Committee
Education, Children and Young People Committee 26 January 2022
26 Jan 2022 · S6 · Education, Children and Young People Committee
Item of business
Drink and Needle Spiking
Agenda item 4 is an evidence session on drink and needle spiking. Joining us today for a round-table discussion are Jill Stevenson, dean of diversity and inclusion and director of student services at the University of Stirling and director of AMOSSHE, the Student Services Organisation; Ellen MacRae, president of Edinburgh University Students Association; Martha Williams of the girls night in campaign; and Mike Grieve, chair of the Night Time Industries Association—I am looking for Mike on my screen; I am sure that he is there somewhere. Ah—there he is. We also have Superintendent Hilary Sloan of the partnerships, prevention and community wellbeing division, and of harm prevention, at Police Scotland; Andrew Green, policy manager—pub operations at the Scottish Beer & Pub Association; Professor Sally Mapstone, the principal and vice chancellor of the University of St Andrews and the vice convener of Universities Scotland; and Kate Wallace, the chief executive officer of Victim Support Scotland. I thank the witnesses for their time. I will do a bit of housekeeping to begin with. This is intended to be a virtual round-table session. We have all been working on screens long enough to know some of the challenges that that might present for us to have the dynamic of conversation that we would normally have in a conventional round-table session. It is intended that this will be a conversational session rather than a question-and-answer one. As I cannot see everybody on the screen at any one time, witnesses should put an R in the chat box if they wish to speak. I will come straight to them. They should not wait to be asked to say something if they want to say anything. We want to hear from them and we want to hear them talk to each other. I will monitor the chat box and ensure that everyone who wants to speak is brought in. I will start our discussion. The number of reported crimes under the two offences that we are discussing has increased significantly, particularly in quarter 4 last year. What do the witnesses think about those offences? Did they rise significantly in 2021? Why has there been a spike—no pun intended—in the reported incidence of those crimes? I invite Superintendent Hilary Sloan to start us off on that.
In the same item of business
The Convener
Con
Agenda item 4 is an evidence session on drink and needle spiking. Joining us today for a round-table discussion are Jill Stevenson, dean of diversity and inc...
Superintendent Hilary Sloan (Police Scotland)
As you said, convener, there was a significant increase in the reporting of spiking incidents in mid-October, which coincided with public concern in relation...
The Convener
Con
What is your assessment of what caused the uptick over the Halloween period? Was that in a specific geographical area or was it at a set of events?
Superintendent Sloan
The three primary areas where the incidents have been most prevalent are the student cities—Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh—and they usually coincide with th...
Professor Sally Mapstone (Universities Scotland)
I agree with Hilary Sloan. There is still a lot of work to do to gauge the extent and prevalence of spiking in Scotland. We might discuss that today and look...
The Convener
Con
We can hear the voice of students from Ellen MacRae.
Ellen MacRae (Edinburgh University Students Association)
I agree with Sally Mapstone’s point that it is not only students who are impacted. I think that every student knows at least one person who has been spiked d...
Martha Williams (Girls Night In)
I can give another student perspective on the question of why spiking has escalated. One explanation that I have come to is that we have all been kept indoor...
The Convener
Con
What is the reason for that?
Martha Williams
As Ellen MacRae has said, there is a culture of victim blaming. People are afraid that, if they come forward, their stories will not be taken seriously. Unfo...
The Convener
Con
I see that Stephanie Callaghan has put a comment in the chat function, asking for more information about the survey that you mentioned. Can you run through s...
Martha Williams
The data were gathered from a social media account that has turned itself into an outlet for people to come forward and report incidents of spiking that they...
The Convener
Con
I wonder whether Kate Wallace can shed further light on that.
Kate Wallace (Victim Support Scotland)
Thank you for bringing me in, convener. The underreporting of crime is generally an issue, with fewer than half of those who say that they have been a victim...
The Convener
Con
You—
Kate Wallace
We should also remember that there is no specific crime of spiking, which does not help in gauging prevalence. I am sorry if I interrupted you, convener.
The Convener
Con
No—you made a very important point. You mentioned the settings where there is what you have described as additional unwelcome alcohol, which I presume is put...
Kate Wallace
Or you are given, say, triples that you do not want or have not asked for.
The Convener
Con
What is the most likely setting for that? Are you suggesting that that is more likely to happen in a private setting?
Kate Wallace
We are talking about multiple settings—it is not just one or the other. I just wanted to remind people that spiking can occur outwith nightclubs, pubs and th...
Superintendent Sloan
I want to reiterate some of the points that have been made. We in Police Scotland have focused our communications on perpetrator behaviour, because it is the...
The Convener
Con
There was a comment earlier from Ellen MacRae, I think, about reporting. How would a victim—someone who has had such a thing perpetrated on them—normally rep...
Superintendent Sloan
It depends on the individual and on what they wish to do. We have bystander awareness training, which we have shared with the staff of licensed premises and ...
Martha Williams
I will make a quick point. One of the key issues in the conversation is the fact that there is such a lack of clarity on the procedure for reporting spikings...
The Convener
Con
It is apt that we turn to Jill Stevenson, from the University of Stirling, who is also director of the Association of Managers of Student Services in Higher ...
Jill Stevenson (Association of Managers of Student Services In Higher Education)
I hope that I can pick up on some of those points. Notwithstanding the valid points that have been made about the issue being not just for students but for w...
The Convener
Con
Martha Williams mentioned that young people have been locked in and locked down, and she gave that as one of the reasons for the uptick, which is very plausi...
Jill Stevenson
It is a complex question, because there are many types of gender-based violence. I would probably defer to the police on prevalence. We know that all types o...
The Convener
Con
Would Hilary Sloan like to make a quick comment on that? Then I will bring in Kaukab Stewart, who has a point to address to Mike Grieve and Andrew Green.
Superintendent Sloan
People having the confidence to report incidents to us, whether it is gender-based violence or any other crime, is key for us. We want people to come forward...