FOI 32368

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: HRC0032368/26

I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 28^th September 2026. Please find below the response to your request:

Please provide me with the following information:

1. The number of spiking-related offences recorded by your force in the years 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026. For 2026, please provide me with data up to September (1 January 2026 to 1 September 2026), or if data is not held up to 1 September, the most recent available data. Please break this data down by year and, if possible, by month.
2. For each year, please also provide me a summary of the outcome of each offence (e.g., in 2026, 100 offences led to a charge, 200 led to a caution, etc.).
3. If this falls within the time/cost limit, please provide me with information on the nature of spiking incidents in each year, offering a description of what was spiked (for example, in 2026, 100 offences involved vape spiking; 60 involved spiking of prescription medication; 200 involved spiking of drinks; etc. I appreciate the descriptive categories held by your force may be different - these are simply illustrative examples. But if the offences can be categorised in any way to clarify what item was spiked, that'd be great).

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 in respect of question 3. The method of the spiking, if known, would likely be recorded within the incident summary. There are no separate categories or markers to denote the alleged method of spiking There are 997 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 extract this information.

In accordance with s.17(5) of the Act, this acts as a Refusal Notice.

However, in accordance with Section 16 of the Act I have a duty to provide advice and assistance in relation to your request and can provide the information requested for questions 1 and 2 as this was retrieved during our initial research. This should not be taken as a precedent that additional information would be supplied outside of the time/fees legislation for any subsequent requests.

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1. The number of spiking-related offences recorded by your force in the years 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026. For 2026, please provide me with data up to September (1 January 2026 to 1 September 2026), or if data is not held up to 1 September, the most recent available data. Please break this data down by year and, if possible, by month.

1. For each year, please also provide me a summary of the outcome of each offence (e.g., in 2026, 100 offences led to a charge, 200 led to a caution, etc.).