in January 2023 contains more examples of positive actions taken by universities.​

The Enough campaign also provides spiking prevention materials such as posters and social media materials for use in higher education institutions.

Consultation on mandatory strategy for higher education providers

The Office for Students (OfS), which regulates higher education providers in England, has been consulting on a new requirement for providers to develop a strategy to prevent and tackle sexual harassment, abuse and other forms of bullying and harassment affecting their staff and students, including all forms of spiking.

The outcome of the consultation is expected in winter 2023 to 2024, with new measures due in 2024. The government will support the OfS in delivering any changes to its registration conditions.

Information for healthcare professionals

In July 2022 the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, together with the National Police Chiefs’ Council and the College of Policing, published a position statement on spiking [PDF, 178KB]. It stated that:​

• the hospital’s primary responsibility is to address the victim’s medical needs rather than to collect forensic evidence – if evidence samples need to be taken in the emergency department, this should be done by a forensic medical examiner, in line with local police protocols
• the hospital should encourage victims of spiking to contact the police, and it should help the victim to do this if they consent​
• the hospital should enable anonymous data sharing with local crime prevention partnerships of any reported incidents of spiking, as with any form of assault
• emergency departments may, among certain patient groups (for example, adolescents and in populations with a high proportion of university students), take a preventative role by signposting them to appropriate resources

​The UK Health Security Agency also issued a briefing note to health protection teams on responding to spiking enquiries.