Drink spiking incidents in the Dorset Council area remain rare – with a series of measures in place to deal with the problem.

A council licensing committee heard on Wednesday told that most of the reported incidents were in Weymouth, where late night venues are already offered free testing kits via Pubwatch and the police, together with advice on how to reduce the risks.

Council Service Manager for Licensing & Community Safety John Newcombe told the meeting that often, when spiking was alleged, and where a test was carried out, it turned out that the person making the complaint had simply drunk too much alcohol.

“We do see small numbers of drink spiking incidents, particularly in late night entertainment venues. Some of it is anecdotal: when testing kits are used the results are that there hasn’t been drink spiking incidents, it’s potentially people drinking too much and feeling like they have been spiked,” said the officer.

Mr Newcombe said Dorset Council and its partners was proactive in the area to protect people and has achieved Purple Flag status for Weymouth for its good management of the evening and night time economy, and also has a ‘safe space’ available.

“There are quite small numbers but where we have seen incidents of drink spiking they have been in Weymouth,” he said.

Mr Newcombe said that on every Friday and Saturday medically trained staff and street pastors were available in the resort town, working out of St Mary’s, and available until 4am, helping people both to recover from over-indulgence and to get them home safely.

He said that every week a meeting was held with the police and environmental health officers to reflect on incidents from the weekend before with action plans to tackle issues which had cropped up, including reported spiking.

He told the committee that the council were currently waiting to hear if they had been successful with a “Safer Streets” grant application to the Government which, if achieved, would result in a local training programme to help venue stay safe, and which would include dealing with the risks and avoidance of spiking.