Ask for Angela is one of the best known safety schemes in the country. A customer who feels unsafe walks up to the bar and asks for Angela. The member of staff who hears it knows to help, quietly, without a scene: a word with security, a taxi to the door, a friend found, the police called if it comes to that.
It is a brilliant idea because it asks almost nothing of the person in trouble. One sentence, said to anyone in a uniform or behind a bar. The whole weight of the scheme sits on the other side of the counter.
Knowing the phrase is not the same as knowing the answer
Most people who go out have heard of Angela. Far fewer of the people paid to respond to her have been shown what to do. When the BBC sent undercover testers into 25 London pubs, bars and clubs in November 2024, staff in 13 of them did not recognise the codeword.
That is not a small gap. It is the whole scheme. A poster in the toilets tells customers the phrase will work. If the person behind the bar looks blank, the customer has just been told, possibly in earshot of the person they were trying to get away from, that nobody is coming.
A blank look is not a neutral outcome. It is the scheme failing at the exact moment it was built for.
What a scheme that works actually looks like
None of this is expensive. All of it takes management time, which is a different thing.
- Everyone knows it. Every member of staff on every shift, including new starters, casuals and agency door cover. If it is only in the induction pack, it is only for the people who started last month.
- Someone owns it. A named person on each shift who takes over the moment the phrase is used, so the bartender is not left deciding what happens next with a queue three deep.
- There is somewhere to go. A quiet, safe space away from the floor where someone can sit, breathe and be asked what they need.
- There is a way home. A taxi firm you trust, a number for the local policing team and a plan for reuniting people with friends.
- It gets written down. A short record of when it was used and what you did. That protects the customer, your staff and your licence.
A test you can run tonight
On your next shift, ask three members of staff at random what they would do if someone asked for Angela. Not whether they have heard of it. What they would actually do, step by step.
If all three give you the same clear answer, you are running the scheme. If you get three different answers, or a shrug, you are running a poster. Both are fixable in a week.
Where it starts
The other half of the scheme is the customer. The best time to teach them is before they are old enough to need it. That is why Ask for Angela is part of UNight Schools, alongside spiking, alcohol and getting home safely. The venue teams learn to answer. The young people learn that the question exists.
UNight proudly supports the scheme. Venues can find the official materials at askforangela.co.uk.
Sources
BBC investigation into Ask for Angela in London venues, November 2024, as reported in The Morning Advertiser, 5 August 2025.
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