The Liverpool club decided to go beyond Labour’s plans

The Prime Minister has outlined plans for staff at the venue to be trained in the increase

Liverpool could be set to hit the ground running in tackling the growth in the city’s nightclubs as the government aims to stamp out the damaging practice. This week, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has revealed more details of its plans to make drinking a specific offense as part of the government’s crackdown on violence against women and girls.

During a meeting with police chiefs, transport figures and hospitality executives in Downing Street on Monday morning, the Prime Minister said she hoped the measures would give people “the confidence to come forward”. He outlined plans for staff at the venue to be trained in the increase, with a pilot set to start weeks ahead of 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 an expansion of a scheme piloted in December, which will be rolled out from March next year. But venues in Liverpool could go even further, with a veteran of the city’s pub and nightclub scene saying the hospitality sector should aim to train all staff in preventing and dealing with the rising incidents.

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John Hughes is chairman of Pub Watch and Liverpool Nightlife CIC and works with nightclub and pub owners in the city centre. John insists that while Liverpool is a safe night away, there is still more to do to deal with growth – and he believes Liverpool can beat current government plans.

Talking to ECHOJohn said: “Any kind of training in licensed premises, it’s no good just having a handful of people know what to do. We see the training side at Liverpool as one of the main things (to focus on) and I don’t just want to train frontline staff – we want to share that knowledge with everyone.

“It’s hard to train everyone because of the nature of the night economy. For some people, these jobs are a part-time thing. It’s also very difficult to get your messages across to all the staff because of the business that we have. in, when you want to talk to people, they’re in bed because they’re working until the early hours of the morning.”

But despite the challenges, John said he believes 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 as we are on our knees and in April with the rising costs companies are facing it will only get worse. hard there at the moment.”

Part of John’s work with Pub Watch and Liverpool Nightlife CIC involves providing test kits to customers in clubs and bars, which allow drinkers to check their drinks for unwanted substances. John is also working on designing a safety app, which he hopes will be rolled out across the city’s bars and clubs, to provide free training for all staff, along with safety checks for businesses.

He said: “The great thing about Liverpool is that we all work together so well.” John also highlighted the city’s ‘Purple Flag’ status, which has been proudly held for 14 years. The Violet Flag rating is like the Blue Flag for beaches or the Green Flag for parks – which aims to raise the standard and extend the attractiveness of cities and town centers in the evening and at night.

Detailing the planned national training scheme, Sir Keir told the meeting that it would be “partly to see what’s going on, but also to know what needs to be done if there is an incident somewhere”.

Labor says the proposals are part of the party’s pledge to halve violence against women and girls over the next decade – although Home Secretary Yvette Cooper admitted the pledge was “ambitious” and that the government had not found a way to measure progress. a raft of reforms to overhaul policing at an annual summit with police chiefs last Tuesday.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “Spiking is a disturbing and serious crime which can have a damaging and long-lasting impact on victims.

“That’s why today we are taking decisive action to prevent this devastating crime and crack down on perpetrators by introducing a new criminal offense for spiking and launching specialist training for thousands of bar staff 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 more confidence to come forward and ensure there is a strong police response whenever these horrific crimes take place.”