London police will issue £100 on-the-spot fines to men who catcall, wolf-whistle or make sexualised remarks towards women in the capital’s streets, in a move designed to crack down on street harassment without resorting to arrest.
The fixed penalty notices can also be issued when such comments are directed at police officers themselves. Female officers on late-night patrols in the West End and Soho have reported being targeted with remarks such as “sexy” and taunts about their uniform and handcuffs, with one 23-year-old officer describing the experience as “so creepy, your skin crawls a bit”.
The Metropolitan Police said the fines offer a “middle ground” to quickly address behaviour that causes distress but falls short of the threshold for arrest on suspicion of sex-based harassment, which can lead to a two-year jail sentence. “We can arrest people and take them through the criminal justice process,” said Westminster Neighbourhood Policing Superintendent Natasha Evans. “However, what this allows us to do is really focus on the lower-end antisocial behaviour element of that and educate people using a fine.” She stressed that officers would still arrest for more serious offences but described the penalty as “a really proportionate way of educating people around that harassment and how it makes people feel”.
What is a Public Space Protection Order?
The fines are issued for breaching a Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) – a legal tool created under the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014. PSPOs allow local authorities to prohibit specific activities in a defined geographical area that negatively affect the community’s quality of life. Breaching a PSPO is a criminal offence, and while the standard penalty is a £100 fixed penalty notice, non-payment can lead to a court conviction and a fine of up to £1,000.
Westminster City Council introduced its expanded PSPO across the entire borough on 25 February 2026, running for three years. The order targets a range of “persistent anti-social behaviour”: street harassment, drug use, loitering, public urination, street drinking, aggressive begging and nuisance pedicabs. The council has invested £3 million in a new joint police and council enforcement team to tackle these issues.
Westminster’s PSPO is not the first of its kind in London. Redbridge Council became the first in the capital to issue a £100 fine for catcalling in December 2022, using a similar order, setting a precedent for other boroughs to follow.
In the month before the announcement, police officers in Westminster had already handed out some 170 fines for breaches of the wider PSPO. The Met also deploys undercover operations, with female officers posing as joggers in known harassment hotspots to catch perpetrators – a tactic highlighted by LBC Radio.
The crackdown is part of a broader strategy to tackle Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG). Women and equalities minister Baroness Smith, a former home secretary, gave the initiative her backing. “I want everybody to be able to walk the streets of London, safe, enjoying our fantastic capital city, not being harassed,” she said. “So, yes, this is an important development, and I’m pleased to see it.”
Ongoing legislative efforts seek to make street harassment a specific criminal offence, with a private member’s bill aiming to increase the maximum sentence for intentional harassment based on a victim’s sex to two years in prison.
Business and community support
Westminster Council’s deputy leader and cabinet member for enforcement, Caroline Sargent, said the PSPO was essential for the area’s vitality. “This is the heart of London, it’s the West End, it’s our entertainment district,” she said. “People just want to come here and have fun. They don’t want to be pestered, or worse attacked, and targeted by some of this criminal activity. This PSPO allows us to work with the police and tackle it.”
The business community has also welcomed the measures. Mark Williams, deputy chief executive of the Heart of London Business Alliance, which represents West End businesses, warned that failing to address these “fundamental issues” risked creating a “breeding ground for other even more serious crimes to take place”. He added: “So dealing with this baseline and getting that right and making it inhospitable for people to commit crime in this area is exactly what we need to do.”
