DRUGGING offences in Scotland surged by 1,705 per cent last year, according to new figures uncovered by the Herald.

The year 2021 saw 361 drugging offences recorded by Police Scotland, compared to just 20 in 2019 and 20 in 2020.

The huge jump, uncovered in a freedom of information request, is likely to be related to the anger that greeted reports of a 19-year-old woman in Nottingham, who said she was “spiked by a needle” on a night out.

Other students took to social media to share their experiences of having drinks tampered with while out. Many will have told police.

It ultimately sparked a “Girls Night In” boycott of nightclubs and bars.

A number of venues introduced new security measures in a bid to try and reassure customers.

While Police Scotland was unable to say how many people have been charged with spiking people’s drinks or spiking people by injection, they were able to give figures for “drugging” and “administering a substance for sexual purposes”.

There was little change in that latter charge, going from 23 in 2019, to 16 in 2020 to 18 in 2021.

The big increase was in drugging, which is “when drugs are feloniously administered with intent to produce stupefaction”.

Unlike the other charge, there is no need to prove any “further intent”.

Kate Wallace, the chief executive of Victim Support Scotland, repeated her call to make a spiking a specific crime, one that covers both drugs and drink.

She said: “Often people who experience drink spiking don’t report to the police for fear of not being believed or thinking it is their own fault.

“Spiking currently is currently not a specific offence, which needs to be looked at and will have an obvious bearing on statistics reported.”

She added: “As well as public awareness, we need to also see effective measures put in place to prevent offenders, giving a clear message that spiking someone’s drink is not acceptable.”

Assistant Chief Constable Bex Smith said: "We continue to investigate reports from people having been 'spiked' either with a needle or in their drink. 

“Thankfully there has been a reduction in such instances since the small, but notable, increase towards the end of 2021.”

She added: “We are not always able to determine the reasons why a perpetrator carries out an assault in this way, but would like to reassure you that every report is taken seriously and perpetrators are dealt with swiftly and robustly. 

“People should be able to go out for a night out without fear of being spiked.”