Sexual harassment in public places: Women and Equalities Committee welcomes Government support for tougher action but says a programme of work is needed

Sexual harassment will be addressed within the cross-Government Ending Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) strategy, says the Government’s Response to the Committee’s report on sexual harassment of women and girls in public places, published today.

Committee Chair Maria Miller said:

“We heard from a large number of women, from the police and other agencies as well as researchers, who told us that sexual harassment in public places pervades the lives of women and girls, whether it is cat-calling in the street, upskirting on public transport, misogynistic abuse online or sexual assault in pubs and clubs or at university. Yet, it is so everyday and routine that it is often invisible to those who don’t experience it. I am therefore delighted that the Government has accepted our key recommendation that this should be robustly tackled through its cross-government violence against women and girls strategy.”

“The Committee made a series of practical recommendations on issues such as data collection, women’s safety on public transport, and media regulation. We are pleased that the Government has responded positively to many of these. However, this is just the start of the journey and Government departments, public bodies and local authorities now need to sit down with women’s groups and other experts and develop a comprehensive programme of work to make public places safe for all women and girls.”

The Committee also welcomes the Government’s recognition of racialised sexual harassment of black and ethnic minority women and girls, and of the ways in which sexual harassment intersects with other inequalities. 

However, the Committee is concerned that the Government does not yet have a comprehensive programme of work in place for preventing and addressing the problem; the Committee’s view is that in practice the policy shift has not yet fully translated to the actions needed to tackle this comprehensively.

The Committee’s key findings are summarised below. 

In its response the Government fully accepts recommendations on:

• data collection;
• schools taking action in advance of statutory guidance coming into force in 2020;
• research on underlying factors contributing to sexual harassment;
• a review of hate crime, online spaces as a site for sexual harassment and the need for a gendered approach to online harm.

The Government accepts in principle or partially accepts the Committee’s recommendations on:

• the Ending VAWG strategy; 
• research on pornography; 
• the need for long term evaluated campaigns;
• BBFC guidelines;
• requiring public transport operators to have sexual harassment policies;
• action to prohibit pornography displayed on public transport;
• action to tackle sexual harassment to be embedded in alcohol strategy and the modern
• crime strategy: 
• action by local authorities. 

The Government does not accept the Committee’s recommendations for:

• a law on image based sexual abuse;

• social media to be included in the age verification of pornographic websites provision;
• evaluation of the Purple Flag scheme;
• amendment to the Licensing Act;
• action on sexual entertainment venues; 
  requiring universities to take action on student safety.

ENDS

BACKGROUND: Women and Equalities Committee Oct 2018 report, Sexual harassment of women and girls in public places

Full report, written evidence etc here.

The report called on the Government to tackle public sexual harassment of women and girls urgently. While it has a strong reputation for taking seriously the prevention of sexual abuse and violence overseas, the Government is failing to address the problem at home.

MPs concluded that while the Government has pledged to eliminate sexual harassment of women and girls by 2030 under its international obligations, there is no evidence of any programme to achieve this.

Sexual harassment is almost entirely absent in the current cross-departmental strategy for tackling Violence Against Women and Girls.

The Committee’s nine-month inquiry into sexual harassment of women and girls in public places followed its earlier reports on sexual harassment in schools and workplaces.

The inquiry heard evidence of widespread problems of men and boys sexually harassing women and even girls on buses and trains, in bars and clubs, in online spaces and at university, in parks and on the street.

The report found that harassment in these places is relentless and becomes ‘normalised’ as girls grow up, contributing to a wider negative cultural effect on society.

The report said that social attitudes, including disrespect of women and an assumption by some men that they can behave in this way, underpin sexual harassment.

To tackle sexual harassment in public places, the Committee recommended:

• The refreshed Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy, sets out a plan of action, informed by central data collection, to make all public places safe for all women and girls.
• The Government must use the available research evidence, and commission further research, to inform its work on the causes of sexual harassment and how to prevent it. This work should include a long-term, evaluated programme of public campaigns to tackle the attitudes that underpin sexual harassment.
• A new law should be brought forward on image-based sexual abuse to criminalise all non-consensual creation and distribution of intimate sexual images, on the basis of the victim's lack of consent rather than perpetrator motivation. 
• The Government should take an evidence-based approach to addressing the harms of pornography, similar to the huge investment there has been over many years in tackling road safety or preventing public health problems caused by activities such as smoking.  
• Train operators should be required through Franchise Agreements to have a robust policy on preventing and tackling sexual harassment and to block access to pornography. Bus regulations should be amended to prohibit sexual harassment and viewing pornography on buses. 
• The Licensing Act 2003 guidance should be amended to ensure that licensees take action on sexual harassment. Local authorities must consult local women's groups and sexual violence specialists when deciding their policies on licensing strip clubs and lap-dancing clubs.
• Universities should have a legal obligation to have policies outlawing sexual harassment, including collecting and publishing data on the effectiveness of those policies.