A start-up’s rape kits endanger survivors and victims, experts warn

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MPs are sounding the alarm on self-swab kits, as new questions are being raised over how the Bristol-based start-up Enough is failing women.

FEATURED STORY

Anti-rape start-up's kits endanger survivors and victims, experts warn

Sian Norris

When Maria* was sexually assaulted during her first year at the University of Bristol, she did not feel able to go to a Sexual Assault Referral Centre. She instead decided to use a self-swab DNA kit that Enough, a start-up company that believes its kits can help "end rape", had been distributing at pubs and cafes around the city days earlier.

"I was in a mess, and I felt too weak to go to a SARC," she told openDemocracy. "But I thought I would do the kit."

A friend volunteered to post the swab to Enough's laboratory partner, which would then analyse it to see if two sets of DNA were present. "Months went by, and I didn't hear anything," Maria said. "I didn't know how long it was meant to take."

She later learnt her kit had been lost in the post.

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"To them, maybe the kit was just a number. To me, it was the only thing I had to show that something had happened," Maria said. "I felt completely powerless. The bit that really upset me was the way they handled someone who has been through all of this."

openDemocracy has reviewed text messages exchanged between Maria and Enough's co-founder, Katie White, which show that the laboratory never received the kit. White apologised, writing: "I am so sorry this happened."

The pair also spoke on the phone. "I couldn't believe what she said next: that it was better to take it to the Post Office," said Maria. "It wasn't clear online that you had to take it to the Post Office. How can you expect rape victims to queue at the Post Office holding a branded rape kit? I felt the blame had shifted a bit.

Enough told openDemocracy that the incident has led to improvements in its tracking system and that it "provided support" to Maria. But its terms and conditions absolve it of all "social, emotional, or legal consequences" of using the kits, meaning the company faces no repercussions when things fall apart.

It's been six months since our award-nominated investigation into Enough found that the start-up's 'test and learn' approach to rape risks the safety and wellbeing of sexual assault victims and survivors. Maria's experiences confirm what experts in the violence against women sector told us they feared: Enough is promising victims a solution – whether in terms of aiding their recovery or aiding a legal case – only for that solution to fail.

Now a Conservative MP has asked the Home Office to ban the kits, saying Enough is "cynically promoting" itself to "women fearful of being raped, and worse, vulnerable survivors".

Explaining her decision to openDemocracy, shadow safeguarding minister Alicia Kearns said: "They claim the kits are a deterrent, as if it is a woman's responsibility to deter rape. It isn't a deterrent; rapists know that all police forces have DNA kits and it does not stop them committing offences.

Enough is "undermining confidence in the criminal justice system," Kearns added, saying: "We should not be weaponising women's fears."

More than 74,265 people were raped in England and Wales in the year up to September 2025, according to the National Crime Survey, which asks members of the public about their experiences of crime (including offences that weren't reported to the police) over the last 12 months.

While no one can deny the epidemic levels of sexual violence in the UK, Enough is accused of inaccurately inflating the scale of the emergency. Its website claims that more than 430,000 women are raped each year and that "a woman is twice as likely to be raped as be diagnosed with cancer", which affects 190,000 women annually.

This figure is likely an overestimate, yet Enough told openDemocracy it has since revised it up to 490,336. It reached this figure on the basis that around 85% of rapes in England and Wales are not reported to police, and the incorrect assumption that the 74,265 people who told the National Crime Survey that they had been raped had all made police reports. In reality, the survey says it is specifically intended to "find out about crimes which do not get reported to, or recorded by, the police" – revealing a more complete picture of crime than police data.

openDemocracy can now reveal that the Advertising Standards Authority has opened an investigation into the company over these and other claims.

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The probe was launched after a complaint was filed by Martin Narey, the former head of the Prison and Probation Services and children's charity Barnardo's, who was alarmed by Enough's refusal to correct its figures on the number of women raped each year and its claims that the self-swab kits were likely to be admissible in court.

Enough has also been accused of misleading the public over its funding claims, updating its website in October last year to say "it will now be funded" by the Home Office and police, as well as other donors. The misleading message remained online for just under three months, before being updated to state "we hope" Enough will receive government and Police and Crime Commissioner funding.

"An article on our website briefly contained an inaccuracy which was corrected as soon as we were made aware, which we apologise for," Enough said.

Admissibility and evidence collection

Enough, which promotes itself as the "breathalyser of rape" and a "social deterrent" to sexual violence, distributes its kits for free to students in Bristol and sells them online for £20.

In an Instagram live in January 2025, White told her audience that the kits provide "validation and just a way of saying something bad happened", which, she said, "is acknowledged among so many trauma experts to be the first step in recovery". White added that the kits "can only be of support to your case" if a victim later goes to the police.

Both opportunities were denied to Maria after her kit went missing.

Generally, once a survivor has used Enough's swab and posted it off, half of the sample is analysed by Enough's laboratory partner, AlphaBiolabs, a UK-based company that offers a range of DNA testing, including paternity and ancestry tests. The other half is frozen for 20 years and can be retrieved if a victim later wants to share it with the police.

But the Association of Forensic Science Providers has warned that analysing only half the swab "is likely to result in missed evidence, especially when relying on a swab that has not been taken by a trained professional, as there is unlikely to be an even distribution of material on the swab head."

This risks a false negative, in which the laboratory fails to find a second set of DNA. Such a possibility undermines Enough's central claims that using the kit "confirms" a survivor's experience of assault and can deter rape by warning potential perpetrators that their DNA will be collected.

Enough told openDemocracy that "any DNA test, whether police, SARC or Enough, may not return perpetrator DNA."

But the Association of Forensic Science Providers is clear in its warning, saying: "It appears that the pitfalls of these self-swabbing kits far outweigh any benefits, therefore we would not recommend self-swabbing kits as a method to recover forensic evidence in cases of sexual assault and rape."

Experts warn that individuals who have used an Enough self-swab and later decide to go to the police could also face issues there.

As with any criminal case, police officers would have to gather any evidence the victim can offer, which could include swabs in cases of sexual assault. But this does not mean that a self-swab would be able to be used in court, particularly as a defendant's legal team would likely cast doubt over whether it could have been contaminated by being done at home without a forensic professional.

Enough's website says its kits can be admissible in criminal cases if the survivor confirms to a court that the sample is genuine, and was taken and stored in such a way as to avoid contamination. It has posted online that its kits have been given to the police, but not if they have been used in court.

You can read the rest of this investigation here.