The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has today (Tuesday 1 March) announced additional funding to help make venues and public spaces in the capital safer for women at

night.

This new investment of £108,000 is on top of the record £60m Sadiq has already invested in tackling violence against women and girls. It will increase the impact of his Women’s Night Safety Charter by developing specialist training, online resources, an interactive toolkit and best practice guidance to drive up standards to make venues and public spaces safer for women at night. These new resources will be delivered in partnership with Safer Business Network.

It comes as the Mayor visited The Gym Group in Battersea today to welcome them as the first major 24-hour gym operator to sign up to his Charter and to encourage more gyms and sports facilities to pledge their support and take action to keep women safe. The Gym Group operate 60 gyms across London and an additional 14 gyms across London from Everyone Active, a provider of local leisure, gym, swim and activities facilities, have signed up. Jubilee Hall in Covent Garden have also signed up. Sadiq has been working with the, #Letmelift campaign group which was co-founded by Gym Safe Ladies and The 97 March, to further understand and tackle the issues and harassment faced by women accessing fitness facilities 

The Mayor has also worked with ukactive and Sport England’s ‘This Girl Can’ campaign to support and build upon the work the sector is doing to improve personal safety for women and tackle harassment. Their research, based on consultation with more than 1,000 women and girls, led to the publication in November of a practical guide – How to improve your services for women and girls: As told by the 51% – offering advice and guidance to gyms and leisure facilities, including on how to make women feel safer, and features some of the recommendations from the Women’s Night Safety Charter. 

The Women’s Night Safety Charter was launched in 2018 by the Mayor of London to make London a city where all women feel confident and welcome at night, whether they’re travelling, working, exercising or going out. Currently more than 700 venues and organisations have signed up and the charter consists of seven pledges for any business or organisations that operates between 6pm and 6am to sign up to and show their commitment to women’s safety. It is part of the Mayor’s Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy and London’s commitment to the UN Women Safe Cities and Safe Public Spaces global initiative.  

The Mayor’s Charter is already making a huge difference, with over three quarters of businesses having taken steps to design spaces to make them safer for women at night and almost two thirds having implemented staff training to improve responses to reports of sexual harassment.   

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: ““I am determined to make London a place where women feel confident and welcome at night, whatever they’re doing. With many Londoners exercising and playing sport between 6pm and 6am, I am delighted to be working with UK Active, Sport England and Gym Safe Ladies to highlight the steps being taken by the sector to improve women’s safety at night and I urge more gyms to sign up to our Charter.  

“My Women’s Night Safety Charter is helping a range of businesses make positive changes to improve safety, which is helping to build confidence amongst women but there is still work to do. We have to be honest – these problems are caused by the unacceptable attitudes and behaviours of men. And the Charter and the action we are taking from City Hall is not about women changing their behaviour in order to feel and be safe – it is about challenging and changing the behaviour of those perpetrating abuse and ensuring London is safe at all times of day and night for women. We've all got to play our part and we must all face up to the issue of violence against women and girls.” 

Sophie Linden, Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime, said: “The safety of women and girls in London is our priority and we are doing everything we can improve safety for women at night. Our charter helps venues and councils to take important steps to improve training for staff and to ensure women get the support they need. This funding will enabling us to support more businesses with additional resources and tools to ensure that women make the most of everything our capital has to offer.”

Amy Lamé, London’s Night Czar, said: “I am committed to ensuring London is the safest and most welcoming city in the world. The Women’s Night Safety Charter is the first of its kind and the Mayor and I will continue to build on this work and work with more organisations across the capital to encourage them to sign up, and help women and girls feel safer on our city’s streets after dark.”

Ann-marie Murphy Chief Operating Officer for The Gym Group, said: "The Gym Group is proud to be the first fitness chain to sign the charter. We want to drive the conversation within our sector on these issues, in order to tackle them collectively. It’s critically important to us that women feel safe when they visit our gyms. Our gyms are open 24/7 and we want all of our members to feel safe at any time of the day or night. We have a zero-tolerance policy on harassment."

A spokesperson for the #LetMeLift campaign, said: “Both Gym Safe Ladies and The 97 March are pleased to be working with the Mayor of London in implementing such vital changes to the fitness industry, and hope to see this replicated across many other sectors. We are looking forward to maintaining our relationship with the Mayor of London to ensure the safety of all women living in the city.”

Huw Edwards, CEO of ukactive, said: “We are proud to support the Women’s Night Charter in its mission to make London a safer place for women at night, free from any form of harassment.

“Gyms, leisure facilities and pools that are open after 6pm form part of London’s night-time economy and it is vital that women feel confident and safe using their local gym or leisure centre at any hour so that they can live active lives.

“Our sector alone cannot solve deep-seated societal issues around behaviour and female safety but we must accept our responsibilities as these important issues do not disappear when our customers cross the threshold of our sites – we have a collective responsibility.

“By consulting with more than 1,000 women and working with Sport England, This Girl Can, women’s campaign groups and the Women’s Night Safety Charter, we have been able to create the guidance and support for our capital’s gyms and leisure centres to ensure they are welcoming and safe for all women.”

Tim Hollingsworth, Chief Executive of Sport England, said: “Supporting women to feel safe and confident when they’re getting active - whether going for a swim, exercising in their local park, or working out at the gym - is an absolute priority for Sport England. It’s the reason we launched This Girl Can back in 2015, and the creation of accessible and safe places for women to be active is a major part of our new Uniting the Movement strategy too.   

“Our work will not solve the problem on its own. Eradicating the harassment of women and girls requires a collective effort from us, our partners such as ukactive, everyone in the sport and physical activity sector - and wider society too. Alongside the Night Charter, it’s welcome to see the Gym Group as one of the organisations leading the way; we hope they are the first of many more.” 

Rita King, Joint CEO of Safer Business Network, said: "Safer Business Network is delighted to be working with the Mayor's Office to develop further resources and training as part of the Women's Night Safety Charter campaign.  Our recent Scoping Report found that signatories to the Charter are already doing some excellent work to keep women safe, and alongside the new campaign to address misogynistic behaviour and attitudes on the part of men, the provision of additional support to Charter signatories will continue to ensure that London at night is even safer for women at girls.”

The Mayor this week announced he is launching a new campaign which will focus on addressing the attitudes and behaviours of men, in order to tackle misogyny and violence towards women and girls. Launching later this month, Sadiq’s new campaign will bring together partners from across the sporting world, high-profile male influencers and include videos online and posters around the city which will remind men of their responsibility to challenge unacceptable attitudes and behaviour amongst their peers. It will urge and inspire men to make themselves responsible for effecting the change that is needed to root out sexism and misogyny from our society.

In 2021 a number of high-profile cases led to a renewed focus on the problem of violence against women and girls, with figures showing an increase in reports of sexual and violent offences in London. Across the country, 22 per cent of women report having been a victim of sexual assault, and 14 per cent of women aged 16 to 19, and 10 per cent of women aged 20 to 24 say they have been a victim of domestic abuse.^[1] In 2020, 99 per cent of adult offenders sentenced or cautioned for sexual offences in London were men.^[2] Photo by DAVID HOLT, Wikimedia commons.