The Council notes:

This October hundreds of women and young people took to St Peter’s Square in protests against a sharp rise in spiking cases.

Even though drink-spiking is an offence and can carry a ten-year prison sentence, it is hard to get a clear picture of the scale of drink spiking and spiking including spiking via injection: there simply is no recent or comprehensive publicly-available data on the number of reported cases.

According to Stamp Out Spiking national research, over 97% of victims don't report being spiked to the police, and generally people don't usually report spiking unless there are further offences committed.

Manchester is the home of the Women’s rights movement. We are proud as a city to have active campaigning and support organisations who have continually fought for the safety and protection of women.

The Council resolves:

To support initiatives which actively challenge cultural attitudes that allow sexual assault and harassment to take place including improving education for boys and men regarding personal responsibility, respect, consent and healthy attitudes to sex and relationships;

To explore whether conditions on licenced premises can be included through the Council’s licencing regime to ensure venues have appropriate security and staff training in place to improve safety including the search for spiking paraphernalia and recognising signs that someone could be perpetrating this offence;

To commit to work with key stakeholders, particularly those in the night time economy, to review and implement all possible safety options as a matter of urgency;

To ensure that women’s safety is a key focus on the Council’s Commission on Tackling Violence and Misogyny against Women and Girls that will be launched in 2022;

To write to the UK Government and seek clarity on its plans to classify misogyny as a hate crime, which would encourage reporting of spiking incidents and enable better categorisation of crime to understand the scale of the issue;

To ask the CEO and the new Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police Stephen Watson to write a joint letter to the government for a comprehensive review into the prevalence of, and response of the criminal justice system when investigating spiking offences. The review to consider the incidence rates and rates of reporting by victims; charging and prosecution rates for the offence; the adequacy of sentencing guidelines for the offence; the adequacy of police investigations into reports of the offence; re-offending rates, and rates of offenders who commit sexual offences following a charge or sentence for administering substance with intent; the impact of the offence on victims.

Proposed by Councillor Lynch, seconded by Councillor Stogia and also signed (via email) by Councillors Jeavons, Ludford, Midgley, Moore, Rahman and Russell

The Council notes:

This October hundreds of women and young people took to St Peter’s Square in protests against a sharp rise in spiking cases. Even though drink-spiking is an offence and can carry a ten-year prison sentence, it is hard to get a clear picture of the scale of drink spiking and spiking including spiking via injection: there simply is no recent or comprehensive publicly available data on the number of reported cases.

According to Stamp Out Spiking national research, over 97% of victims don't report being spiked to the police, and generally people don't usually report spiking unless there are further offences committed. Manchester is the home of the Women’s rights movement. We are proud as a city to have active campaigning and support organisations who have continually fought for the safety and protection of women.

The Council resolves:

To support initiatives which actively challenge cultural attitudes that allow sexual assault and harassment to take place including improving education for boys and men regarding personal responsibility, respect, consent and healthy attitudes to sex and relationships;

To explore whether conditions on licenced premises can be included through the Council’s licencing regime to ensure venues have appropriate security and staff training in place to improve safety including the search for spiking paraphernalia and recognising signs that someone could be perpetrating this offence;

To commit to work with key stakeholders, particularly those in the night-time economy, to review and implement all possible safety options as a matter of urgency;

To ensure that women’s safety is a key focus on the Council’s Commission on Tackling Violence and Misogyny against Women and Girls that will be launched in 2022;

To write to the UK Government and seek clarity on its plans to classify misogyny as a hate crime, which would encourage reporting of spiking incidents and enable better categorisation of crime to understand the scale of the issue;

To ask the CEO and the new Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police Stephen Watson to write a joint letter to the government for a comprehensive review into the prevalence of, and response of the criminal justice system when investigating spiking offences. The review to consider the incidence rates and rates of reporting by victims; charging and prosecution rates for the offence; the adequacy of sentencing guidelines for the offence; the adequacy of police investigations into reports of the offence; re-offending rates, and rates of offenders who commit sexual offences following a charge or sentence for administering substance with intent; the impact of the offence on victims.

Motion proposed and seconded:

Resolution

The motion was put to Council and voted on and the Lord Mayor declared that it was carried unanimously.

Decision

The Council notes:

This October hundreds of women and young people took to St Peter’s Square in protests against a sharp rise in spiking cases. Even though drink-spiking is an offence and can carry a ten-year prison sentence, it is hard to get a clear picture of the scale of drink spiking and spiking including spiking via injection: there simply is no recent or comprehensive publicly available data on the number of reported cases.

According to Stamp Out Spiking national research, over 97% of victims don't report being spiked to the police, and generally people don't usually report spiking unless there are further offences committed. Manchester is the home of the Women’s rights movement. We are proud as a city to have active campaigning and support organisations who have continually fought for the safety and protection of women.

The Council resolves:

To support initiatives which actively challenge cultural attitudes that allow sexual assault and harassment to take place including improving education for boys and men regarding personal responsibility, respect, consent and healthy attitudes to sex and relationships;

To explore whether conditions on licenced premises can be included through the Council’s licencing regime to ensure venues have appropriate security and staff training in place to improve safety including the search for spiking paraphernalia and recognising signs that someone could be perpetrating this offence;

To commit to work with key stakeholders, particularly those in the night-time economy, to review and implement all possible safety options as a matter of urgency;

To ensure that women’s safety is a key focus on the Council’s Commission on Tackling Violence and Misogyny against Women and Girls that will be launched in 2022;

To write to the UK Government and seek clarity on its plans to classify misogyny as a hate crime, which would encourage reporting of spiking incidents and enable better categorisation of crime to understand the scale of the issue;

To ask the CEO and the new Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police Stephen Watson to write a joint letter to the government for a comprehensive review into the prevalence of, and response of the criminal justice system when investigating spiking offences. The review to consider the incidence rates and rates of reporting by victims; charging and prosecution rates for the offence; the adequacy of sentencing guidelines for the offence; the adequacy of police investigations into reports of the offence; re-offending rates, and rates of offenders who commit sexual offences following a charge or sentence for administering substance with intent; the impact of the offence on victims.