Violent crimes against women on rail network up 20 per cent

The British Transport Police Authority’s 2024 annual report showed there were 11,357 crimes against women and girls in 2023/24, compared with 9,464 in the previous 12 months.

There was also a ten per cent increase in sexual offences over the same period, up from 2,246 in 2022/23 to 2,475.

However, there were six per cent fewer crimes involving sexual harassment recorded (from 2,040 to 1,908).

Ron Barclay-Smith, chair of the British Transport Police Authority, said while the increase in reports of sexual offences “may seem alarming”, he believes this “does not necessarily show an increase in these sorts of crimes but instead an increase in victims willing to come forward and report”.

In particular, he highlighted BTP’s first-of-its-kind rail safety app Railway Guarding app, which allows people to report crime anonymously and send their location to friends and family.

As of the end of March 2024, there had been 146,715 downloads of the app, and 1,761 texts received by BTP between its launch in July 2022 and the end of March this year.

BTP has also developed a new out of court pathway for low level offences with a sexual harassment element. The ‘Consider’ course will deliver educational inputs to offenders to address first-time inappropriate behaviours which are not considered a sexual offence (such as sexualised ‘banter’ or unwanted flirting).

T/Assistant Chief Constable, Paul Furnell, said: “Tackling sexual offences is one of our top priorities at BTP and we take all reports of sexual harassment and sexual violence extremely seriously.

“We know that these crimes commonly go under-reported and that is why we continue to relentlessly campaign to encourage victims and witnesses to report these behaviours and offences to us. With this we expect the number of reports to continue to rise.

“We view this increase as an overwhelming positive sign that our efforts are paying off, and that women and girls are feeling more confident to report all forms of sexual harassment and violence on the rail network to us.

“Our specialist analyst and insights team has found that there was a peak in reporting following two of our nationwide campaigns launched between April and July this year.

“We need this peak to be the norm and we are encouraging women to change their threshold for when they report incidents to the police as we will not tolerate any form of sexual harassment or violence. All reports help us build evidence and a profile of a predator on our network and help us secure justice for their victims.”

He added: “We will leave no stone unturned in our efforts to make the rail network a hostile place for sexual predators. We have patrols of uniformed and specially trained plain clothes officers across the railway day and night to catch offenders and reassure passengers as they travel, along with access to over 150,000 cameras across the railway network, which can provide us with clear, high quality images.

“Each report we receive provides us with valuable information which we can use to build a picture of an offender. Often it allows us to notice a pattern of offending behaviour so we can take action.”

Head of Crime and Public Protection at BTP, T/Detective Chief Superintendent Sarah White, said: “There is absolutely no place for sexual harassment or sexual offences on the network, and we are working tirelessly to stamp out this unacceptable behaviour.

“Each report we receive provides us with valuable information which we can use to build a picture of an offender.

“Often it allows us to notice a pattern of offending behaviour so we can take action.”

Kieran Mackie, managing director of security service Amulet, said: “The findings from the BTP survey into violence against women and girls (VAWG) makes for grim reading. No one should feel unsafe when using the rail network, but this survey is a stark reminder that thousands of women and girls do face violence and harassment every year.

“We recently took part in a groundbreaking research project with the University of Cambridge and one of our train operating company clients to reduce VAWG at stations that were identified as hotspots for abuse. Sixty Amulet Travel Safety Officers (TSOs) were hand selected and briefed on the project which included increasing their presence at target stations.

“Over a six-month period, we saw a significant decrease in VAWG at train stations that implemented enhanced security measures compared to stations that maintained regular security procedures. This was delivered by existing TSO teams without an increase in funding or resources, demonstrating that safety can be enhanced with smart planning and resource allocation.

“I hope that this survey will act as a wake-up call about the extensiveness of VAWG, and spur more action to reduce crime and better support all rail users.”