Drink Spiking (602A/23)
Request
I am requesting the following information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Please could I receive any data in a spreadsheet in a csv format.
I would like to request the following information on how many reports of spiking have been made to this force from 01/04/2022 to 01/04/2023. I am defining spiking according to the Police.Uk definition, which is “when someone puts alcohol or drugs into another person’s drink or body without their consent or knowledge.” I am also including ‘needle spiking’ in this definition.
Could I have the data broken down by:
- The date on which the report was made
- The date on which the spiking was alleged to have occurred
- The type of location in which the spiking was alleged to have occurred (e.g. a nightclub; a residential home)
- The outcome of the report (e.g. the perpetrator was convicted; the case was dropped etc)
CLARIFICATION
Thank you for getting in touch. I am assuming that ‘Attempted’ means that someone tried to commit the crime and was unsuccessful? So, in the case of spiking, they attempted to spike someone but were caught before they could do so? If my interpretation is correct, please could I please receive data on the following:
| Administering a substance with intent to commit a sexual offence |
Assault with Injury – Administering poison with intent to injure or annoy
Response
Please find attached our response. In relation to your query regarding attempted offences,
your assumption is partially correct – in an instance where an offender is caught in the act immediately prior to committing an offence, an attempt may be recorded. This doesn’t, however, mean that for every recorded attempt, someone was caught in the act – we would also potentially record the recovery of items associated with poisoning (for example if we were to recover a spiked drink that had not been consumed) in this manner. It is also possible to ‘attempt the impossible within elements of UK law. So, this could also include instances where it is thought that a poisoning may have been attempted with an inert substance. It could also be the case that where we receive an account from a victim that they believe someone may have been acting suspiciously and attempting to administer a substance or poison, that an attempt is recorded to meet the needs of HOCR. So, in summary, it can cover a broad array of circumstances and may not just reflect a situation as simple as a known offender being caught in the act.
Please note that these data should be interpreted with caution. Comparing numbers of incidents/crimes can be misleading and does not necessarily indicate the likelihood of someone being a victim of crime. In addition, the number of incidents/crimes recorded in an area over a period of time can be influenced by a number of factors. Consequently, statistics on incidents/crimes for one period may not necessarily be a good indicator of future incidents in that area.
Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from a number of data sources used by forces for police purposes. The detail collected to respond specifically to your request is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when interpreting those data.
The figures provided therefore are our best interpretation of relevance of data to your request, but you should be aware that the collation of figures for ad hoc requests may have limitations and this should be taken into account when those data are used.
If you decide to write an article / use the enclosed data we would ask you to take into consideration the factors highlighted in this document so as to not mislead members of the public or official bodies, or misrepresent the relevance of the whole or any part of this disclosed material.