Nightclub Safety

Geraint Davies Excerpts

Monday 8th November 2021 Westminster Hall

[Tonia Antoniazzi]

I welcome the hon. Member’s comments. That is what the UK Government need to do, working hand in hand with the devolved countries. I thank him for that.

The petition has now been signed by more than 172,000 people, including 180 people in Gower and 224 in the Minister’s constituency, which demonstrates the strength of feeling on the issue. The aim of the petition is for

“the UK Government to make it law that nightclubs must search guests on arrival to prevent harmful weapons and other items entering the establishment. This could be a pat down search or metal detector, but must involve measures being put in place to ensure the safety of the public.”

That seems wholly acceptable to me and many others. The Government can take the lead. Working with local authorities to put in place clear and definitive guidelines to protect the safety of people using licensed premises seems a very sensible thing to do. It would protect not just customers but club owners and workers.

Perhaps the Minister can answer these questions. How many people have to be spiked before the Government will do anything? Do we have to wait until something terrible happens for the Government to act? Local authorities will be key in making these changes. Under their licensing powers, they should take measures to make clubs and pubs safe places to go. What discussions has the Minister had with local government to address this?

I thank Hannah Thomson, who started the petition, for her hard work in promoting it and for speaking to me last week. Hannah was a student in Edinburgh for four years, and though she graduated last year, she still has friends based there. A friend showed her the story about spiking with needles in Edinburgh, and they both questioned how needles were getting into clubs undetected. Hannah realised that in her entire time as a student, she had never been searched when entering a club. That prompted her to do some more research. She found that there is no law on this, and she felt that she could change that.

[Geraint Davies (Swansea West) (Lab/Co-op)]

My hon. Friend mentioned very good work by Swansea police, but she may not be aware of a case that I had where a person was spiked with a needle, and the day after, their arm came up with a massive swelling. They went to the police, who said that the person was just drunk and they refused to look at the CCTV evidence. Does my hon. Friend agree that, while that may be an isolated case, it is important that the police take these incidents very seriously? Any CCTV evidence should be examined, and we should consider testing drinks, which has been piloted in Cornwall.

[Tonia Antoniazzi]

My hon. Friend makes a valid point. I do not think his case is an isolated incident. These incidents are becoming increasingly visible and are happening in nightclubs across the country. My evidence is anecdotal, but A&E departments have seen a rise in cases specifically as a result of university terms starting. That needs to be reported. That is why it is important that the Government take responsibility and find out what the data is. They must raise awareness, working with local authorities and the police to ensure that these are not seen as drunken incidents.

[Geraint Davies]

My point is that it is imperative that the police take these issues very seriously on all occasions and do not, as I understand they sometimes do, dismiss them as, “Oh, she was drunk.” Sometimes these people have been spiked or drugged.

[Tonia Antoniazzi]

I agree with my hon. Friend. He is right––there can be no excuses. The police need to investigate every incident.

Hannah also explained that when she went to a festival in Manchester, she was thoroughly searched and her bag swabbed to ensure that she was not carrying any drugs. She was then given a stamp that required her to be searched again a couple of days later. There is no reason why that could not be introduced in clubs. Safety should never be about cost. What would the cost of serious injury, rape or even death be for a club owner? It would be much, much worse.

When I spoke to Hannah about her petition last week, she outlined some of the comments that she had received. I have looked at her Instagram account and even though she has deleted many of the worst comments, there is a real misunderstanding of what the petition is trying to achieve. She sent me some screen shots. While she did not call them abuse herself, they clearly constitute aggressive and sometimes threatening behaviour, mainly men saying that she was a feminist––I do not see that as an insult––and a racist. This requirement would cover everyone entering a nightclub and is for everyone’s safety.

One theme of the comments was that men were saying that women should not be on a night out if they cannot protect themselves. Now, some people are not fortunate enough to have played rugby for Wales, like me, and be able to look after themselves. But that is not the point; that is not what this is about. Those comments are not welcome. How about men stop attacking women when we are just going about, and carrying on, our lives? How about men start calling out other men on their behaviour? As the Duchess of Cornwall said the week before last,

“rapists are not born, they are constructed.”

Toxic masculinity, extreme porn and the normalisation of violence against women in all areas of popular culture drive this level of violence against women. That is what the Government need to address.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Baker]

I absolutely welcome what the hon. Lady says, and I am grateful to her for it.

[Geraint Davies]

rose—

[Wera Hobhouse (Bath) (LD)]

rose—

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Baker]

As I have said, my instinct is with the hon. Lady and the hon. Member for Gower, but I have been asked to swallow my pride and to not demand that fellow men as a class change their behaviour; it is men who commit wicked acts who need to change. It is men whose attitudes towards women are appalling who need to change. It is people who do wicked things who need to change, and we need to be a bit careful about painting all men as some kind of criminals.

[Geraint Davies]

The basic point is that 5.2% of sexual assaults involve drugging people. Of those, 5% are against women and 0.2% against men. In other words, the incidence is twenty-fivefold for women, so we have to put this in context. Men and women are victims, but it is basically about men attacking women, so let us not pretend that it is not.

[Mr Baker]

I hope the hon. Gentleman will not mind me saying that any fair-minded person listening to my remarks will not suggest for a moment that I have pretended what he suggested. What we need to do is carry all men with us. All men need to understand that we have a duty towards women and to treat women equally, but we also must be careful to not do what I have perhaps done in the past, which is to have a chivalry, which is seen as misplaced these days.

I do not think my wife would mind me saying that I am married to a retired Royal Air Force wing commander who has been on operational service a number of times, and I think I can fairly claim to be capable of treating women equally. Indeed, I recognise that my military service was not anything like my wife’s military service. I yield to no one in my willingness to treat women with respect and equally, but I recognise the statistical reality the hon. Gentleman gave. We need to recognise that we need to carry men with us if we are going to solve the problem of violence against women and girls.

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[Florence Eshalomi (Vauxhall) (Lab/Co-op)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Gray. As the hon. Member for Bath (Wera Hobhouse) highlighted, we have seen nearly 200 reports of drink spiking in the UK, with 58 of those recorded by the Metropolitan police here in London. Each of those reports represents a shocking violation of a woman’s—and victim’s—safety and privacy. As my hon. Friend the Member for Gower (Tonia Antoniazzi) highlighted, the vast majority of victims are women—young women—and there can be a devastating impact on their lives and consequences later on. The reality is that no one is immune from spiking, and every woman feels the impact of spiking every time they go out.

Coming out of lockdown in July, so many people were looking forward to enjoying that freedom and to go out clubbing. For a number of women, going out to support their local bars and clubs was something that they wanted to do, and for some of those young women in my constituency at the Kings College university campus in Waterloo, the past few months have been the first time that they have been able to go out. A number of them are students in their first year, which is a seminal time for everyone, and they should be enjoying that freedom. My constituency has so many thriving nightclubs and bars—hon. Members may have visited some of them on occasions—but, unfortunately, some of those young women have to live in fear of becoming a victim of spiking whenever they go out.

Too often in these debates, we hear about the steps that women have to take to keep themselves safe. Why are we policing women’s behaviour in response to a problem that they did not cause? That needs to change. The tragic death of Sarah Everard earlier this year showed that women are expected to jump through hoops to change their behaviour and are told that they need to keep safe, but still misogynistic violence and abuse goes on. It is not good enough for us to tell women to avoid going clubbing, not to be drunk when they go out and to be uber-vigilant when they go out, especially as, even if they do all those things, they can still be subject to harmful spiking. In a bar, in a club and on their way home, women must be able to enjoy their night out with the same freedom and frivolity as their male colleagues.

We need a sea change in treating violence against women and girls to tackle misogyny and hate. If we want to make our society safer, that must include having conversations with everybody, including our men. I hope that the Minister will reassure us and outline the steps that the Government will take to address the issue fully.

[Geraint Davies]

Is my hon. Friend as concerned as I am about reports of Metropolitan police WhatsApp groups containing misogynistic, sexist and racist commentary, which is often about victims? Does she agree that we need a wholesale review to pull the rotten apples out of the barrel and culturally change the Metropolitan police, as well as the education system, so that women are not in fear and can go out in freedom?

[Florence Eshalomi]

I agree. We should highlight that one bad apple does not exist in isolation with the Met police; unfortunately, this is an issue right across our police forces. I hope that the Minister will outline steps that will be taken where officers are found guilty—in my view, they should face disciplinary action. There should also be more training on dealing with misogyny for our police officers.