Question reference: S6W-14203
- Asked by: Russell Findlay, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
- Date lodged: 20 January 2023
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Current status: Answered by Keith Brown on 2 February 2023
Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will make an assessment of any potential benefits of requiring venues to declare to the local licensing authority whenever an incident of suspected spiking has occurred.
Answer
The Scottish Government held several roundtable meetings to bring together partners to discuss the prevalence of spiking and a range of initiatives and information available on spiking.
Representatives from COSLA and SOLAR (Society of Local Authority Lawyers and Administrators in Scotland) Licensing Committee were invited to the roundtable discussions.
We have also separately engaged with the SOLAR working group membership and the National Licensing Standard Officers (LSO) Forum to better understand the scale of spiking in Scotland within venues and consider whether any further actions are required. Previous discussions have not suggested any moves to introduce mandatory reporting conditions, however, under existing licensing laws it is possible for Licensing Standards Officers to submit reports, objections or representations on various matters to Licensing Boards. Where appropriate, LSOs may also be required to submit applications for a review of premises licences. More generally, we would expect independent Licensing Boards to co-operate and liaise with Police Scotland where required to ensure that consistency with the licensing objectives is upheld in the operation of the licensed premises at all times.