Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Transport Champions Publish First Report
In July 2021, UK Government appointed two transport champions as part of their strategy for tacking Violence Against women and Girls (VAWGs). Their responsibility was to produce a report of recommendations for how the transport network in the UK could be improved to better protect women and girls.
These champions are Laura Shoaf, chair of the Urban Transport Group and Chief Executive of the West Midlands Combined Authority and Anne Shaw, Executive Director of TfWM. They have spent the last year working with the Department for Transport (DfT) and passenger groups across the UK.
Findings of the Report:
Their report was published earlier this month with ten key findings. The key areas they highlighted are:
UK GDP is severely impacted by women and girls not taking up employment or training opportunities due to fears about travel. Around 4% of GDP is lost because of this.
The impact of VAWGs costs the Merseyside economy alone, around £338 million a year.
Little thought is given to how women use and perceive public transport despite being the predominant user group.
More needs to be done to ensure the design of transport services includes appropriate surveillance, lighting, and parking provisions.
As part of their research a survey was also conducted with around 1200 women and girls across the nation. This survey revealed some concerning statistics:
85% of respondents reported that “I think about my personal safety when planning and making a journey”
66% reported “I plan journeys around times of day when I think it is safer to travel”
65% stated “I avoid travelling alone when it is dark”
Only 25% of those that responded to the survey felt that they had not been subject to some form of threat, intimidation or harassment whilst travelling. To some people, these statistics may be surprising but for a large portion of the population, they are a daily reality.
Based on these findings, the Transport Champions created a series of recommendations for how the UK’s transport network can be made safer for women and girls.
The Recommendations
The 13 recommendations in the report have been split into short, medium and long-term goals. You can read these below or watch the embedded video for more details.
Short-term Priorities:
Recommendation 1: Better national transport planning guidance on ways to make transport infrastructure safer with a clear, monitored reporting service for infrastructure damage or issues
Recommendation 2: Improvements in the collection of gender disaggregated data
Recommendation 3: Undertake a national communications initiative into tackling VAWGs, which is promoted nationally across our transport networks
Recommendation 4: Deliver better, effective training across the transport industry to help manage incidents involving VAWGs
Recommendation 5: Review current safeguarding practices and standardise Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks for all front facing staff across the transport industry
Medium-term Goals:
Recommendation 6: Encourage an increased uptake of women working in the transport industry.
Recommendation 7: Embrace more use of technology to combat VAWGs.
Recommendation 8: Introduce Gender Responsive Budgets to support the delivery of gender equality infrastructure and policies.
Long-term Goals:Recommendation 9: Create a national, intelligence database which captures incident reporting from all transport modes and areas
Recommendation 10: Develop a national education initiative in schools which educates young people on ways they can play a role in preventing VAWGs
Recommendation 11: Target available resources including staffing and deployment of police forces at locations which will have the greatest impact on our transport networks
Recommendation 12: Establish more Safer Travel Partnerships between operators, local authorities and the police
Recommendation 13: Continue to raise awareness and make a positive impact through the tackling VAWG strategy
The report has highlighted some serious concerns about the UK’s transport infrastructure and there is clearly a long way to go before all the report recommendations can be addressed. The work of the Transport Champions has been celebrated by campaign groups. The hope is that these findings are only the start of the journey and that the work of the Transport Champions will continue to gather momentum.
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