Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that (a) school-aged girls and (b) young women can access help on public transport if they are concerned for their safety.

The Department is committed to ensuring everyone, including women and girls, is safe on the transport network. As part of our aim to reduce Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) by half over the next decade, we have an ambitious, evidence-based programme to help tackle VAWG on transport. This includes proposals in the Bus Services (No. 2) Bill, such as staff training on how to recognise and respond to incidents of criminal and anti-social behaviour.

The Department is also working across government and with partners, including the British Transport Police (BTP), the transport industry and local authorities, to ensure that everyone feels and is safe when travelling.

For example, in line with their zero-tolerance approach to sexual harassment and sexual offences on the railway, the BTP deploy a range of policing techniques to pursue offenders on the rail network to ensure it remains a safe environment and encourage reporting of incidents via the 61016-text number or 999 in an emergency. They also have a range of innovative awareness campaigns to encourage reporting and bystander intervention in response to sexual offences. This includes the successful ‘Speak Up Interrupt’, encouraging bystanders to support or intervene to help victims.