Theresa May’s plan to toughen up sexual harassment policies at Westminster has run into criticism from some members of the working group created by the prime minister who say it will not sufficiently protect those making accusations against MPs.
Some MPs involved with the discussions told the Guardian they were unhappy that the current proposals were based on a mechanism designed to deal with employment grievances, rather than swift investigation of MPs accused of sexual wrongdoing.
One MP on the working group complained that the process was “all pretty soft” and questioned how it was appropriate for dealing with complaints of former staff members, activists or visitors to the House of Commons.
The cross-party group discussed initial proposals based on parliament’s current “respect policy” to deal with issues of bullying and harassment. Under that policy, complainants may only take cases to the parliamentary commissioner for standards once all internal resolution procedures have been followed.
At a 90-minute meeting on Tuesday, reservations were also expressed about the prospect of MPs receiving recommendations for severe punishments, like suspension from the House of Commons. The worry is this could lead to a string of MPs being put at risk of losing their jobs because they would become subject to recall petitions.
The cross-party working group – which includes 10 MPs and two staff members – also considered whether complainants should have to exhaust their party’s internal procedures first, if they choose to go down that route, instead of the new parliamentary process.
Caroline Lucas, the Green party co-leader and MP, who sits on the working group, said: “I would argue strongly that while the respect policy was designed to deal with bullying and harassment generally, it is not fit for purpose for the specific issues around sexual harassment.
“With the respect policy, the emphasis of it all is on de-escalation, trying to have reconciliation between the parties at an early stage and some of this is just not appropriate for cases of serious sexual assault or harassment. You wouldn’t imagine sitting down with the people for mediation in this situation. It cannot be a case of re-nosing an existing bullying policy. We need something different.”
She is also concerned that the group is dominated by MPs, with parliamentary staff making up only two out of its 12 members.
Another member of the group told the Guardian: “It needs more of the voice of those people who will be affected by this, be that evidence anonymised of people’s experiences here or a survey of what the wider staff feel are necessary. And you can’t turn that around quickly. If you’re trying to set something up that is credible to staff, you can’t have all the foxes talking about how to make the hen house safer.”
Unite’s parliamentary staff branch has already said its members would have no confidence in the working group because it is so dominated by MPs.
The branch, which is petitioning for trade union recognition of parliamentary and constituency staff, wrote to Andrea Leadsom, the chair, saying its members were “deeply concerned and angry at several elements of this proposed process that must be changed if staff are to have confidence in the results”.
“Staff do not have confidence that employers can take the lead in fixing this broken system,” it said. “Self-regulation has failed for years. Unite’s parliamentary branch is clear that this must be a staff-led process, and either the numbers of staff be balanced on the group or an outside expert body such as Acas be asked to review the whole system and make independent recommendations for a new system.”
The group met in private for the first time on Tuesday, with the aim of publishing its proposals for a new watchdog by 1 December and having a new regime in place early next year. Leadsom is expected to make a statement in parliament about the process on Thursday.
The group was set up to deal with a string of allegations about inappropriate behaviour by MPs in the wake of the Harvey Weinsten scandal. The furore has already led to the resignation of Michael Fallon, the defence secretary, investigations into at least two ministers, the suspension of the whip from a Tory MP and suspension of the whip from two Labour MPs.