Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that women and children are protected from public sexual harassment.

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.

In the Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Strategy, published in July 2021, we committed to a series of non-legislative actions to help tackle this issue. As a result of those commitments:

- In September 2021 the Home Office and National Police Chiefs’ Council launched a pilot tool, StreetSafe, which enables the public to report anonymously areas where they feel unsafe, so that local authorities and the police can take practical steps in response, such as improved CCTV and street lighting, as well as deploying an increased police presence. As of 24 June, almost 18,000 people have submitted reports using the tool.

- In October 2021 the Home Office announced awards of £23.5 million to Police and Crime Commissioners and local authorities under Round 3 of the Safer Streets Fund, to make public spaces safer for everyone through projects to help women and girls feel safer on the streets. Most of the projects which were awarded funding involved activity to deter offending such as increased CCTV surveillance, as well as changing attitudes towards violence against women and girls.

- In December 2021 the College of Policing published a new advice product for police officers, advising them about the preventative strategies and criminal offences which they can use to respond to reports of various different types of public sexual harassment.

- In March 2022 we launched the ‘Enough’ communications campaign, which seeks to change public attitudes and tolerance towards crimes such as public sexual harassment and to help create an atmosphere in which women and girls can report such crimes to the police with confidence.

The Strategy also confirmed that we were 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.