1 in 6 students say they have been spiked at nightlife venue
This comes after the Home Affairs Committee released a report detailing key recommendations for tackling incidents of drink spiking, such as a change to the law to include a specific offence for spiking and a call for police to provide victims with forensic testing.
The tracker surveyed more than 1,000 students across the UK to examine attitudes to safety, employability and mental health.
The prior edition of the survey, carried out in December, at what many felt was the peak of the ‘spiking epidemic’, found close to two-thirds of students had boycotted nightclubs due to spiking in the past, and 80% said they were worried about spiking, or knew somebody who was.
The latest research suggested despite a decline in media attention, spiking concerns are still rife among the student population.
Joint effort
Almost one in six students (16%), which equates to 425,000 people, said they had been spiked at a nightlife venue.
What’s more, worries over spiking remained high, with 82% of students reporting they were concerned about spiking when going for drinks with friends, with 80% of students believing venues were not doing enough to reduce the risk of spiking.
The British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA) recently stated pubs worked hard to keep customers safe, but could not overcome the issue of drink spiking alone.
BBPA chief executive Emma McClarkin said: “As an industry we work hard to make sure people feel safe at their local pub.
“However, venues alone can’t overcome this issue and that’s why our members work closely with local authorities and the police at a local level to prevent spiking.”
Safety first
Last winter, late-night industry staff told The Morning Advertiser the industry had been “vilified” by the spiking epidemic, despite operators doing “everything and more” to keep customers safe.
Rekom UK chief executive Peter Marks said: “People have been calling for searches, and I’m thinking, well we do that. [They say] ‘we think there should be metal detectors’ – we do that."
The company had other measures in place such as security, full searching, metal detection arches, medics, policies like Ask for Angela and female door staff to keep customers safe.
“If we’ve had one failing, it’s that we haven’t done a good enough job of telling people what we’ve got in our business to help protect them,” Marks added.
