Nightclub Safety

Debate between Jeff Smith and Jess Phillips

Monday 8th November 2021 Westminster Hall

[Jess Phillips (Birmingham, Yardley) (Lab)]

Thank you, Mr Gray. I apologise to all assembled. I tried to leave the Chamber but was called as I was leaving—I was assured by Mr Speaker that he wanted me to speak. I have read the remarks made by my hon. Friend the Member for Gower (Tonia Antoniazzi) and am forever grateful to her for making them. She is a brilliant advocate of women’s rights, and it is no surprise to hear her speaking up with the petitioners in this instance.

It is also no surprise to me to see the number of Members who represent university towns, and the clear level of concern across the country about this particular issue. I do not know what the explanation is, and I very much doubt that the Minister knows what the explanation is, for this sudden moment in which the issue is reaching the headlines. It seems unusual that this situation is occurring, apart from the fact that it is not in any way unusual that women in our country have to run the gauntlet, whether at home, at work, going on a night out, walking to get anywhere, going on a bus, or—in some terrible cases—when approaching those agencies that are meant to be there to protect them.

I am afraid to say that spiking is by no means a new thing. In 2019, a BBC investigation uncovered 2,600 reports of drink spiking to police in England and Wales over the previous four years, and everybody will know that that is only a tiny fraction of what actually happened. Who knows? Every woman I know has been on a night out with a group of their friends and one of them is suddenly uncontrollable, or their legs suddenly go away from them and they are much drunker than they should be. That is not an unusual circumstance. The trouble is that when it is violence against women and girls, it does not matter that there were already 2,600 reports in 2019; we never seem to be able to quite reach a big enough number for things to actually get done.

I regularly stand in front of the House of Commons and say these things. The Office for National Statistics told us this week that reported rape had gone up by 8%, so it is now 62,000, 1.6 million women are victims of domestic abuse and, only two years ago, as I say, there were 2,600 reports of drink spiking. With this new phenomenon, this new issue, it is the introduction of the use of a needle that is frightening. The hon. Member for Wycombe (Mr Baker) quite rightly pointed out that such an action needs to carry a more severe punishment. To me, carrying into a nightclub a drug to put into somebody’s drink, or for injection—it seems harrowing, to inject somebody—is like carrying a knife, a weapon. In fact, it is not like it—it is carrying a weapon. The only aim is to harm.

[Jeff Smith (Manchester, Withington) (Lab)]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right, and she is also right that we do not really know what is going on. I wonder whether there is a kind of dual phenomenon, whereby we have a very well-known and long-standing problem with drink spiking, which seems even to be increasing, putting vulnerable women, mainly, at risk, but I wonder whether there is something else going on, which is people being stabbed by a sharp implement—a needle-stick injury—for reasons or motivation unknown, and that becoming a copycat thing around the country. It could be that those two phenomena are going on at the same time.

The reason I raise this point—

[Jeff Smith]

My hon. Friend is right. Both these things are problems, which is why it is really important that the call from the Night Time Industries Association for an inquiry into this situation, to get to the bottom of it, should be heeded.

[Jess Phillips]

I agree, although I have to say that even that kind of spiking is not necessarily a new phenomenon. I am a little old for nightclubs now—actually, I am not—but I remember there being a similar phenomenon. The Minister, whose constituency is a near neighbour of mine—at certain points she has been a nearer neighbour as a representative in Birmingham—will remember that there was a story about a particular nightclub in Birmingham. It is no longer there, so I can name it and not bring it into any disrepute—it was called The Dome. There were all these stories about pinpricks, and I am talking 20 years ago.

I do not know whether this new form of spiking is a new phenomenon, but the thing is that we do not know. What women know, and what my hon. Friend the Member for Gower and the petition are suggesting, is that they are seeking some level of security so that they can go into a place and feel safe. We can never stop all harm; we cannot. However, I really hope to hear from the Minister some tangible asks and action about how we will make sure people can feel safe.