Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has the lead for alcohol policy in Scotland. However, Food Standards Scotland (FSS) has responsibility for the policies surrounding general food labelling in Scotland and work closely with policy officials across the four nations on these issues.

FSS launched a four-week consultation on 23 October 2018 to assess the current understanding and use of the descriptive terms ‘low alcohol’, ‘non-alcoholic’, ‘alcohol-free’ and ‘de alcoholised’ but unfortunately this work was paused due to matters relating to EU exit.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information. This is a matter for NHS Education for Scotland (NES).

The descriptor for alcohol-free products as set out in current UK Government guidance, which applies in Scotland is:

this should only be applied to a drink from which the alcohol has been extracted if it contains no more than 0.05% ABV, and the products should also include the ABV (or state that they contain no alcohol) on the label in order to use the descriptor.

These can be found on the UK Government’s website https://www.gov.uk/

The Scottish Government does not intervene in or comment on the investigation, prosecution or sentencing of individual cases which are independent operational matters for Police Scotland, Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service and the courts.

Police Scotland have advised they take all reports of spiking seriously and thoroughly investigates all reports.

A comprehensive Investigative Strategy has been developed and circulated to provide guidance and direction to staff responding to and investigating incidents of spiking. A Detective Superintendent has national investigative oversight and Senior Investigating Officers have been appointed within each policing division to lead on all spiking related investigations locally. Police Scotland’s focus is on identifying people who carry out an assault in this way, investigating fully, gathering evidence, and working with Crown Office to bring the perpetrator to justice.

Where evidence is provided to Crown Office as regards an offence, it is for independent prosecutors to decide what action to take. If a case is prosecuted, it is for the independent court to determine whether an accused person is guilty and if so, what an appropriate sentence should be.

Digital Health and Care provides funding to DHI which in turn supports enterprises of assorted sizes to develop ideas and solutions that can be applied in health and care settings. We support DHI with their industry leadership group which meets with medium sized organisations for input and feedback.

The Scottish Government held several roundtable meetings to bring together partners including representatives from the night-time industry and licensed premises sector to discuss the prevalence of spiking and a range of initiatives and information available on spiking.

Key outcomes from roundtable discussions focussed on messaging, training and prevention, with the Violence Reduction Unit supporting Police Scotland and businesses within the night-time economy sector to continue roll out of the bystander training to raise awareness for staff to help keep people safe.

Businesses within the night-time economy sector invest in training for staff and support a number of initiatives to keep people safe. The Scottish Government has long supported the industry-led Best Bar None Scotland initiative, a unique national accreditation and award scheme, which has been supported by the Scottish Business Resilience Centre – with input from Police Scotland – for a number of years. It is aimed at raising standards and rewarding licensed premises who undertake positive management practices in support of a safe night out. There was an acknowledged impact on the scheme as a result of the pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis and the Scottish Government will be working with partners to identify options for improving delivery of its core objectives.

The act of spiking is utterly abhorrent and we remain absolutely committed to working with partners to tackle all forms of violence against women.

The Scottish Government has taken a proactive approach to understand the prevalence and address concerns about the incidence of reported spiking in Scotland.

Since November 2021, several roundtable meetings have taken place to bring together partners from across the justice system including policing, victims organisations and prosecution in addition to representatives from colleges and universities, community safety and night-time economy sector. These meetings have been designed to discuss the range of initiatives and information available on spiking. Information is available on the safer.scot website, to inform and support the public around the subject of spiking. This is being updated on a quarterly basis.

Analysis of spiking incidents by Police Scotland is undertaken on a weekly basis to ensure national oversight is maintained and understanding evolves. The Scottish Government is kept informed about any changes in the prevalence of spiking. The number of reported incidents related to spiking are published annually within the National Statistics bulletin on crimes and offences recorded by the police in Scotland.

Spiking can be prosecuted under the common law offence of drugging, which is a broad offence covering all types of drink spiking. Another common law offence which may be relevant depending on the individual facts and circumstances of each case is assault. There is also a more specific statutory offence contained in section 11 of the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009 called administering a substance for sexual purposes. This provides it is an offence for a person to intentionally administer a substance, or cause a substance to be taken by another person, without the other person knowing, and without any reasonable belief that the other person knows, for a sexual purpose. A sexual purpose is for the purpose of stupefying or overpowering someone, so as to enable any person to engage in a sexual activity which involves the person who administered the substance.

We have no plans at this time to create a specific criminal offence of spiking however we keep all laws under review.

The impact of digital technology on the health and care workforce has been considered in several reports, such as the Topol Review commissioned by NHS England The Topol Review — NHS Health Education England (hee.nhs.uk) .

In general terms, digital technology can support the workforce in the delivery of care, free up capacity reducing the administrative burden and open up opportunities for new models of care and new ways of working. The workforce already works in the digital age, and digital technology will continue to augment and enhance the person-centred nature of health and social care services.

The number of people who have purchased a property via the Open Market Shared Equity (OMSE) scheme each year since its launch is set out in the following below:

The Scottish Government has taken a proactive approach to understand the prevalence, raise awareness and address concerns about the incidence of reported spiking in Scotland.

Several roundtable meetings have taken place to help steer the joint Scottish Government and public sector response to the act of spiking. These meetings have been designed to discuss the range of initiatives and information available on spiking. Significant work was undertaken to raise awareness and heighten vigilance in the run up to the return to college and university campuses. Information has also been made available on the safer.scot website, to inform and support the public around the subject of spiking. This has been promoted through the roundtable membership and by the representative organisations and sectors.

Furthermore, Police Scotland has prioritised its response to incidents of spiking. A comprehensive Investigative Strategy has been developed and circulated to provide guidance and direction to staff responding to and investigating incidents of spiking. A Detective Superintendent has national investigative oversight and Senior Investigating Officers have been appointed within each policing division to lead on all spiking related investigations locally.