Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans her Department has to make public sexual harassment a criminal offence.

Sexual harassment in public places is appalling, and this Government is committed to tackling it. Women and girls have the right to both be and feel safe on our streets.

As set out in the Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Strategy, published last July, and whose Call for Evidence was informed by over 180,000 responses, the vast majority of them from the public, we have been looking carefully at where there may be gaps in existing law and how a specific offence for public sexual harassment could address those.

As a result of this work, we will by the summer recess begin a consultation on whether there should be a new offence of public sexual harassment. We will seek to ensure that a representative range of voices is included in the responses to the consultation.