Liverpool's clubland determined to go beyond Labour's spiking plans

Liverpool could be set to lead the way in dealing with spiking in city night clubs as the government aims to stamp out the harmful practice. This week, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer revealed more details on his plans to make spiking a drink a specific criminal offence as part of the government’s crackdown on violence against women and girls.

During a meeting with police bosses, transport figures and hospitality executives in Downing Street on Monday morning, the Prime Minister said he hoped the measures would give people “the confidence to come forward”. He laid out plans for venue staff to be trained in relation to spiking, with a pilot to begin within weeks before a wider rollout next year.

The government announced that 10,000 workers in the hospitality industry will be trained to deal with incidents by next spring as part of an expansion of a scheme piloted from December, to be rolled out from March of next year. But venues in Liverpool could go even further, with one veteran of the city's pub and nightclub scene saying the hospitality sector should be aiming to train all staff in preventing and handling spiking incidents.

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John Hughes is chairman of Pub Watch and Liverpool Nightlife CIC and he works with nightclub and pub owners in the city centre. John insists that while Liverpool is a safe night out, there is still more that can be done to tackle spiking - and he believes Liverpool can go beyond current government plans.

Speaking to the ECHO, John said: "Any sort of training in licenced premises, it's no good just a handful of people knowing what to do. We see the training side of it in Liverpool as one of the main things [to focus on] and we don't want to just train frontline staff - we want to share that knowledge with everyone.

"It is difficult to train everyone because of the nature of the night time economy. For some people these jobs are a part-time thing. It's also very difficult to get your messages over to all the staff, because of the business that we are in, when you want to speak to people they are in bed because they're working until the early hours of the morning."

But despite the challenges, John said he thinks Liverpool should be aiming to go beyond the training measures planned by the government. He said: "In Liverpool we want to go beyond what the government is recommending. I think they need to do more for our industry because we are on our knees and in April with the rising costs facing businesses it's only going to get worse. It's tough out there at the minute."

Part of John's work with Pub Watch and Liverpool Nightlife CIC involves giving out testing kits to customers in clubs and bars, which enable drinkers to check if their beverages have any unwanted substances in them. John is also working on designing a safety app which he hopes will be rolled out across the city's bars and clubs to offer free training for all staff, along with safety checks for businesses.

He said: "The great thing about Liverpool is we are all working together so well." John also highlighted the city's 'Purple Flag' status, which is has proudly held for 14 years. The Purple Flag rating is like the Blue Flag for beaches or Green Flag for parks – which aims to raise the standard and broaden the appeal of town and city centres in the evening and night time.

Detailing the planned national training scheme, Sir Keir told the meeting it would be “partly to spot what’s happening, but also to know what to do in the event that there is an incident in a venue”.

Labour says the proposals are part of the party’s promise to halve violence against women and girls in the next decade – although home secretary Yvette Cooper did admit the pledge is “ambitious” and that the government has not worked out how to measure their progress as she laid out a string of reforms to overhaul policing at an annual summit with police chiefs last Tuesday.

Home secretary Yvette Cooper said: “Spiking is a disturbing and serious crime which can have a damaging and long-lasting impact on victims.

“That’s why today we are taking decisive action to prevent this devastating crime and to crack down on perpetrators, by introducing a new criminal offence for spiking and launching specialist training for thousands of bar staff nationwide.

“People shouldn’t have to worry about the safety of their drinks on a night out. These changes are about giving victims greater confidence to come forward, and ensuring that there is a robust response from the police whenever these appalling crimes take place.”