Liverpool club determined to move beyond Labour’s doping plans

The Prime Minister has outlined plans for venue staff to be trained on doping.

Liverpool could be set to lead the way in tackling spikes in the city’s nightclubs, as the Government aims to stamp out the harmful practice. This week, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer revealed more details of his plans to make doping a drink a specific criminal offense as part of the government’s crackdown on violence against women and girls.

At a meeting with police chiefs, transport figures and hospitality executives at Downing Street on Monday morning, the Prime Minister said he hoped the measures would give people “the confidence to come forward “. He outlined plans for venue staff to be trained on doping, with a pilot expected to begin within weeks before a wider rollout next year.

The government has announced that 10,000 hospitality workers will be trained to deal with incidents by next spring, as part of the extension of a program tested from December and rolled out from March. next year. But Liverpool establishments could go even further, with a veteran of the city’s pub and nightclub scene saying the hospitality sector should work to train all staff in cutting-edge incident prevention and management.

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John Hughes is Chairman of Pub Watch and Liverpool Nightlife CIC and works with city center nightclub and pub owners. John insists that although Liverpool is a safe night out, there is still more to be done to combat the spikes – and he believes Liverpool can go beyond the government’s current plans.

Speaking to the ECHO, John said: “Any sort of training in approved premises, there’s no point in a handful of people knowing what to do. We see the training aspect in Liverpool as one of the main things (on which to focus) and we don’t just want to train frontline staff: we want to share this knowledge with everyone.

“It’s difficult to train everyone due to the nature of the night-time economy. For some people, these jobs are part-time. It’s also very difficult to get your messages across to all staff, due to of the job we do. “When we want to talk to people, they are in bed because they work until the early hours. “

But despite the challenges, John said he believed Liverpool should aim to go beyond the government’s planned training measures. He said: “In Liverpool we want to go beyond what the government recommends. I think they need to do more for our industry because we are on our knees and in April, with the rising costs facing businesses, it will only get worse. It’s difficult right now.”

Part of John’s work with Pub Watch and Liverpool Nightlife CIC involves distributing testing kits to club and bar patrons, which allow drinkers to check whether their drinks contain unwanted substances. John is also working on designing a security app which he hopes will be rolled out to bars and clubs across the city to provide free training for all staff, as well as security checks for businesses.

He said: “The great thing about Liverpool is that we all work really well together.” John also highlighted the city’s “Purple Flag” status, which it has proudly held for 14 years. The purple flag is like the blue flag for beaches or the green flag for parks – which aims to raise the standard and broaden the attractiveness of towns and city centers in the evening and at night.

Detailing the planned national training programme, Sir Keir told the meeting it would be “partly about spotting what’s going on, but also knowing what to do if there’s an incident at a venue”.

Labor says the proposals are part of the party’s promise to halve violence against women and girls over the next decade – although Home Secretary Yvette Cooper admitted this commitment was “ambitious” and that the government had not figured out how to measure progress. presented a series of reforms to overhaul the police force at an annual summit with police chiefs last Tuesday.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “Drug trafficking is a serious and worrying crime which can have a damaging and lasting impact on victims.

“That’s why today we are taking decisive action to prevent this devastating crime and crack down on its perpetrators, by introducing a new criminal offense for doping and launching specialist training for thousands of bar workers across the country .

“People shouldn’t have to worry about the safety of their drinks on a night out. These changes aim to give victims greater confidence to come forward and ensure a strong police response whenever these appalling crimes take place.