A student who suspects she was the victim of a flat tire said the low conviction rate is shocking but not surprising.

Figures obtained by the BBC suggest that while there were nearly 5,000 incident reports involving attacks on the armed forces in 2021/22, there were only 40 convictions in four years.

Poppy Read-Pitt, 20, said her drink was drugged in Nottingham in 2020 and little has changed since then.

The government has said it will not create a specific offense for spiking.

Ms Read-Pitt, who is in the third year of an English literature degree at the University of Nottingham, said: “The least we can do is make it a specific offence.

“That shows the authorities that they can start to see it as something real, legitimate and serious.

“It seems to happen just as much now as it did last year and when it was new.

“Nothing, absolutely nothing has changed.”

Mrs Read-Pitt suspects that her drink was drugged during a night in Nottingham.

She said: “I don’t remember anything past 21:00 GMT, which was around 40 minutes after we arrived at the venue.

“There’s just nothing, pitch black, and then I wake up at 09:00 the next morning in my clothes, in my bed, and have absolutely no recollection of how I got there, what happened, or just nothing at all.

“He was completely still. He wasn’t just drunk and stumbling. I don’t know how to describe it… completely lifeless.”

Ms. Read-Pitt was supported in her calls by another student at the university.

Abi Crook, 20, a third-year geography student, said she had also been attacked on a night out on the town.

She said: “By not having its own offense or specifically fitting into a category, it makes it much easier for police and other authorities to write it off.”

The students were endorsed by the Stamp Out Spiking campaign group.

Founder Dawn Dines said: “Efforts are being made by law enforcement to report incidents more fully, but while spiking is not a separate prosecutable offense, it makes it impossible to prove the true scale and impact of this crime.” .

The government has said that a new law is unnecessary.

The Internal Affairs committee had previously argued that a specific crime would have several benefits, including increased incident reporting, making police work easier by improving data, and “sending a clear message to perpetrators that this is a serious crime.” “.

Labor MP Diana Johnson, chair of the committee, said: “Reporting is low and prosecution rates are very rare.”

The Home Office said: “We have concluded that there are already a number of offenses covering spiking incidents, and we have not found any gaps in the law that would fill a new spiking offence.

“Therefore, we have concluded that a new offense is not required and we will not introduce new legislation.”