Recommendations & Conclusions
6 items
8
Recommendation
Ninth Report - Spiking
Acknowledged
As part of its national communications campaign to say “Enough” to violence against women and girls, the Government should engage with the night-time industry, the education sector, and the health sector to produce a national anti-spiking communications campaign. The awareness raising campaign should: (i) send a clear message that there …
Government response. The government agrees with the recommendation and is working with policing stakeholders to promote key messages, while exploring options for further communications and outreach through the education and private sectors.
Home Office
15
Conclusion
Ninth Report - Spiking
Accessibility to testing is an issue for many victims and the lack of forensic testing capacity creates evidential difficulties for the police.
Government response. As the Committee notes, law enforcement, in partnership with forensic provider Eurofins, established an accredited rapid urine testing service in response to the outbreak of needle spiking in Autumn 2021. This service will be in place throughout 2022, with the …
Home Office
17
Conclusion
Ninth Report - Spiking
Acknowledged
We are pleased that the Home Office is planning a scientific review of testing kits but are concerned that in the meantime victims could get false assurances from such kits.
Government response. The government recognises the concern about test kits providing false assurances, stating no single kit covers all drugs and urges victims to contact police for forensic analysis, mentioning ongoing evaluations and a statutory review.
Home Office
19
Conclusion
Ninth Report - Spiking
Limited police understanding of the motives and profile of spiking offenders hampers their ability to develop a national strategy on tackling spiking.
Government response. The Government agrees with the Committee’s assessment that the motivations of spiking offenders remain unclear, particularly around the newly identified incidences of needle spiking, and that the lack of understanding limits our ability to effectively tackle spiking through targeted interventions. …
Home Office
20
Recommendation
Ninth Report - Spiking
Acknowledged
The Home Office should commission academic research into the motivations and profile of spikers, to feed into a national strategy for preventing, detecting and prosecuting spiking offences.
Government response. The government agrees that offender motivations are unclear and will consider options for research into motivations, and intends to carry out a review of existing academic research into spiking.
Home Office
21
Conclusion
Ninth Report - Spiking
Successful prosecution has a deterrent value for both actual and would-be spikers and sends a clear message that spiking is a crime. We are therefore disappointed by the very low number of successful prosecutions for spiking offences.
Government response. The Government recognises that there a number of factors which inhibit our ability to successfully target and prosecute individuals who commit spiking offences, not least of all the under-reporting discussed in the response to recommendation 2. We have begun preliminary …
Home Office