FOI 843/26 Drink Spiking
Enquiry Reference: 843- 26
I write in connection with regards to your Freedom of Information request. Your request is below with our response.
Please provide the following information for each calendar year 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 , and separately for 2026 year-to-date (up to the most recent date for which data are available):
1. The total number of reports/allegations of drink spiking recorded by your force in each year.
2. Of those reports, the number where the recorded age of the alleged victim was between 18 and 21 inclusive (i.e. aged 18, 19, 20 or 21), broken down by year and the gender of those victims.
3. Of the reports involving victims aged 18–21, the number that resulted in a crime being recorded , broken down by year.
4. For all drink-spiking reports, the number that resulted in a crime being recorded , broken down by year.
5. For 2026 year-to-date, please provide the equivalent figures for the period from 1 January 2026 to the latest date for which data are available .
For clarity, by “drink spiking” I mean reports/allegations that a substance was deliberately added to a person's drink without their knowledge or consent. Please include cases recorded under any relevant crime, incident, intelligence or other recording system where your force has identified the allegation as drink spiking.
If your systems distinguish between drink spiking and other forms of spiking (for example, needle spiking, food spiking or spiking via another route), please provide the drink-spiking figures separately and do not include these other forms unless they were specifically recorded as involving a drink.
If the information is held in a form that distinguishes between an allegation/report and a formally recorded crime, please provide both figures where possible.
Answer:
Please note that since April 2026, we have adopted to the National Data Quality Improvement Crime tool and will be using this for all spiking requests going forward.
This has changed our method for answer spiking related requests.
We can provide data from April 2026 for crimes, however question 3 can not be answered as the figures related to crimes. Note that the new National DQ crime tool only identifies if spiking was used, rather than the type. Therefore, the crimes cover all spiking rather than specifically ‘Drink spiking’.
Below is a table which collates the total crime volume with the spiking flag, with a breakdown of if the victim was aged 18 to 21 years old:
2026 Total Spiking Volume Victim's aged 18-21
Apr 7 1
May 9 1
Jun 4 1
Jul 10 2
Aug 13 0
Grand Total 43 5
Having made enquiries within the Force above is all the information we hold.
Please note that all statistical data supplied in relation to Freedom of Information requests is a snapshot of data held at the time the request was received by the Freedom of Information office and is subject to constant change/updates.
If you are not satisfied with this response or any actions taken in dealing with your request, you have the right to request an independent internal review of your case under our review procedure. The Freedom of Information Code of Practice (see below link) states that a request for internal review should be made within 20 working days of the date on this response or 40 working days if extenuating circumstances to account for the delay can be evidenced. Public authorities are not obliged to accept internal reviews after this date.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/freedom-of-information-code-of-practice
Yours sincerely
Information Rights Decision Maker