{"id":144150,"date":"2018-06-21T04:48:04","date_gmt":"2018-06-21T04:48:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/upskirting-bill-to-be-introduced-by-the-government\/"},"modified":"2018-06-21T04:48:04","modified_gmt":"2018-06-21T04:48:04","slug":"upskirting-bill-to-be-introduced-by-the-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/upskirting-bill-to-be-introduced-by-the-government\/","title":{"rendered":"Upskirting bill to be introduced by the government"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure>                                  <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Woman in skirt\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/320\/cpsprodpb\/1298D\/production\/_102137167_gettyimages-629728782.jpg\"\/>Image copyright                  Getty Creative                                                    <\/figure>\n<p class=\"caps\">Legislation making upskirting a criminal offence is to be introduced by the government later after an earlier bid was stopped by one of its own MPs.<\/p>\n<p>A bill in the Commons aims to tackle a gap in the law in England and Wales concerning incidents where a photo is secretly taken under a victim&#039;s skirt.<\/p>\n<p>If passed, offenders will face up to two years in prison.<\/p>\n<p>Sir Christopher Chope had previously objected to a private member&#039;s bill being used to create a new offence.<\/p>\n<p>The Conservative MP for Christchurch said he supported a law change but had stopped the bill from progressing last Friday because he disapproved of how the legislation was being brought in without a debate.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#039;Pants protest&#039; against Commons row MP<\/li>\n<li>May &#039;disappointed&#039; at upskirting law block<\/li>\n<li>Upskirting ban &#039;also protects men in kilts&#039;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Upskirting has been covered by legislation in Scotland since 2010. <\/p>\n<p>In England and Wales, prosecutors can currently use offences of outraging public decency, harassment or voyeurism to tackle upskirting - but not all cases can be covered by those charges.<\/p>\n<p>Ministers had backed the creation of an upskirting offence through legislation in the private members bill by Lib Dem MP Wera Hobhouse. <\/p>\n<p>Her bill was expected to sail through the Commons on Friday, but parliamentary rules mean it only required one MP to shout &quot;object&quot; to block its progress.<\/p>\n<p>Sir Christopher&#039;s intervention was met with shouts of &quot;shame&quot; from other MPs and the prime minister and other Conservatives criticised his actions.<\/p>\n<p>At Prime Minister&#039;s Questions on Wednesday, Theresa May said she supported introducing a law via a bill and told MPs the worst offenders would be placed on the Sex Offenders&#039; Register.<\/p>\n<p>Gina Martin, an upskirting victim whose petition to criminalise the act sparked a campaign and political backing, has also welcomed the government&#039;s adoption of the bill.<\/p>\n<p>Justice minister Lucy Frazer said: &quot;The support for this new law from the public, campaigners, and across parliament shows just how seriously this crime is being taken.&quot;<\/p>\n<p><strong>What is the current law?<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>There is no law specifically naming and banning upskirting in England and Wales, victims and police are currently only able to pursue offences of outraging public decency or as a crime of voyeurism<\/li>\n<li>Upskirting has been an offence in Scotland since 2010 when it was listed under the broadened definition of voyeurism<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>What are the limitations of the current situation in England and Wales?<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Voyeurism only applies to filming actions taking place in private<\/li>\n<li>Outraging public decency usually requires someone to have witnessed the action but upskirting is often unobserved<\/li>\n<li>Unlike other sexual offences, people don&#039;t have automatic right to anonymity<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>What does the new law propose?<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>As well as carrying a maximum two-year sentence, it would also allow, in the most serious cases, those convicted to be placed on the sex offenders register<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>              The best way to get news on the go<br \/>Download the BBC News App.                                <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/news.files.bbci.co.uk\/include\/newsspec\/19854\/assets\/app-project-assets\/bbc_news_logo.svg\"\/>                                       <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/news.files.bbci.co.uk\/include\/newsspec\/19854\/assets\/app-project-assets\/google_play_store.svg\"\/>                              <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/news.files.bbci.co.uk\/include\/newsspec\/19854\/assets\/app-project-assets\/ios_app_store.svg\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Image copyright Getty Creative Legislation making upskirting a criminal offence is to be introduced by the government later after an earlier bid was stopped by one of its own MPs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":144151,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-144150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}