FOI 464837
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 464837
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 23rd March 2026. Please find below the response to your request:
1) Total cases
Please state the total number of offences that were reported to the police as alleged spiking (including needling) for the following calendar years – 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025.
[Note - by spiking we refer to administering a substance without consent as it has been commonly understood under the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 and as it will now be considered under the Crime and Policing Bill 2025.]
- Please provide the breakdown of the
- suspects and victims by gender
- Please provide the breakdown of victim
- ages according to these age groups: under 18, 18-24, 25-34, 35-50, over 50
- Please provide the breakdown of spiking
- method (ie. substance added to beverage, needle/injection, food spiking etc)
- Please provide the breakdown of the
- type of venue of the alleged drink spiking (ie. pub, bar, restaurant, private residence, university accommodation etc)
- Please provide the breakdown of the
- local authority where the incidents occurred
2) Outcome
For the following calendar years – 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 – please provide this information:
- Total number of reported alleged
- drink spiking offences that were investigated by the police
- Total number of offences that were
- referred to the Crown Prosecution Service
- Total number of offences that were
- prosecuted
- Please provide the breakdown of the
- outcome of prosecuted cases
3) Most recent year
For the calendar year 2025, please provide this information:
- The average time between the alleged
- drink spiking incident and when the incident was reported to the police
- Please state the name of any institutions
- where there have been more than five reported alleged drink spiking offences, as well as the total number of alleged drink spiking offences at these venues.
- Please state the number of
- incidents of fraud reported where victims believe they were spiked beforehand
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 as there is no specific offence of ‘spiking’. To attempt to accurately retrieve the data requested would necessitate a search of potentially relevant Home Office classifications and incident summary field keywords. This search produced over 1,142 records. 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 eliminate false positives.
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.