07/05/25
A specific offence of drink spiking looks to be introduced in the Crime and Policing Bill. Spiking is recognised as a crime but is covered by different pieces of legislation including the Offences Against the Person Act 1861.
What is “spiking”?
Spiking is a term used to describe the administration of a substance, whether by adding it to food, drink or otherwise, without a person’s consent, and usually with an intent to cause some harm to, or incapacitate, that person. The most common substances used in spiking are illegal substances like Ketamine, gamma hydroxybutyrate (GHB), and Rohypnol.
However, spiking does not always involve illegal substances, it can be as simple as putting alcohol into a non-alcoholic drink, adding extra alcohol to an alcoholic drink or slipping prescription drugs into a drink, food, cigarette or vape.
In Autumn 2021, the police reported a surge in reports of drink-spiking incidents, as well as the emergence of a new practice known as “needle spiking”.
Key Statistics
Governmental statistics show that between May 2022 and April 2023, the police received 6,732 reports of spiking, which included 957 needle spiking reports. On average, the police receive 561 reports a month, the majority coming from females who believe their drink has been spiked.
The Met police said reports of drink spiking increased 13% in July to December 2023 compared with the same period in 2022 – after quadrupling in recent years.
However, the problem is that not all victims report crimes of spiking to the police and therefore the statistics are incomplete and the police cannot be sure how many spiking victims there really are.
Subsequently, one of the main purposes of the new bill is to encourage more victims to come forward and to catch the offenders.
New Offence
Following the Kings Speech in 2024, the government have made inroads in Parliament to introducing the Crime and Policing Bill.
The Bill seeks to create a new administering harmful substance offence, using more up-to-date, modern language, that covers instances of “spiking” specifically. The new offence will be committed if, unlawfully, a person administers a harmful substance to, or causes a harmful substance to be taken by, another person and the person does so with intent to injure, aggrieve or annoy the other person. This can be committed in many different ways, including drink spiking.
This new bill will repeal sections 22, 23 and 25 of the OAPA 1861 and replace section 24 with a new single administering a harmful substance (including by spiking) offence. This new offence, will be triable either way.
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