British Transport Police to Score Train Firms on 8 Harassment Standards, Requiring 70% for Accreditation
Updated
Updated · BBC.com · May 21
British Transport Police to Score Train Firms on 8 Harassment Standards, Requiring 70% for Accreditation
2 articles · Updated · BBC.com · May 21
Train operators in Britain will be graded by British Transport Police under a new Safer Railway Scheme, with accreditation requiring at least 70% across eight standards including victim support, staff training and crime prevention.
The plan follows a BBC investigation showing reported sexual assaults on trains have risen by a third over the past decade, while CCTV failures have helped offenders avoid justice.
Operators that miss the threshold can be ordered by the Department for Transport to produce improvement plans, but the government is not proposing financial or legal penalties.
More than 100 women have shared accounts of assaults after the investigation, and survivors and campaigners said the scoring system amounts to scrutiny without enough force to improve safety.
The scheme comes a month after the Public Sexual Harassment Act took effect, making intentional sex-based harassment in public punishable by fines, a criminal record and up to two years in prison.
Why does the UK 'name and shame' rail firms while the US makes them legally liable for passenger assaults?
With no fines for failing operators, is the UK's new safety scheme merely a 'plaster on a gaping wound'?