Sadiq Khan addresses safety of women on London streets

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The Home Secretary reopened a survey on the issue in response to the public outpouring around women’s public safety following the killing of Sarah Everard. Yesterday Ms Patel said: “So many of you have bravely shared your own experiences of harassment, abuse and violence online over recent days. “So today I am reopening our nationwide call for views on tackling violence against women and girls. “The Government is listening.”

The initial plea from the Home Office for evidence as part of its Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy 2021-24 was open for 10 weeks until February 19.

An online survey forming part of the survey received more than 15,000 responses.

The Home Secretary is now seeking further views from anyone over 16, including people who have experienced violence, those who work with survivors and relevant professionals.

Men and boys – including those who have been victims of violence and abuse – are also encouraged to fill in the questionnaire.

The move follows the alleged kidnapping and murder of 33-year-old Sarah Everard after she walked home across a London park.

Ms Patel went on: “Everyone should be free to walk our streets without the slightest fear. With Sarah and her family in my thoughts and prayers, I will continue to do all I can in my role as Home Secretary to protect women and girls.” 

A staggering 97 percent of women in the UK aged between 18 and 24 have been sexually harassed in public places, figures released this week by UN Women showed.

Now the Express is throwing its weight being calls to stamp out public sexual harassment with better education for boys and new legislation. Campaigners are calling for public sexual harassment to be made a specific criminal offence.

Our Streets Now and children’s charity Plan International UK are running the Crime Not Compliment crusade. Maya Tutton, 22, founded Our Streets Now with her sister Gemma, 16, after both experienced street harassment. She said: “We’ve really welcomed the news that the Government is looking at this. The Home Secretary said we need streets to be safer for women, but until that legislation is in place, they won’t be.”

The sisters, who live in south-east London, started their campaign two years ago. University student Maya’s first experience of street harassment was when she was still at school, while Gemma’s was aged 11. Maya said boys must be taught it is not acceptable, adding: “Girls need to know that it’s never their fault.”

She believes the shame and victim-blaming was “really, really clear” in the case of Sarah, who went missing after leaving a friend’s house in south London at 9pm on March 3.

Maya added that people should not have been questioning why the victim was out at night, adding it’s “as though women don’t have the same fundamental rights to navigate public space as any other citizen”.

Yesterday evening Met Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick joined a reassurance patrol on Clapham Common, near where Sarah vanished.

For women, street harassment is an endemic nightmare.

Andrea Simon, director of End Violence Against Women, said: “Women ‘safety plan’ – text their friends in advance, walk with their keys in their hands, avoid empty rail carriages or poorly lit areas.

“But we rarely hear about what drives perpetrators to harm women and what needs to be put in place to stop this behaviour.

“We need solutions that target the behaviour of perpetrators, not those which focus on the actions of women who are attacked.”

Fill in the survey at www.gov.uk/government/consultations

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