Sir Keir Starmer revealed more details on his plans to make spiking a drink a specific criminal offence as part of the government’s crackdown on violence against women and girls (VAWG).
During a meeting with police bosses, transport figures and hospitality executives in Downing Street on Monday morning, the prime minister said he hoped the measures would give people “the confidence to come forward”.
He laid out plans for venue staff to be trained in relation to spiking, with a pilot to begin within weeks before a wider rollout next year.
By the spring, Sir Keir pledged that thousands of workers in the night-time economy will be trained on how to prevent spiking incidents, support victims and help collect evidence.
Labour has promised to halve VAWG in the next decade, with the prime minister calling for a coordinated response to “bring the vile perpetrators to justice”.
The party pledged in its manifesto to introduce a new offence for spiking, but there was no detail in the King’s Speech this year about a specific crime – however, Sir Keir reaffirmed his commitment on Monday, saying: “My government was elected on a pledge to take back our streets, and we will never achieve this if women and girls do not feel safe at night.”
He added: “Cracking down on spiking is central to that mission.
“We know it can be incredibly difficult for victims to come forward to report this awful crime, and these cases can be very hard to prosecute. We must do more to bring the vile perpetrators who carry out this cowardly act, usually against young women and often to commit a sexual offence, to justice.”
It is unclear when the legislation will be introduced, but ministers and officials are understood to be working to bring it forward as soon as possible – with Sir Keir promising “to take back our streets” from criminals.
The government announced that 10,000 workers in the hospitality industry will be trained to deal with incidents by next spring as part of an expansion of a scheme piloted from December, to be rolled out from March of next year.
Detailing the training scheme, Sir Keir told the meeting it would be “partly to spot what’s happening, but also to know what to do in the event that there is an incident in a venue”.
He also said that the “final” point of discussion for the morning was “police indexing – (the) way that we count it across different police forces”.
Sir Keir added: “At the moment it’s quite hard to get your arms around the pure numbers.”
Labour says the proposals are part of the party’s promise to halve VAWG in the next decade – although home secretary Yvette Cooper did admit the pledge is “ambitious” and that the government has not worked out how to measure their progress as she laid out a string of reforms to overhaul policing at an annual summit with police chiefs last Tuesday.
Plain-clothes officers are being deployed in areas around bars and clubs to spot predatory behaviour, with chief constable Jason Hogg of Thames Valley Police due to tell the meeting how his force is implementing such measures.
Chief constable Lucy D’Orsi of British Transport Police will highlight the relaunch of the text-to-report number, 61016, which is free across all major networks and invites women to contact the force for help in the event of harassment on the train.
Home secretary Yvette Cooper said: “Spiking is a disturbing and serious crime which can have a damaging and long-lasting impact on victims.
“That’s why today we are taking decisive action to prevent this devastating crime and to crack down on perpetrators, by introducing a new criminal offence for spiking and launching specialist training for thousands of bar staff nationwide.
“People shouldn’t have to worry about the safety of their drinks on a night out. These changes are about giving victims greater confidence to come forward, and ensuring that there is a robust response from the police whenever these appalling crimes take place.”
