Nightclub Safety

Tonia Antoniazzi Excerpts

Monday 8th November 2021 Westminster Hall

[Tonia Antoniazzi (Gower) (Lab)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered e-petition 598986, relating to safety at nightclubs.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Gray, to discuss petition 598986 on making it a legal requirement for nightclubs to search guests thoroughly on entry. We have all seen the stories from around the UK, mainly about women having their drinks spiked and even being jabbed with drugs in some nightclubs. In Swansea, the police are investigating a number of incidents of drink spiking, and as of last week the police in Nottinghamshire were dealing with 15 separate incidents of spiking with something sharp. We now see nightclubs such as Sin City in Swansea taking action by ordering 12,500 StopTopps—anti-spiking lids—as well as implementing a policy that allows those who think their drink might have been spiked to get a replacement for free. In the absence of comprehensive drinks testing, that makes sense.

While those steps from some nightclubs are welcome, what will happen after the media interest has died down? It is not good enough for this issue to be in the hands of some nightclub owners. The Government must realise that something has to be done. A number of clubs have extra security staff on the floors of their nightclubs, so surely it is not beyond the owners’ financial capabilities to invest in making security checks a permanent feature across all clubs in the UK. I understand that this has been a financially difficult 18 months for many venues, but does the Minister agree that some investment in keeping people safe on a night out will make going out a much more attractive proposition and therefore worth it in the long run for club owners?

Many colleagues will have seen the Big Night In initiative, where cities across the UK boycotted pubs and nightclubs in a show of defiance against the increase in spiking. Many town centres were much quieter than normal. With 51% of the population being women, and other groups also being vulnerable to spiking, that is big spending power not out in the clubs; they have made their voices and concerns heard. I thank the many groups who have supported the campaign, including student unions, bars and clubs across the country that closed early, and the Swansea University men’s rugby team, who were among the first to show their solidarity.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

I congratulate the hon. Lady on bringing forward the debate. We have had 21 incidents of spiking in the last month in Northern Ireland. Does she agree that all Administrations in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland must agree a policy that protects women? We could do it here centrally and feed it out to the Administrations.

[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.

[Rushanara Ali (Bethnal Green and Bow) (Lab)]

Does my hon. Friend agree that there is a real need for a systemic approach to capturing data on the number of incidents from across universities, the police, and health services? Does she also agree that some universities are falling way short and not taking responsibility by providing healthcare in clinics 24/7? After facing an incident, young people, particularly women, do not want to go to accident and emergency or to the police straightaway; they need on site, on-campus support that they know how to access, but that is not the case in many universities across the country.

[Tonia Antoniazzi]

My hon. Friend has made absolutely wonderful and excellent points. This should be data driven, and the universities must be working in concert. There has to be consistency across the whole United Kingdom. There need to be guidelines. That is why this petition calls on the Government to take control of the situation.

Let me go back to think about how Hannah felt. This young woman, a year out of university, feels so motivated to make a difference, and she is in Edinburgh, just going about her everyday life. We have to take notice. This issue is happening everywhere. I will go back to talk about Hannah’s social media posts. What happened when she reported some of the comments? What support was she getting from Instagram? Absolutely nothing. It said that it would not take action against those posting the comments, so in the end she had to delete them. It became a really difficult thing for one person, one young woman, to have to deal with. I say to those social media platforms that are unwilling to act: get your house in order; you may be able to change your company name, but we still know who you are, and we will be taking action to make sure that you clean up the cesspit that social media can be.

Clubs themselves also have to take responsibility. When Hannah went on one radio show to talk about this issue, a nightclub owner was arguing that the rise in reported drink-spiking incidents was because students going out were not used to drinking so much after being stuck indoors because of covid and were reporting it as spiking. Fortunately, that attitude seems to be limited to a few uncaring club owners. In fact, Mike Kill, chairman of the Night Time Industries Association, has called on the Government to hold an inquiry into spiking. The association would like a review of the way in which spiking is classified and recorded, meaning that it could look at solutions based on the full facts. It has also highlighted a scheme put in place by Devon and Cornwall police that provided on-site testing as soon as there was a report of spiking. That meant a uniform approach to reporting, assessment and evidence gathering, which increased confidence and reduced fear of crime among customers. Will the Minister today agree to meet me and the Night Time Industries Association to discuss the scheme trialled in Devon and Cornwall and see how we can roll this out across the country? Where there are patterns of this behaviour that can be identified, it is much easier for effective policies to be put in place, and this could be put in place quickly.

I thank Hannah for talking to me about how she and her friends felt. I really appreciate her efforts on this issue and hope that we can get some concrete commitments from the Minister today.

The last 18 months have been particularly hard on women. I am thinking of Sarah Everard, Nicole Smallman, Bibaa Henry and Sabina Nessa and of those women who were locked down with their abusers. The subject of today’s debate is just part of a wider picture for women all over the United Kingdom. Violence towards women and girls is an epidemic of epic proportions, and the Government must act now to stem it.

[Paul Blomfield (Sheffield Central) (Lab)]

The issue that we are addressing today was raised with me, before the recent media attention, by school students at King Edward VII School in Sheffield. The prevalence that they describe, in terms of their experience, is distressing. I have also had reports of incidents at house parties. Does my hon. Friend agree that the issue does not simply end with nightclubs but is about a wider spectrum of behaviour? There have been some good campaigns. My own student union in Sheffield has a good initiative and some nightclubs are working well, but, as she has said, but there has not been a comprehensive approach, which is what we need to address this.

Does my hon. Friend agree that the Government need to work with the police and other authorities to treat the issue more seriously and view it in the wider context of violence against women and girls? Does she also agree that the strategy needs to challenge the whole spectrum of behaviour, which starts with casual harassment and ends with sexual violence?

--- Later in debate ---

[Tonia Antoniazzi]

I thank my hon. Friend for his comments. It is really shocking to find out that school students in his constituency were raising this issue with him before it even came to the public eye. That shows that they know about it through social media platforms and have an understanding of this danger. I am concerned that this is happening not only in nightclubs, but in the wider community, in house parties. It is becoming a craze and a trend. It has to be taken seriously by everybody. That is why education is key. We have issues in this country around access. More young people are online now and they have access to all sorts of very dangerous pornography and materials. That needs to be addressed as a cultural issue.

[Rachael Maskell (York Central) (Lab/Co-op)]

Tomorrow, North Yorkshire police will have a multi-agency meeting, including with universities and higher education institutions, to discuss the issue of spiking. Does my hon. Friend agree that we need to talk about the availability of trauma services, which are seriously underfunded and understaffed?

[Tonia Antoniazzi]

I thank my hon. Friend for her comments about trauma services. As we have seen, those services are needed 24/7 at universities. They are needed at police stations. They are needed everywhere and the issue needs to be addressed.

We cannot go on like this. Radical action needs to be taken. Misogyny should be a hate crime. Support for women facing domestic abuse needs to be restored. Education for boys and men needs to be put in place. This is a specific debate, but it speaks to a much wider issue—one which needs action, not words, today.

[Mr Steve Baker (Wycombe) (Con)]

I welcome today’s extremely important debate. I agree overwhelmingly with what other Members have said.

I came to speak in this debate because I was contacted this morning by a concerned parent about what was, to me, a new horror: spiking by injection. It is fair to say that when I was young enough to go to nightclubs—a very long time ago—we may have feared that people would spike our drinks with spirits. The idea that today, people—overwhelmingly young women, I understand—might be spiked by injection is a grave horror. I want to use the word “grave” a few times.

To inject a person against their will should be regarded as a grave assault—one of the most serious assaults. They are injected not only against their will, but with a substance unknown, with the purpose of intoxicating them and, presumably, with a view towards raping them. That is the most extraordinary horror. Yet, as we heard earlier, the police do not always take it as seriously as they might. I want to know what my hon. Friend the Minister is going to do to make sure that what is the most exceptionally serious assault is treated as such. This kind of crime should attract the most serious penalties, and no one should be in any doubt about how serious it is. That includes security staff at nightclubs and police officers, though I do not wish to assign blame to any of those groups. Ambulance crews should also be aware that while somebody they pick up may seem to be intoxicated, they might in fact have been injected with a drug.

This morning, after hearing such an alarming account, I called Michael Kill, the chief executive of the Night Time Industries Association, and asked him about it. I will not repeat the remarks that the hon. Member for Gower (Tonia Antoniazzi) made about his comments, but I will add an extra quote:

“Our industry has been deeply concerned by the rise in reported spiking incidents across the country, and have been extremely proactive in our reaction so that everyone can enjoy a night out free from fear of being spiked, as it should be.”

He goes on to refer to the Home Office inquiry sought by the association and to which the hon. Lady has referred.

I strongly endorse the call for action on spiking by injection. Of course, I care about spiking through drinks as well, but we should draw the distinction that injecting somebody with a substance unknown ought to be treated as among the most grievous assaults that could be carried out, partly because of its motivation, which is probably that of rape. I am so horrified that I find it difficult to put it in words, so I do not wish to labour the point.

My final point is a difficult one to make. It is about the hon. Lady’s point about men as a class. I do not doubt for a moment that men as a class conduct most of the violence that is conducted against others and against women. I am very much inclined to take the position that she set out that men should do this or that. However, one of the women in my team, who has worked in the past with abused men, asked me not to do that, because the vast majority of men are decent, civilised and law-abiding people who want women to be treated with respect and do not perpetrate violence. I have been asked, despite a mistaken chivalry on my part, not to blame men as a class.

[Tonia Antoniazzi]

I totally respect the hon. Member’s comments about men. It is just that the victims in this case tend to be women and the perpetrators tend to be men, but I completely respect that my comments may have come across like that. We do have an issue that we need to address—let us work together and not make it an issue of sex, but of how we can keep people safe.

[Mr Baker]

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

--- Later in debate ---

[Tonia Antoniazzi]

I welcome the comments that the Minister has made in response to the petition and I thank everybody who has participated from the Back Benches for their comments. One thing that comes across is the need for consistency, for people to work together, and for all organisations to ensure that this behaviour does not continue but is addressed by the Government. I welcome the comments made by the hon. Member for Wycombe (Mr Baker): he says that we need to have a campaign that raises the profile of the issue. The Minister spoke about the public information and the communication plan; I hope to see this at the forefront, especially now, with young people in university and more active—going out—in the night-time economy.

I will just refer to some of my notes. My hon. Friend the Member for Warwick and Leamington (Matt Western) talked about pulling the local authorities together with young people to discuss what is happening in his constituency. I will be suggesting with my Swansea colleagues some of the things talked about today—meeting the local night-time industry and also working with the licensing agencies. It is important that people who set up campaigns in the UK know the situation with the licensing laws and the local authorities and where those responsibilities lie, so that they can take this further.

I thank Hannah Thomson, because what she set up has brought about a debate in this House, which is important. This is not about chivalry; it is about working together. It is not about calling out any particular people, but we do need to raise the fact that the way we treat women and girls in this country is, frankly, a disgrace. I am fed up of hearing about how we are just putting them aside. I hate the word “banter”. I have a 17-year-old son who thinks banter is hilarious. It is not hilarious, because it has consequences. We have to change our mindset and our culture. We have to deal with the online harms Bill. We have to ensure that our young people, our women and girls, are safe and that we have a respectful culture in this country whereby we can all go about our lives and live our best lives. I thank the Minister; I thank those on our Benches; and thank you, Mr Gray.

Question put and agreed to.

Resolved,

That this House has considered e-petition 598986, relating to safety at nightclubs.