FOI 438210
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 438210
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 21st October 2025. Please find below the response to your request:
-Please provide a monthly breakdown on the number of victims who reported having their drink spiked from the period 1st of January 2020 to 19th of October 2025.
-Please provide a monthly breakdown on the victims' ages, gender, location, and nationality who reported having their drink spiked from the period above.
-Please provide a monthly breakdown of what drug or substance was found in a spiked drink from the period above.
-Please provide a monthly breakdown of the number of perpetrators who were arrested, fined, charged, or had no further action taken in relation to drink spiking in the period above
- Please provide a monthly breakdown of the ages, gender, location, and nationality of the perpetrators from the period stated above.
Reply
Your request for information has been considered in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (“the Act”), and I am not obliged to provide the information requested.
S.12(1) of the Act states that a public authority is not obliged to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the “appropriate limit”. For police forces in England and Wales, the "appropriate limit" is £450 or 18 hours of work as set by the Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004.
The information you have requested is not available in a readily retrievable format. There is no specific offence of ‘drink spiking’. West Mercia Police have conducted a search of potentially relevant Home Office classifications and incident summary field keywords. There are over 585 records. Having reviewed the incident summaries of the first 20 offences, false positives were being returned. Therefore, in order to ascertain whether the information you have requested is held would take in excess of 18 hours as each record would have to be checked individually to provide the data for drink spiking offences only.
In accordance with s.17(5) of the Act, this acts as a Refusal Notice.
Under s.16 of the Act I have a duty to provide advice and assistance in relation to your request.
Unfortunately, due to the volume of records that would need to be reviewed I am unable to identify information that could be supplied within the fees limit.