Question

To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, whether she plans to publish a sexual harassment survey.

The Office for Equality and Opportunity plans to strengthen protections against workplace sexual harassment through the Employment Rights Bill. These measures intend to amend the Equality Act 2010 to:
● require employers to take “all reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment of their employees;
● introduce an obligation on employers not to permit the harassment of their employees by third parties, and;
● enable regulations to specify steps that are to be regarded as “reasonable”, to determine whether an employer has taken all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment.

Prevalence across a range of Violence Against Women and Girls offences, including sexual harassment, is currently measured through the Crime Survey for England and Wales which is run continuously throughout each financial year by the Office for National Statistics, with data published quarterly.

The Government is continuing its work to halve Violence Against Women and Girls in a decade.