The Know Daily - Monday 18 December 2023

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The Geminids meteor shower delighted stargazers around the world last week. Viewers across the UK and abroad took to X/Twitter to share some remarkable snaps, with one photographer describing the shower as “easily the most impressive” one they’d ever witnessed.

🥂 Spiking crackdown

Self-testing kits that detect whether a drink has been spiked could be rolled out in pubs and bars across the country, as ministers unveil new measures to tackle the crime. 

How would the kits work?
Under plans unveiled today by Home Secretary James Cleverly, funding will be given for research into kits that could be used by venues and police forces. It is hoped that they can “identify whether a drink has been spiked in real time”, said The Times.

Free test kits that can detect whether certain drugs have been added to a drink were handed out in bars in Shrewsbury earlier this month, noted the paper, with a similar scheme implemented in Worksop, Nottinghamshire.

What else is being done?
Cleverly announced a number of other measures to tackle the issue. These include training hundreds more door staff to spot the signs of spiking, and rolling out an online tool to all police forces to make it easier for people to report spiking anonymously.

Nearly 5,000 needle and drink spiking incidents were reported to police in England and Wales in the year to September 2022, according to figures supplied by the National Police Chiefs' Council.

How have the plans been received?
The measures have “broadly been welcomed” by campaigners, said the BBC, although some accused Cleverly of not going far enough by not making spiking “a specific offence”.

The government said it would amend the Criminal Justice Bill to make clear “without any doubt” that spiking is illegal. However, some campaigners and MPs had argued that the creation of a new law would help “increase reporting of incidents and improve police data”.