Spiking – New legislation announced in the King’s Speech

The King’s Speech given on the 17th of July 2024 outlined draft laws (bills) which Labour plan to introduce in the coming months. In particular, the King’s Speech announced a Crime and Policing Bill which has been described by the government as a bill which aims to ‘strengthen community, policing and give the police greater powers to deal with anti-social behaviour’.

What is spiking?

One part of the Bill is concerned with the offence of spiking. Spiking typically describes behaviour involving a person putting a drug or chemical into someone else’s drink without their knowledge or consent. Spiking can also be committed through food, cigarettes, vapes or needles. Spiking often occurs in nightclubs and public settings. Spiking is often linked to sexual offences and robbery and is traditionally targeted towards women and young girls. Reports of spiking to the Metropolitan Police are said to have increased by 13% from 2022 to 2023. The charity ‘Stamp Out Spiking’ suggest that 90% of victims of spiking do not report the crime to the police.

Is spiking currently a criminal offence?

Spiking is already a crime under current legislation including the Offences Against the Person Act 1861. However, the legislation has been criticised as spiking is widely underreported and can be difficult for the police to conduct an investigation when a drug passes through a victim’s system quite quickly. There are challenges which arise for the police to obtain sufficient expert evidence and identifying offenders within short timeframes. The Crime and Policing Bill aims to strengthen the law to improve police response to spiking.

Spiking to be made a specific stand-alone offence

The Bill suggests that the law surrounding spiking will be developed by making spiking a specific, stand-alone offence. The West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner Simon Foster has encouraged the change explaining that the update to legislation will make the law clearer about the behaviour being a criminal offence and in turn is taken more seriously by potential victims and police forces. Alongside legislative changes, the Bill will encourage further awareness and understanding of spiking and may encourage police forces to undergo training and education to assist the way they investigate these offences. This may encourage police to test potential victims faster and improve the testing facilities the police can use to identify the chemicals before leaving the complainant’s system.

Olliers Solicitors – specialist criminal defence lawyers

If you would like to discuss how Olliers can proactively assist you in relation to a criminal allegation, please contact our new enquiry team either by email at info@olliers.com, or by telephone at 020 3883 6790 (London) or 0161 834 1515 (Manchester) or by completing the form below and our new enquiry team will contact you.