The government has confirmed its support for an amendment to the
Protection from Sex-Based Harassment in Public Bill, to ensure
the law is as robust as possible.
The legislation will introduce harsher sentences if someone who
deliberately harasses, alarms, or distresses someone in a public
place does so because of the victim’s sex, with the maximum
sentence increasing from six months to two years.
The amendment, tabled by the bill’s sponsor MP, will require the government
to produce statutory guidance for the police to help them enforce
the new offence.
MPs have now agreed that the statutory guidance should become
part of the bill. It will clarify how the legal defence available
to defendants, whereby they could prove that their conduct was
“reasonable”, should be applied. The guidance will make clear
that what is deemed “reasonable” is what would objectively be
considered reasonable, not what the defendant claims is
reasonable.
Home Secretary said:
Women have the fundamental right to walk the streets without fear
and I’m committed to ensuring that criminals who intimidate and
harass them face the consequences.
This is why we are backing the Protection from Sex-Based
Harassment in Public Bill, and after carefully considering a
range of views, we have supported an amendment that will require
the government to produce statutory guidance for the police to
help them enforce the new offence.
The new guidance will clarify in particular how the ‘reasonable
conduct’ defence should be interpreted, to ensure any new law is
as robust as possible.
MP said:
Too many women and girls feel unsafe when alone on our streets,
especially at night. They should not have to put up with that but
too often they do – resorting to safeguards like walking at night
with their keys clenched in their hands, precautions that most
men don’t have to think about.
My bill would correct a loophole in the law in which it is not a
specific offence to harass someone in public on the grounds of
their sex but it is on, for example, the grounds of their race.
It aims to change the culture so that it becomes as obviously
unacceptable to abuse, humiliate and intimidate women and girls
in public as it is to do so because of a person’s race or
sexuality.
The government announced its support for the legislation in
December 2022 after consulting a wide range of experts on
introducing a specific offence. The consultation showed the need
for a specific offence to make the laws surrounding public
harassment clearer to both the public and the police. Despite
public sexual harassment already being illegal, the introduction
of a specific offence will encourage women to report to the
police, as well as emphasising the severity of the crime.
The bill has now completed all stages in the House of Commons and
will be considered by the House of Lords.
