June 2025
Crime and Policing Bill – Abuse and assault of public transport workers amendment RMT welcomes the Government’s admirable target of halving Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) within a decade and that it is introducing a number of measures aimed at tackling VAWG as part of the Crime and Policing Bill currently making its way through Parliament. Whilst VAWG is endemic across society, it is well recognised that public transport is an area where both passengers and staff are at risk of violent and/or abusive behaviour and RMT has significant concerns about the rates of violence and abuse our members working in public transport face. RMT is engaging with the Government around measures to address VAWG passengers on public transport, including through the Bus Services (No2) Bill which is introducing new requirements around training for bus workers. RMT also recently attended a roundtable meeting called by the Transport Select Committee on the issue of VAWG on public transport. RMT also believes that there is a strong need for additional legal protections for public transport workers who are abused or assaulted at work. RMT is therefore supporting an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill (NC11) tabled by Rachael Maskell MP which proposes to create a specific offence of assaulting or abusing a public transport worker at work and extend the maximum sentence from six to twelve months.
The scale of the problem
First-hand testimony of public transport workers highlights the prevalence of violence and abuse they encounter at work. For instance, a survey1 of workers in the rail, bus, London transport and passenger ferry sectors found that nearly 60% had experienced violence at work in the past 18 months, and of those, half had been threatened with violence, 10% had been physically assaulted and nearly 90% had been verbally abused. RMT also has particular concerns about the prevalence of violence towards women transport workers, and a survey2 of RMT women members working in public transport found that 40% had been sexually harassed in the past year, and 80% thought that sexual harassment on public transport was becoming more of a problem. The experiences of RMT members are backed up by data. BTP statistics3 show between 2021 and 2024 there was a year-on-year increase of both violent and serious public order offences against rail staff. In 2024, there were 7027 offences against staff recorded in 1
https://www.rmt.org.uk/news/publications/rmt-policy-briefing-violence-at-work-and-covid19/ https://www.rmt.org.uk/news/survey-of-women-transport-workers-shows-unacceptable-level-of/ 3 Paragraph 20 https://bills.parliament.uk/publications/60726/documents/6491 2
these categories, an increase of 2257 (47%) from 2021. During 2023/2024 Transport for London recorded 10,493 incidents of work-related violence and aggression, a 5% increase from the previous year.4 In its response5 to the Crime and Policing Bill Committee, the industry body, the Rail Delivery Group referenced a range of evidence highlighting the impact of violence and abuse on rail workers, including research by the RSSB from 2021 which found that the prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in rail staff is more than double the rate in the general UK population. It should be noted that it is far more difficult to ascertain official police statistics relating to the rates of violence and abuse faced by non-rail public transport sectors including buses and ferries, because these sectors are policed by local forces, rather than the BTP, meaning crimes on these forms of public transport cannot be easily disaggregated from statistics. However, our research shows that workers in these sectors are also equally impacted by violence and abuse at work. For instance, two-thirds of RMT bus worker members report experiencing abusive, violent or anti-social behaviour at work in the past year.6 It is well established that there is significant underreporting (to BTP and employers) of incidents of violence and abuse against transport workers. For instance, in RMT’s survey of public transport workers, over 40% of those who had faced violence at work did not report the incident. This underreporting stems from a number of issues, including concerns that reports will not be taken seriously, and a lack of action taken against perpetrators.
Amendment NC11 – Offences of verbal and physical abuse of public transport workers Given the scale, and increasing prevalence, of the problem, coupled with widespread underreporting, RMT is calling for additional legal protections for public transport workers who are abused or assaulted at work. Strengthening legal protections would support workers in reporting incidents, deter perpetrators and improve the rate of action taken against perpetrators. In recognition of the risks they face as frontline workers, similar legislation already exists for emergency services workers, and in Scotland, where this is a devolved matter, legislation exists for retail workers.
The UK Government has recognised the importance of strengthening legal protections for frontline workers and is using the Crime and Policing Bill to create a new offence of assaulting a retail worker at work. Due to the constraints of the Parliamentary calendar, RMT believes that the Crime and Policing Bill presents a coherent and sensible way to introduce a simple amendment to the Bill which would create additional legal protections for public transport workers.
https://railuk.com/btp/tfl-launches-new-campaign-to-tackle-violence-against-staff/ https://bills.parliament.uk/publications/60726/documents/6491 6 https://www.rmt.org.uk/news/underpaid-overworked-ignored--rmt-members-demand-urgent-reform/ 4 5
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RMT is therefore supporting amendment NC11, tabled by Rachael Maskell MP which seeks to create a specific offence of abusing or assaulting a public transport worker at work, and extend the maximum sentence from six to twelve months:
RMT has also written to the Home Secretary the Rt Hon Yvette Cooper MP to urge the Government to amend the Crime and Policing Bill to this effect.
Industry support for legislation In the rail sector, there is industry support for additional legal protections for rail workers. Alongside BTP, rail operators and other industry stakeholders, RMT attends the Violence at Work Group. Discussions at this Group have included the need for stronger legal protections, and the BTP, RDG and Network Rail all made representations to the Crime and Policing Bill to this effect. The BTP’s7 evidence to the Committee called for the creation of a standalone offence of assault of a transport worker, and made an important distinction about the impact of the new protections for retail workers, should the Government not legislate to protect transport workers as well:
“This Bill seeks to introduce a new specific offence of assault of retail worker. It should be noted that if these provisions become law, this will create significant inequality in the legal response on BTP jurisdiction. At a station, the two types of workers could be working in close proximity to each other, however if both are assaulted, the law will offer a greater level of protection to the retail worker than to the transport worker. This disparity is wrong.” 7
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5901/cmpublic/CrimePolicing/memo/CPB65.htm
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Both the Rail Delivery Group (representing the rail operators) and Network Rail made representations to the Bill Committee8 in support of amendments tabled at Committee stage by Connor Rand MP which sought to extend the provisions relating to retail workers to all ‘public facing workers’. RDG confirmed that it also supports the additional step called for by BTP of creating a standalone offence of assaulting a transport worker. In addition, a parliamentary petition was set up by MTR director Clare McCane which calls on the Government to review measures to protect railway workers from violent crime following the fatal assault of RMT member Jorge Ortega at Ilford station in December 2024.
What are we asking MPs to do? We are urging MPs to do the following to support the call for strengthening legal protections for public transport workers who are abused or assaulted at work: • • •
Add their name to support amendment NC11 of the Crime and Policing Bill. Attend the report stage scheduled for the 17th and 18th June and speak in support of the amendment. Write directly to the Home Secretary to urge the Government to introduce an appropriate amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill.
Contact - Sophie Ward, National Policy Officer - s.ward@rmt.org.uk
https://bills.parliament.uk/publications/60726/documents/6491 and https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5901/cmpublic/CrimePolicing/memo/CPB117.htm 8
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