Street Harassment Has Finally Been Made Illegal. Here’s What That Actually Means

Over two years ago, Parliament passed a landmark bill, the Protection from Sex-Based Harassment in Public Act, a legal safeguard designed to combat the public harassment that 1.5 million young women have faced on UK streets. It came after violence against women and girls was declared a national emergency, but to the dismay of many, the law sat in a kind of legal hinterland for years, while gender-based crimes continued to rise.

Today, that new law, which criminalises public sexual harassment, has finally come into force in the UK. However, campaigners say legislation alone won’t be enough to change the reality women and girls face every day. In the UK, 89% of women who had experienced harassment said they felt “very or fairly unsafe” walking on their own in the dark in a park or other open space, according to a survey.

Plan International UK and Our Streets Now have long pushed for public sexual harassment to be recognised as a standalone offence, something they say sends a powerful signal that behaviour long dismissed as “normal” will no longer be tolerated. From school halls to city streets, the burden to stay safe has been left to women and girls, as well as disabled and LGBTQ+ people, who face harassment at rates two to six times higher than others.

But while the legal shift is significant, the scale of the issue remains stark. According to research from Plan International UK, 75% of girls have experienced public sexual harassment, and 49% say things have actually gotten worse in the two years since the bill was passed. Which is why to mark the long-awaited arrival of the law, Our Streets Now has launched a new campaign, Culture Must Change, calling for urgent action beyond the legal system. “If women and girls could solve gender-based violence, it would have been solved a long time ago,” agrees male ally, Ben Hurst, who works with men and boys to rethink masculinity and understand that patriarchal influencers and the Manosphere damages men as well as women.

“Our work is very much not finished,” says Georgia Theodoulou, Director of Advocacy at Our Streets Now. “While this law sends a clear message that public sexual harassment will no longer be normalised, legislation alone will not change the problematic culture we still live in.”

That culture, often rooted in deeply entrenched misogyny, is exactly what the campaign aims to confront with a short film spotlighting the everyday reality of harassment, both on the street and online. It’s an unflinching reminder that for too many young women, simply navigating public spaces is tinged with fear and hyper-vigilance.

While the law represents long-overdue progress, real change will depend on shifting the behaviours, assumptions and power dynamics that have allowed harassment to persist for so long.

What does this law actually mean for you?

Street harassment is now explicitly illegal

For the first time, behaviour like catcalling, following someone, making sexual comments, or blocking someone’s path in public can be treated as a specific criminal offence, if it’s done because of someone’s sex.

It carries real consequences

Offenders can face up to two years in prison, signalling that what’s often dismissed as “minor” or “everyday” harassment is being taken seriously under the law.

It fills a gap in existing law

Previously, many of these behaviours sat in a grey area unless they were escalated. This law strengthens the Public Order Act 1986 by recognising sex-based harassment as a distinct, more serious offence.

But intent still matters

To prosecute, it must be shown the behaviour was intentional and motivated by the victim’s sex, something campaigners warn could make cases harder to prove in practice.

Campaigners say it’s about validation as much as punishment

The law formally acknowledges that these everyday experiences, too often brushed of, are harmful and unacceptable, giving women and girls stronger grounds to report them.

It won’t fix everything overnight

While the Act is a major step, experts stress that legal change alone won’t shift the culture that allows harassment to persist.

The bottom line

It’s a landmark shift in recognising public sexual harassment as a crime, but whether it changes women’s day-to-day reality will depend on enforcement, awareness, and wider cultural change.