Crime and Policing Bill Report Stage: Amendment 19

MPs voted on 17 June 2025 on Amendment 19 to the Crime and Policing Bill, tabled by Joe Robertson (Conservative, Isle of Wight East). The amendment sought to extend the bill's new spiking offence so that recklessly causing spiking, not only deliberately doing so, would constitute a crime. The amendment was defeated by 328 votes to 189. The bill already creates a new offence of administering a harmful substance, covering deliberate spiking. Supporters of Amendment 19 argued that confining the offence to intentional acts leaves a gap: a person who acts recklessly, knowing that spiking might result but proceeding anyway, would escape prosecution under the clause as drafted. The practical effect of the defeat is that the spiking offence as enacted does not explicitly cover reckless acts, meaning cases where intent is difficult to prove could fall outside the new law's reach. The vote cut sharply across party lines, with the Labour Party and Labour and Co-operative Party providing almost all 328 votes against, while Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, the Greens, Plaid Cymru, the DUP, and Reform UK all voted in favour. Five independent MPs backed the amendment and four opposed it. Robertson noted cross-party support for his amendment from Labour, Conservative, Liberal Democrat, Green, and Independent MPs, suggesting a small number of Labour members were sympathetic, though the party as a whole voted no. The defeat fits a pattern at this report stage, where several opposition amendments to the Crime and Policing Bill were similarly voted down in the same session, including New Clause 121 and New Clause 130 on 18 June 2025.