Written submission from Transport for London (SPP092)
- Introduction
1.1 We welcome the opportunity, as the Mayor of London’s integrated transport authority, to contribute evidence to this inquiry. Our purpose is to deliver the Mayor’s Transport Strategy and to keep London moving, working and growing and to make life in London better.
1.2 We, the Mayor, and our policing partners remain committed to improving the safety and security of people travelling in London and ensuring that the transport system remains a safe, low crime environment for all. This is achieved through measures such as dedicated transport policing; visible staffing available when services are running; CCTV coverage; crime prevention, through good design, and improvements to transport infrastructure.
1.3 Our safety and security survey showed that women are significantly more likely than men to be very or quite worried when using public transport in London (22 per cent of women compared to 13 per cent of men). They are also more likely to have experienced a specific incident of worry in the past three months (14 per cent of women compared to seven per cent of men). We have a programme of work underway to improve the safety of women and girls and increase their confidence to travel. The focus has been on those issues that disproportionately affect women and girls and, in particular, unwanted sexual behaviour on public transport.
1.4 The Mayor’s Policing and Crime Plan – ‘A Safer City for All Londoners’ – includes a commitment to make London a safer place by tackling violence against women and girls. The Mayor’s strategy to end violence against women and girls, which is due to be published this month, sets out the priorities and a detailed programme of measures for how this will be achieved – including a Women’s Night Safety Charter. The charter is a series of principles developed in collaboration with women’s groups, charities, businesses and councils to ensure that women on public transport, in a venue or at work, feel safer at night. We have an important role in keeping women and girls safe as they travel in the Capital. As part of this responsibility we are prioritising action to stamp out unwanted sexual behaviour on our networks.
1.5 In 2013, Project Guardian - a partnership initiative between us, British Transport Police (BTP), Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) and the City of London Police (CoLP) - was launched to tackle unwanted sexual behaviour on London’s public transport system. Since then, the partnership has been working to increase confidence in the reporting of sexual offences, reduce the risk of becoming a victim, challenge unwanted sexual behaviour and target offenders. It involves three main strands of activity: enhanced enforcement and investigation, improving victim support and communication activities.
1.6 Our submission focusses on the scale and impact of unwanted sexual behaviour of women and girls and the action we are taking to prevent and respond to unwanted sexual behaviour on London’s public transport system.
- The scale and impact of sexual harassment of women and girls in public places
2.1 As the Committee’s earlier work in this area has found, women’s experience of unwanted sexual behaviour in public places including on public transport is far too commonplace. No one should ever experience unwanted sexual behaviour. Whether it is rubbing, groping, leering, sexual comments, upskirting or exposure or other indecent acts, it is all unwanted sexual behaviour and it is intolerable.[1]
2.2 Unwanted sexual behaviour – whether it be the fear of it or an actual experience - can have a significant and debilitating impact on women and girls. It can affect personal confidence, a willingness to travel and transport choices. This can restrict access to all that London has to offer and have an affect on the quality of life.
2.3 The results from our safety and security survey in 2013 showed that 15 per cent of women had experienced unwanted sexual behaviour while travelling on public transport in London over the previous 12 months and that 90 per cent had not reported it to the police. The behaviour ranged from leering and staring to serious sexual assault. Sexual offences are widely recognised as being underreported across society and public transport was no exception.
2.4 Our research over the years has shown that the most commonly experienced type of unwanted sexual behaviour is groping/touching, staring, sexual comments and body rubbing. Certain groups are more affected – women, 16-24 year olds, and respondents identifying as gay, lesbian or bisexual.
2.5 Police data for sexual offences occurring on transport networks show that the overwhelming majority of victims are female and the perpetrators are male. The most commonly reported offence is sexual assault which involves touching of a sexual nature without consent. This is followed by public decency offences including exposure and upskirting. Police data show that the key times for sexual offences on the transport system are the morning and afternoon/early evening rush hour peaks when the overwhelming majority of offences occur on both the bus and rail network.
2.6 Since Project Guardian was launched in 2013, we and the police have invested significant effort to encourage the reporting of sexual offences occurring on public transport: by challenging norms; identifying behaviour that is unacceptable; demonstrating the action that the police take to build confidence that reporting offences will result in action and making it easier to report incidents. In line with expectations, the number of sexual offences on London’s public transport reported to the police increased by 50 per cent between 2014/15 and 2016/17 (latest annual data available) – 654 additional offences – and has more than doubled since 2012/13 (the baseline for Project Guardian). The increase in reporting is welcome and a positive result of the work we are doing to improve confidence to report.
2.7 There has been a steady increase in reporting since Project Guardian was launched and in line with the national trends. The most significant increase, however, was seen following the launch of the ‘Report it to Stop it’ campaign in April 2015. We believe this was a result of the significant and planned change in approach by us and the police, which included the campaign, the enhanced policing effort and making it easier for victims to report offences.
2.8 Over the past five years we have undertaken a survey of Londoners to help us quantify the extent of unwanted sexual behaviour and levels of underreporting. The survey results also helped to initiate Project Guardian. The survey has shown that there has not been an increase in the level of unwanted sexual behaviour on the network. We have recently replaced this survey with an improved methodology to give us greater insight into understanding of this type of behaviour on public transport.
- Why does sexual harassment of women and girls in public places happen?
3.1 Unwanted sexual behaviour is not an issue specific to the transport system, albeit the transport system creates its own challenges. While we are focussed on eradicating this behaviour from our networks, we recognise that this is a much bigger societal issue with complex and entrenched social and cultural contributing factors.
3.2 Mass public transport systems around the world are known to be ‘crime attractors’ for sex offenders.[2] Motivated offenders will target public transport as a place to commit offences because of the opportunity it provides. Crowded trains and buses allow offenders to touch or rub other passengers and evade detection, as they can claim it was accidental or a result of the movement of the vehicle. For a sex offender, public transport is a ‘target rich’ environment. Project Guardian showed that the majority of sex offenders caught on public transport were motivated offenders, who hold a clear preconception of the victim they are seeking to target and that they seek out victims on public transport.
3.3 We have a number of hypotheses about why perpetrators engage in unwanted sexual behaviour on public transport based on what we know from crime theories, research and the police’s experience in dealing with offenders on the public transport system. There are of course many complex social and cultural factors for why perpetrators commit these offences against their victims. There are also factors about the transport environment, as with other public spaces, that can make it more appealing to perpetrators. These include anonymity; using crowded spaces and the movement of the vehicle to conceal unwanted sexual behaviour; the perceived likelihood of getting away with it and the perceived lack of capable guardianship. The BTP is working with academics to better understand the motivations for offending on the rail network which will help us to tailor our prevention strategies going forward.
3.4 As a transport authority, our priority is to continually improve safety on our network. We are working with the police to raise awareness that this behaviour is unacceptable and should not be tolerated. This should not be normalised as part of their daily commute to school or to work and if they report incidents we will take action. We are working to create a hostile environment for perpetrators on our networks.
- Preventing and responding to sexual harassment of women and girls in public places
4.1 Project Guardian is a data driven approach that has been informed by learning from other cities and detailed analysis of the issues on London’s transport system. It has three main strands of activity: enhanced enforcement, improving victim support and an integrated communication campaign.
4.2 Enforcement activities have included targeted, multi-agency police operations, covert operations and regular days and weeks of action where we mobilise our officers and the police to engage with the travelling public about this important issue. Much effort has gone into detecting and apprehending offenders and bringing them to justice, and publicising those results in the media to reassure the public how seriously we take these issues. Over 2,000 police and police community support officers and our revenue inspectors have been trained so they are better able to spot offender behaviour, take reports and provide enhanced victim care. Briefing and awareness raising sessions for officers continue.
4.3 Women safety stakeholders, including End Violence Against Women, Hollaback London and Everyday Sexism, made a valuable contribution to the initial phase of Project Guardian, providing valuable insight into these issues and helping to shape the overall approach of this initiative.
4.4 As a partnership, we have made significant efforts to improve the confidence in the reporting of sexual offences on public transport – a crime that is widely recognised as being underreported across society. Communications and engagement activities are an integral part of the approach. The approach was informed by extensive research to better understand the barriers and motivators to reporting sexual offences and the most effective way of reaching our target audience. Our joint communications campaign with the police, Report it to Stop it (RITSI), is aimed at addressing the barriers to reporting (see below).
4.5 In an effort to improve support for victims and make it easier for them to report incidents or concerns, victims of unwanted sexual behaviour anywhere on London’s public transport system can report the incident to the police via the BTP’s text message reporting service. This service allows passengers to report any behaviour that makes them feel uncomfortable on public transport in a discreet manner by texting 61016 and guarantees that they will get a reply. The BTP, on behalf of London’s policing agencies, triages the reports that are made through this service and passes them to the appropriate police force for recording and investigation.
4.6 While we have been successful in raising awareness of unwanted sexual behaviour, improving victims’ confidence to report offences to the police and making it easier for them to do so has presented a number of challenges that need to be addressed. Of particular concern is the possibility of victims disengaging with the legal process and the impact this can have on the police’s ability to bring offenders to justice. There are many perfectly understandable reasons why a victim may choose to do this. The police are looking at what more can be done to better support victims through the criminal justice process if that is what they choose to do. Through RITSI we want to reassure victims that their reports matter, are taken seriously and investigated, and provide vital information for catching offenders. The police are looking at options for how they can take forward more evidence-based prosecutions where the victim does not want to be involved in a criminal justice process and how the challenges related to this can be overcome.
4.7 We also run a programme of school engagement sessions for girls and boys. Our Safety and Citizenship team, with officers from the MPS Road and Transport Policing Command deliver Project Guardian sessions to Year 9 students. These engaging sessions are designed to discuss the sensitive area of unwanted sexual behaviours that can occur on public transport. A small number of police officers have been chosen specially to work alongside the project. After each session a police officer attends the school a week later, should students wish to talk to them about anything. These sessions are important in raising awareness among girls and boys that unwanted sexual behaviour is unacceptable and we will not tolerate it on our transport networks.
4.8 We take an evidence-led approach to how we deal with these issues on the network. The campaign and the overall approach will continue to evolve in response to the issues we experience on the transport system.
- Conclusion
5.1 We welcome the Committee’s inquiry into sexual harassment in public places and the additional focus it will bring to this important issue affecting women and girls.
5.2 Safety on our network is our top priority. We are committed to continually improving the safety of our network, which includes tackling unwanted sexual behaviour. We are determined to rid our network of unacceptable behaviour through pursuing offenders and challenging their behaviour. We are proud that our joint RITSI campaign has given more women the confidence to report offences. We want victims to know that every report of unwanted sexual behaviour is taken seriously and acted on. While we have made significant progress in this area, there is much more to be done.