Spiking: Home Sec vows to 'hold perpetrators to account'
The Home Secretary has vowed to crack down on spiking as he said perpetrators will be “held to account” by changes in the law. James Cleverly said the government is updating legislation to make it clear that spiking is a crime, as he visited officers during the first national week of action against spiking. Report by Czubalam. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
Transcript
00:00 We have invested money in training of door staff and staff in the night-time economy.
00:06 We have invested in experimenting with technology, particularly fast testing kits,
00:14 because we know that with the drugs that are prevalent in spiking that speed is of the essence.
00:22 And of course what we're doing is we're updating the legislation to make it clear and unambiguous
00:28 that spiking is a crime. We prioritise the prevention of crimes against women and girls
00:35 and the people who perpetrate spiking will be held to account. The sad truth is we know this
00:40 is a crime that has been habitually under-reported, but we know it is very prevalent. We've had
00:50 something in the region of 560 reported incidents per month. But as I said, we know that isn't
00:58 under-reporting, so we know that we have to protect women and girls who are predominantly
01:03 the victims of this crime type, which is why we're taking this so seriously.