The Times - UK (2021-11-10)

20 Wednesday November 10 2021 | the times

News

Police in Bristol will run a trial of new

kits to test whether drinks have been

spiked in nightclubs funded by part of a

£5 million Home Office fund to help

improve women’s safety.

Bristol city council has been given

£282,000 for the introduction of kits to

detect drink spiking at 60 different

night-time venues across the city. It is

part of a Safety of Women at Night

Fund that was established by the Home

Office after the murder in March of

Sarah Everard.

Other projects include a train and

bus safety campaign to be run by West

Yorkshire police that will enable

women to track buses in live time so

they can avoid waiting alone at bus

stops at night.

Money has also been awarded to

fund taxi rank marshals to prevent

illegal pick-ups and make women feel

safer while they wait for a cab at the end

of a night out.

Cheshire police will get money to

fund enhanced call-handling tech-

nology, that will enable officers to get

real-time live camera footage from a

woman when they call in a crisis.

The extra funding comes amid a

surge in reports of spiked drinks since

coronavirus restrictions were lifted in

City’s clubs and bars

to take part in trial of

spiked drink testing

the summer. Since September, there

have been 198 reports made to police as

well as 56 reports of incidents involving

a needle, according to the National

Police Chiefs’ Council. In the period

from 2015 to 2019 there were 2,600 re-

corded cases of drink spiking.

Priti Patel, the home secretary,

ordered an inquiry last month into how

widespread the phenomenon of needle

spiking was after a spate of widely pub-

licised attacks.

Almost 200,000 people have signed a

petition calling on the government to

introduce new laws that would oblige

all nightclubs to search guests on entry.

The petition triggered a debate in the

House of Commons yesterday, during

which Tonia Antoniazzi, the Labour

MP for Gower, called for spiking to be

treated with the same priority and

urgency as terrorism.

She said: “It is becoming a craze, a

trend and it needs to be taken seriously

by everyone. Will we have to wait for

something terrible to happen before

making a change?”

She added: “This is a specific debate

but it speaks to a much wider issue. We

need action not words.”

Rachel Maclean, the minister for

safeguarding, said violence against

women and girls was “at the forefront of

the government’s mind”.

Matt Dathan Home Affairs Editor

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