'We won't give up': Charity ‘frustrated’ as Justice Secretary insists standalone spiking offence ‘not needed’

Colin and Mandy Mackie, from Elvanfoot in South Lanarkshire, started the charity Spike Aware UK in 2017 after their 18-year-old son Greg was found dead in his halls of residence in Edinburgh.

A toxicology report concluded he had the equivalent of five ecstasy tablets but no trace of alcohol in his system. Colin and Mandy insist that their son was spiked, but nobody has ever been found responsible.

Since then, the pair, who are both 63-years-old, have worked to spread awareness about drink and needle spiking - including providing parliamentary evidence explaining to MPs why it should become a standalone offence as well as highlighting loopholes in the wording of a bill currently going through the UK Parliament.

During November 2024, Prime Minister Keir Starmer outlined plans to crack down on spiking and said that he would make spiking a new criminal offence.

Despite spiking already being illegal, the new legislation - which is currently being put before the House of Lords - would repeal sections 22, 23 and 25 of the Offences against the Person Act 1861, modernising the language while increasing maximum penalties, and updating how and in which courts the offences are dealt with.

“Currently what you’ve got is that the forces all treat spiking differently. It’s not only just the forces - it can change officer to officer because they’re not quite sure how they’re going to deal with it,” Colin explained.

“So we feel with the standalone offence, it’ll be more clear.

“I’ve constantly banged the drum of if there’s no prosecutions, there’s no deterrent. With a standalone offence, hopefully that’ll bring more prosecutions.

“And then when youngsters in particular realise: ‘well, wait a minute - I could have a criminal record out of this that could affect my job or place at university or college’.

“That might also help them turn around and make them think.”

Despite public support of this move by the UK Government in creating a standalone offence as part of the Crime and Policing Bill covering England and Wales, the Scottish Government say they ‘strongly’ believe further legislation on spiking is not needed north of the border.

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In Scotland, spiking is addressed under Common Law and in the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009.

Responses to Freedom of Information requests reveal that there were just four convictions for drink spiking between 2021-2023, with no convictions at all in 2024-2025.

In total, there were 47 charges reported to the Crown Office over the last four years, which included four cases ending in conviction, 17 resulting in no conviction, one resulting in no action, and 10 that were still ongoing.

Justice Secretary Angela Constance told MSPs on Holyrood’s justice committee in October that, in Scotland, there is no legislative gap in relation to spiking.

This was after a report in September from The Drinkaware 2025 Monitor – the UK’s only nationally representative annual survey of drinking behaviour – revealed 1.5 per cent of adults in Scotland – approximately 67,000 people – reported being a victim of drink spiking in the past year.

Further research by the Drinkaware charity has found only one in 10 spiking incidents are actually reported to Police Scotland.

Justice Secretary: ‘we do not need further legislation’

At the time, Angela Constance told the committee: “We are strongly of the view that we do not need further legislation on spiking.

“Spiking is addressed under common law as well as under the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009, so, in my view and in the view of the Government, there is not a legislative gap around that in Scotland.

“Legislation is there to prosecute people who do that and to imprison them for up to five years.

“Where work has been done on spiking—the Minister for Victims and Community Safety, Siobhian Brown, has led round-table discussions on the issue across the stakeholder groups and parties, and there has been considerable interest in it in the Parliament—the focus has been on raising awareness and on the work that Police Scotland does around the night-time economy in pubs and clubs.

“There has also been work on the pathway to report spiking and to get care.

“There was a need to be clear that people can and should report spiking, but they also needed a healthcare pathway.”

However, Mandy and Colin have labelled this stance as “reckless”, and noted there are people in parliament who feel the same including Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay who floated plans in 2023 to put forward a Members’ Bill to make spiking a standalone offence.

Colin added: “It is frustrating. Being a Scotland-based charity, it’s probably more frustrating for us than it would be for some.

“We are working with Police Scotland and the Scottish Government but at the moment we’re not getting any traction on that.

“But we’re not going to give up, we’re not walking away.

“I don’t think there’s much difference between someone being spiked in Scotland and someone being spiked in England so I’d like to see it all come across as a united front.”

And it’s not just parliamentary officials agreeing with the charity, while the duo are out at Freshers events across Scotland, all students they have spoken to are in agreement that spiking needs to become a standalone offence.

“We’ve spent so long now telling people how to protect themselves from spikers. But now’s the time to go on the offensive and start to prosecute people,” he added.

“We can’t keep saying ‘do this, do that’. You’re out for a good night, you shouldn’t have to be covering drinks and leaving one person at a table.”

Refusal to make spiking an offence is ‘abject dereliction of duty’

Scottish Conservative shadow minister for victims and community safety Sharon Dowey MSP said: “The SNP’s continued refusal to make spiking a standalone criminal offence is an abject dereliction of duty.

“Their decision means that Scottish victims of this predatory and dangerous crime will continue to be failed because of confusion around current legislation.”

Mandy said: “As a charity, we’re not about money. We’re about education.

“We’re about wanting to give something back. We want to do something because it happened to our son and we don’t want it to happen to anyone else.”

“I didn’t actually realise how big of a job it would become,” Colin added.

“I basically do it full-time now. It’s a mission that we’ve got to see it through.

“If it stops people going through what we’re going through then that’s it.

“I’d really like to say to people: stay safe during Christmas, protect each other, and remember that adding alcohol to someone’s drink is still spiking.”

You can contact Spike Aware UK on 07368 191124 . Alternatively, get support from Victim Support Scotland by calling 08 00 16 01 985.