The government has announced that it will review all hate crime legislation after pressure from opposition MPs to make misogynistic abuse and harassment a specific crime.
Labour MP Stella Creasy had tabled an amendment to the Voyeurism Bill, which would make gender-based abuse and harassment a hate crime, but told BuzzFeed News that her preferred option would be a full review of the existing legislation.
Government ministers had previously indicated that they would not support the amendment, but on Wednesday night announced that they would look at all hate crime laws again.
The Law Commission had already recommended a full-scale review of the operation of the aggravated offences (hate crimes) and of the enhanced sentencing system. A spokesperson said: “In 2014, we published our recommendations into how the hate crime laws could be improved to protect all groups against harassment.
“We have held preliminary discussions with the Ministry of Justice to see whether further work by the Commission in this area is appropriate.”
The Commission found that there was potential for specific additional characteristics (such as gender or age) to be brought into the hate crime protection regime.
Creasy said she would withdraw her amendments if the government agreed to the full review.
Responding to Wednesday's debate Lucy Frazer MP, The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice said: "We as a government are concerned to ensure that our hate crime legislation is up to date and consistent."
She went on: "I'm pleased to announce today that I will be asking the law commission to undertake a review of the coverage and approach of hate crime legislation following their earlier recommendation to do so. this will include how protective characteristics including sex and gender characteristics should be considered by new or existing hate crime law."
The minister added that the necessary funds would be made available for the review.
Prior to the debate she had told BuzzFeed News she had “no idea” why ministers had indicated they would not be supporting the amendment, or a full review of hate crime legislation.
Responding to Frazer, Stella Creasy said that the minister's announcement was "really really welcome" and "a positive reflection of what this place can achieve." She said: "For the first time we are now saying as a country that misogyny is not a part of life, it's something that shouldn't be tolerated, and it is something we are going to tackle."
Creasy's amendment was supported by fellow Labour MPs Jess Philips, Tonia Antoniazzi, Martin Whitfield, Luciana Berge, Debbie Abrahams, Peter Kyle and Rosie Duffield, along with Liberal Democrat Jo Swinson, who told BuzzFeed News she was very supportive of expanding hate crime laws to cover misogyny.
Grimsby Labour MP Melanie Onn also raised the issue in a non-binding Westminster Hall debate in March.
“There's a whole culture around acts that were happening that women deemed to be broadly acceptable,” she told BuzzFeed News. “Women didn’t think there was anywhere to go, and nowhere to report it — it’s a cycle that’s allowed to perpetuate.”
On Tuesday, the Ministry of Justice indicated to BuzzFeed News that ministers would not support expanding hate crime legislation, saying: "Any abuse, harassment or targeting of women is totally unacceptable. We already have robust legislation in place that can be used to protect women from a range of crimes."
Incidents can be treated more seriously by police if they are classed as hate crimes — acts of violence or hostility directed at people because of who they are or who someone thinks they are.
Crimes motivated by hostility based on race, religion, trans identity, sexual orientation, or disability are already recognised as hate crimes.
The fact that attacks on women because of their gender are not treated in the same way by most forces was, Creasy said, an indication “that for so long we’ve expected women to put up with this stuff, rather than deal with it”.
Onn said that not only would making such acts hate crimes give police greater powers, it would also help officers to understand the scale of the problem.
“It's something that should be recorded by police,” she said, “not necessarily for them to take action [in every case], but as a mechanism to make women feel more comfortable reporting inappropriate behaviour. It's not about taking more police resources, but making the resources better used.”
Some police forces have unilaterally adopted other characteristics as indicators of hate crimes — for example, Greater Manchester Police was the first to recognise attacks on alternative subcultures such as goths or emos, while Merseyside Police class attacks on sex workers similarly.
In 2016 Nottinghamshire Police became the first police in the country to enable women and girls to adopt a misogyny hate crime policy. Since then, five of the 46 police forces across the country have adopted the scheme.
“What we’ve seen in Nottinghamshire is it has changed the culture about what is acceptable and led to action on violence against women,” Creasy said.
The Misogyny Hate Crime Evaluation report, which was released in July and was the work of experts from the University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent University, found nearly 94% of people surveyed had experienced or witnessed street harassment in Nottinghamshire.
Following the debate, Creasy told BuzzFeed News: "These amendments to the Voyeurism Bill were to recognise upskirting does not happen in a vacuum but an environment where women face repeated forms of harassment by those who are hostile to them as women. 45% of women have been sexually harassed in a public place, 63% of women have changed their behaviour as a result of street harassment.
"Men and women need to be free and safe to walk the streets. today the Government committed to carrying out a full review into all hate crime law, including misogyny - this goes further than the original amendment, and it's a big step towards calling time on street harassment and to saying misogyny isn’t an inevitable part of life women should put up with or all men commit, but something that damages our society and each of us can make sure is tackled."