People who wolf-whistle could get two years in prison if law changes

The changes, proposed by Home Secretary Suella Braverman, are expected to create new street harassment laws and will mean that offenders can not avoid prosecution by saying they didn’t know their behaviour was harassment, according to The Telegraph.

The bill will reportedly make wolf-whistling an offence to cause “intentional harassment, alarm or distress" to a person within a public space and could lead to a maximum of two years in prison.

It comes after recent calls from campaigners saying that there was a loophole in the proposal that would allow people to claim their behaviours were welcomed.

But now, the Home Secretary is planning to change the proposal in a bid to close the loophole, with offenders instead taking a “reasonableness test” meaning the defendant should know their behaviour was considered harassment.

Fwiw harassment has always been illegal - this legislation will not create any new crimes. It will recognise for first time in law where perpetrators are motivated by the sex or presumed sex of the victim and say targeting someone like that should receive a stronger penalty. https://t.co/KOYFn174wP

— stellacreasy (@stellacreasy) March 24, 2023

New bill could see wolf-whistling be punishable with a two-year prison sentence

If the proposal were to go through it would mean that anyone who catcalls, wolf-whistles, or makes a sexual comment in passing that could be considered harassment will not be able to claim their actions were of joking or complementary behaviour.

A key person behind the bill, Labour MP Stella Creasy said: “Women and girls often get told ‘you can’t take a joke’ or ‘it was just a compliment’ when they object to being harassed, but without change, this public order law risks making that an actual defence to a criminal offence. In this day and age, most know better than to try to grope or harass a woman as a way of chatting her up – but not all do.

"No one should be able to evade accountability for such behaviour by arguing they thought it was reasonable to abuse someone because it was their way of trying to attract attention. So it’s good that the Government has listened to the need to address this loophole.

"To make it work, it’s vital the police and prosecutors are given training to understand how serious public harassment is and to use this new law to ensure everyone can walk freely on our streets and public spaces without being abused."