What are we going to do? 

Following the Prime Minister’s statement in November last year to crack down on spiking and do more to bring perpetrators of this crime to justice, the Bill creates a new administering a harmful substance offence, using modern language, that covers incidents of “spiking”. The new administering a substance offence will also cover non-spiking incidents – for example where a person is sprayed with pepper spray, or where urine or faeces is thrown at a prison officer. 

How are we going to do it? 

The Bill repeals sections 22, 23 and 25 of the Offences against the Person Act 1861 (1861 Act) and replaces section 24 with a single, modern administering a harmful substance (including by spiking) offence which will be triable either way. The new offence will continue to criminalise broadly the same behaviour that is currently criminalised under sections 23 and 24 of the 1861 Act. The new offence is 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. In creating this new offence, consideration was given to a recommendation made by the Law Commission in their 2015 Report on the Reform of the Offences against the Person Act. 

Our aim is to increase public awareness that spiking behaviour is illegal and encourage victims to report incidents to the police.  

Background 

Spiking is a term used to describe the administration of a substance, whether by adding it to food or drink or otherwise, without a person’s consent, and usually with an intent to cause some harm to, or incapacitate, that person. It can include putting alcohol into a non-alcoholic drink, adding extra alcohol to an alcoholic drink or slipping prescription or illegal 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”.  

All forms of spiking are currently illegal and can be prosecuted under a range of criminal offences depending on the circumstances of the case. Two of the most commonly used offences to charge for spiking behaviour are sections 23 and 24 of the 1861 Act. In response to concerns raised about an increase in prevalence of spiking, and that there is a lack of understanding of how existing offences apply to this behaviour, the government is creating a new administering a harmful substance offence, which will aim to help improve the police response.  

Key statistics 

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, with the majority coming from females who believe their drink has been spiked – though spiking can affect anyone.  

There is, however, no overall substantive national data which confirms the prevalence of spiking.  The Ministry of Justice collates data on specific offences but only records the principal (i.e. the key) offence under which a defendant is convicted and sentenced. Given the broad nature of the existing offences that criminalise spiking behaviour, we do not have substantive national data on the charges, prosecutions and convictions for spiking. Whilst the police collect data on the number of spiking incidents reported to them, and campaign groups undertake their own surveys, it is difficult to draw any conclusions on the prevalence and subsequent prosecution of spiking. 

To improve police data collection and gain a better understanding on the prevalence of spiking, the current offence codes which exist to record incidents of spiking will be sub categorised. New sub-codes are being rolled out across police forces in England and Wales from spring 2025. This will change how the police currently record spiking offences, enabling police officers to better identify and record the type of spiking incident, i.e. whether spiking has occurred by putting drugs (prescription or illegal) into someone’s drink without their knowledge or by injecting the person with drugs etc. Improved data collection aims to help inform targeted enforcement and prosecution strategies. The new subcodes will also apply to the new administering a harmful substance offence when it comes into force.   

Frequently asked questions 

Why is the government making this change?  

The government committed, in our manifesto and the King’s speech, to create a new offence to help the police better respond to incidents of spiking.  

Whilst spiking is already illegal, the government is simplifying the landscape of the 3 administering a substance offences in the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 by creating a single offence. This new offence modernises the language, increases the maximum penalty for the most commonly used offence, and updates how and in which courts these offences are dealt with. All of this is designed to help the police respond to this behaviour and to do so quickly.  

The creation of the new offence is, however, just one part of the solution. It is important that collectively we work together not only to increase awareness of this crime – whether it takes place through drink, food, vape or needle – but also encourage reporting to enable perpetrators to be found and prosecuted.  

The overall solution lies in a system wide approach, that prevents and detects these crimes and gains the trust of victims to encourage the reporting of incidents in the first place.  

Which offences cover incidents of spiking now?  

All forms of spiking (drink, needle, food, vape etc) are currently illegal and can be prosecuted under a range of criminal offences depending on the circumstances. In addition to general offences such as assault, there are specific offences relating to the administration of a substance at sections 22 to 24 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861. The most commonly used is section 24, which criminalises conduct where the substance is administered with the intention to injure, aggrieve or annoy. Section 23 then covers conduct where the substance endangers life or inflicts grievous bodily harm. In cases where a substance is administered with the intention of engaging in sexual activity with the victim, there is also a separate offence at section 61 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003. 

Do you anticipate the new law increasing prosecution rates, which we know are very low?  

The government know that incidents of spiking are significantly under reported.  

Our aim in bringing forward this new offence (in conjunction with other policy work on spiking such as providing training for staff in the nighttime economy) is to give victims the confidence to come forward and report incidents to the police, and also to help tackle the key barriers to prosecution in spiking cases - the gathering of evidence and identification of perpetrators.  

Improved police recording through the new sub-offence codes will lead to more accurate data on spiking incidents. This data can help inform targeted enforcement and prosecution strategies.