Quickly exit this site by pressing the Escape key Leave this site
We use some essential cookies to make our website work. We’d like to set additional cookies so we can remember your preferences and understand how you use our site.
You can manage your preferences and cookie settings at any time by clicking on “Customise Cookies” below. For more information on how we use cookies, please see our Cookies notice.
Your cookie preferences have been saved. You can update your cookie settings at any time on the cookies page.
Your cookie preferences have been saved. You can update your cookie settings at any time on the cookies page.
Sorry, there was a technical problem. Please try again.
This site is a beta, which means it's a work in progress and we'll be adding more to it over the next few weeks. Your feedback helps us make things better, so please let us know what you think.
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 432-2023
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 19th April 2023 as follows:
Q1. For the previous 5 calendar years please provide the total numbers of spiking incidents reported, plus any figures available on such reports for 2023 (specifying period). Please search for this data by means of keyword searches of MO codes, using the terms 'spike', 'spiking', ‘spiked’, and crimes alleged under the following Home Office codes:-
005/10 Administering poison so as to endanger life
005/24 Use of noxious substances or things to cause harm and intimidate
008/02 Administering poison with intent to injure or annoy
088/05 Administering a substance with intent
Please could you provide this data broken down by year.
Q2. For the reported crimes above, please state the number of cases referred to the CPS for a charging decision, and the number of convictions.
Please could you provide this data broken down by year.
Q3. For each year please provide number of cases where a sample from the alleged victim was sent for forensic testing Please could you provide this data broken down by year.
Q4. Finally, can you please attach MO codes from Jan 1st 2023 for spiking-related offences? I accept redactions may need to be made to remove personal information.
Please accept my sincere apologies for the delay in providing the response to your request and for any inconvenience this may have caused you. Please find the Warwickshire Police response set out below.
Response: Please be advised that, regarding Q3, this information is not centrally recorded and is therefore not held in a readily retrievable format. In order to determine whether a sample obtained from a victim had been sent for forensic testing, it would be necessary to individually review each investigation report and any supporting documentation, which in this case, would involve 229 investigations. At a conservative estimate of 5 minutes per record to manually review, this would equate to a minimum of 19 hours of work for this element alone, and therefore the work involved in locating and retrieving the requested information exceeds the cost threshold of £450, which equates to 18 hours work at a standard rate of £25 per hour, as stated in the Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004.
In accordance with section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, this letter acts as a Refusal Notice for this part of the request and, if one part of a request exceeds the fees limit, then section 12 applies to the whole request.
In accordance with Section 16 of the Act, I have a duty to provide advice and assistance in relation to refining your request. I can advise that it may be possible to provide some information for Q3, should the scope of the request be reduced to say 1 year, for either 2021 or 2022, or 2 years for 2018, 2019, 2020 or 2023.
In regard to Q2, and your request for the number of cases referred to the CPS for a charging decision, I can advise that this information is not centrally recorded and is therefore not held in a readily retrievable format. In order to determine a response to this part of the request for the specified period, it would also be necessary to manually review each investigation. It may however be possible to provide recorded outcomes for the investigations, as an alternative, within the fees limit.
As a gesture of goodwill, responses to Q1 and Q4 have been provided below. Please note that this data was located before it was realised that not all of the information could be retrieved within the fees limit and should not be taken as a precedent that additional information would be supplied outside of the time/fees legislation for any subsequent requests.
Q1 response: When reviewing the information please note the following:
There is no specific offence of ‘spiking’. Such incidents may be recorded as an offence of ‘Administering Poison/Substance with intent’, etc, however, in many cases it will feature as part of a different type of crime classification, such as a sexual offence, violent assault or theft, and will be recorded as such. In all offences, the ‘spiking’ element would be detailed as part of the MO, therefore it is not easily identifiable and, for this reason, accurately determining the number of ‘spiking’ related incidents would involve manually reviewing all recorded crimes on an individual basis.
As stipulated in your request, the results below have been located by searching for all crimes recorded under Home Office codes 005/10, 005/24, 008/02 and 088/05, recorded in the specified period. A further search was then carried out for all crimes where the keywords ‘spike’, ‘spiked’ or ‘spiking’, appear within the MO description. The resulting records have then been reviewed for false positives, such as ‘spiked hair’ etc. As some crimes that were located from the first search appeared also in the second search, duplicates were removed. It is important to note that, in the event there are relevant offences recorded, but where the keywords are not present within the MO description, then these will not have been returned within the search. For this reason, information retrieved by way of a keyword search cannot be assumed to be entirely accurate.
Year |
Total |
2018 |
26 |
2019 |
21 |
2020 |
17 |
2021 |
69 |
2022 |
76 |
2023 (up to date of request) |
20 |
Grand Total |
229 |
Q4 response: Each MO description for offences recorded from 1st January 2023, have been read in detail and summarised below. Please note that they have been adapted in such a way as to ensure that no individual can be identified by virtue of Section 40 of the Freedom of Information Act. Exemption under Section 40(2) is applicable where the information requested relates to a third party or could lead to the identification of an individual which would be in breach under the Data Protection Act 2018, in particular Article 5(1) of the GDPR which states that personal data shall be processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner in relation to the data subject.
Description |
Complainant alleges being exposed to substance |
Complainant alleges being injured by substance |
Complainant alleges being poisoned |
Complainant alleges being poisoned |
Complainant alleges being poisoned |
Complainant alleges being poisoned |
Complainant became unwell after drinking alcohol |
Complainant became unwell during night out |
Complainant believes drink was spiked |
Complainant believes drink was spiked by an unknown person. |
Complainant believes someone spiked their drink |
Complainant believes substance was put in their drink |
Complainant believes their drink may have been spiked |
Complainant believes their drink was spiked |
Complainant believes they have been spiked |
Complainant believes they may have been spiked whilst out drinking |
Complainant believes they may have been spiked whilst out drinking |
Complainant has been drinking and believes they have been spiked |
Complainant may have been spiked |
Complainant suspects someone has spiked their drink |
Every effort has been made to ensure that the information provided is as accurate as possible.
Your attention is drawn to the below which details your right of complaint.
Should you have any further enquiries concerning this matter, please write or email the Freedom of Information Unit quoting the reference number above.
Yours sincerely
Freedom of Information Officer
Freedom of Information Unit
Warwickshire Police
PO Box 4
Leek Wootton
Warwickshire
CV35 7QB