Rwy'n meddwl i'r next item of business, which is a debate on motion 8122, in the name of Jenny Gilruth, on women and girls safety on public transport. I'd be grateful if members who wished to speak in this debate were to press their request to speak buttons. I call on Jenny Gilruth to speak to and move the motion up to 12 minutes, minister. Tomorrow marks international women's day, a globally recognised date which this year focuses on the theme embracing equity. This week, parliamentary business embraces that theme, from justice to transport. It is a welcome development from the business bureau and one that I hope continues. Because understanding the gendered inequalities that women continue to face in 2023 isn't just something that we should debate on March 8 every year. How is really pleased to welcome your leadership on this matter last week in the publication of your report, A Parliament for All? Having provided evidence to the Public Petitions Committee recently, the only committee in our Parliament, I know why that representation matters. When women's voices aren't at the table, then policy is framed without us. That cannot be in a Parliament where 45 per cent of MSPs are women. As the first female transport minister in two decades, I care deeply about the experience of women and girls in our transport system. Transport remains a male-dominated industry in 2023. From ferries to buses to road to rail, women's voices are few and far between. That perhaps accounts for why it is the case that the data on women's safety on public transport in Scotland has been historically so lacking. Indeed, as observed in Caroline Creado Perez's excellent book Invisible Women, this gender imbalance across the transport sector fuels a bias in transport planning, largely one that adheres to male patterns of travel. Creado Perez gives the example of a local council planning a gender-equal snow-clearing schedule and its implications for transport. She notes that the men—and it would be men—who originally devised the scheme, knew how they travelled and designed a scheme around their needs. They didn't deliberately set out to exclude women, they just didn't think about them. So we have in Scotland, much like the world over, a transport system largely designed by men and for use by men. What is the impact of that approach? Fear of crime forces women to change their travel behaviour to accommodate. Creado Perez notes studies from Finland, Sweden, the United States, Canada, Taiwan and the UK, which all show women adapting their behaviour to feel safer. Women shouldn't have to adapt. Our transport networks need to change to better accommodate and reflect women's lived experience particularly, and, importantly, given that women are far more likely to depend on public transport than men. In February last year, I announced my intention to consult on women's safety across our public transport networks. The first phase of that work was incorporated within Transport Scotland's public attitude survey. That was extended to questions looking at the experience of both men and women on Scotland's public transport systems. The initial findings told us that a third of women who took part said that they were concerned about their personal safety when using public transport compared to just a quarter of men. A higher proportion of women said that it influenced their travel choices, and more women than men said that they had been the victim of harassment when using public transport most commonly in the evening. Although that data helped to give some quantitative input, today's debate is largely informed by an in-depth report focused on women's experience of Scotland's transport system. That was the second phase of the research, and it looked to gather views from regional transport partnerships, transport operators, Victim Support Scotland in gender and the British Transport Police. We also heard directly from women and girls aged 14 to 86. I want to thank all the contributors who took part in that vital report by contributing their time and their experiences. The analysis from that engagement work has been published in the report today, and I hope that colleagues will review not just the recommendations, but also the really powerful personal testimonies of the women and girls who contributed. Now, clearly feeling less safe when using public transport impacts on women and girls' mobility, the majority of contributors felt the need to maintain a constant state of vigilance when using public transport, or as one female transport worker put it, the need to always be looking over your shoulder. Women and girls recounted previous experiences of being the targets of inappropriate comments that were sexual in nature and unwanted attention from male passengers. The majority of contributors seemed to accept that that was typical, or not unexpected, when travelling by public transport, especially if late at night. Presiding Officer, it is deeply concerning that this type of behaviour has become normalised to the extent that it is accepted and tolerated to tolerate is to allow the existence of something that one dislikes or fundamentally disagrees with. Women shouldn't have to tolerate. They shouldn't have to though. Women should be able to travel on our public transport networks in safety, and men should learn how to behave themselves. In some cases, women from ethnic minorities face particular difficulties with some speaking of having been subjected to racist verbal abuse and comments from other passengers. I think that everyone in the chamber would agree with me that that is not acceptable in a modern Scotland. The research itself highlights the daily strategies that are used by women in Scotland as a type of accepted part of their everyday routine to keep themselves safe. The list is quite long, Presiding Officer, but if I may, I feel the following highlights the issues. First of all, always keeping their keys in their hands as they approach home, especially at night, to be able to open the door quickly or to use as a weapon if needed. Secondly, never cutting across parks or walking through wooded areas away from streets roads late at night so that they are always visible to others. Not using headphones or only using one earphone when walking home alone so as to be able to hear people approaching, be more aware of their surroundings, sitting downstairs and or at the front of the bus or near the driver, sitting close to another woman on board public transport or sitting next to families who might be considered safer, choosing to sit in busier train carriages rather than quiet or empty ones, completely avoiding public transport at night and opting for a taxi instead, avoiding getting off at unlit or poorly lit bus stops and diverting, accordingly, making telephone calls to friends or family while making their journey so that someone could independently track their journey's progress. Asking male relatives or friends to meet them from a lighting bus stop or stations to accommodate them on the last part of the journey home. I would just like to conclude this part. Wearing flat shoes or trainers to be able to run away or escape if necessary, using tracking apps such as those available for Uber and sharing those with friends and family to track journeys and travelling in twos when using taxis or staying with friends overnight so as never to leave a female alone in the taxi as the last one to be dropped off. I am happy to give way to the member. Problems. In the year 2000, Sarah Boyack MSP then Minister for Transport undertook a similar survey on personal safety for women on transport and research and guidance were agreed. Could the minister outline whether that guidance was used, for example, when the ScotRail tender was prepared? I thank the member for her question. She will appreciate that the data that she cites is rather historical. I think that when Sarah Boyack MSP was still at school, however, I can certainly raise that matter with Transport Scotland to get her an answer to the point that she has raised. However, the point in all of this that I was trying to address is just how exhausting it is to be a woman in Scotland in 2023 and just to want to travel home safely. It is extraordinary that these are the types of behaviours that have become the norm for women and girls when they are using public transport. Of course, Scotland is not unique in that respect, because all over the world, fear of crime is among the most important reasons that women choose not to use public transport. I would also like to draw members' attention to one of the findings from the research that shows that women and girls have concerns about reporting incidents for fear that they will not be taken seriously. Contributors express concerns that even if an incident is reported, nothing is going to change. Some simply did not know where to report or who to speak to, as well as expressing cynicism that there would be any consequences for the perpetrator. That suggests that the issues surrounding women's safety on public transport are more prevalent than the statistics highlight due, of course, to underreporting. It is clear from the research that much needs to be done to improve the experience of women and girls' personal safety when using public transport in Scotland. Currently, women and girls bear the brunt of responsibility for dealing with that, adapting their behaviours to try to be and to feel safe when travelling on public transport. However, the birds should not rest with them. Rather, wider systemic changes needed, supported by more practical interventions to enhance safety further and give women and girls a greater sense of freedom to maximise the opportunities that are afforded by public transport. Last week, I met with members of the Scotland's youth parliament, who were really keen to support this work as we move forward with the summit proposed by today's motion. We discussed, of course, the importance of challenging behaviours and how that could be adopted as a response to the report. One of the most powerful ways in which that could be done is through the bystander approach, which I discussed in November with the British Transport Police, who are keen to support our work in this area. Indeed, there is really good learning that could be adopted from Police Scotland's excellent Don't Be That Guy campaign, which looks to tackle sexual violence. The research itself highlights 10 recommendations, and I will not go into detail on all of those, but I would like to draw members' attention to three of them. For women and girls working on sociable hours, there needs to be a better range of safe travel home options for transport workers. That is particularly relevant to those working in retail, leisure and hospitality industries, who are often faced with extra-expensive attacks at home, for example, if they are concerned about public transport. I would also commend Eustaf's work on this matter over a number of years, as can be highlighted by their safe journey campaign, which also acknowledges that women are twice as likely to feel unsafe on their way to work as men are. I am keen to work with all trade unions and our partners through the planned summit, of course, building on their campaign work. The report also recommends that consideration should be given to ensuring more visibility of staff and having more presence at times when women and girls feel particularly vulnerable. The research highlights that could offer more reassurance when using public transport. To that end, I note the Labour amendment today, which is focused on ticket office proposals from Scotland. Although there are currently no plans to close any ticket offices in Scotland, unlike in other parts of the UK, I must take cognisance of the outcomes from this report. I have therefore instructed my officials in Transport Scotland to include those proposals as part of the national conversation, which, of course, will launch in a matter of weeks. It is also important to remember that visibility of staff could also include on trains themselves. Finally, the report recommends the need for a better system in place that enables women and girls to just report incidents, and for those incidents to be adequately acted on. Of course, women's safety on public transport is not just a matter that transport policy alone can address. It is societal and it is cultural. There is wider work to that extent across Scottish Government that we will require to draw on, so from Police Scotland's Don't Be That Guy campaign to making misogynist hate crime, all of Government will require a role to play in that regard. I would like to close by saying that we can and we must do better on this issue. The full list of recommendations from the researcher are clear and are aimed at Scottish Government at transport operators, police authorities and other stakeholders to take action. However, it will therefore require a collective effort and on-going collaboration and commitment to take that forward. Today's motion commits to a wider stakeholder summit to engage stakeholders in the Scottish transport sector and to progress the recommendations from the report. I hope that this debate today enables us to start that process by considering the issues and recommendations from the research to identify practical actions. I look forward to contributions from members today. I move the motion in my name. Thank you. I now call on Graham Simpson to speak to and move amendment 8122.2 up to 11 minutes, please. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. Can I start by apologising for the length of this speech, probably my longest speech ever, but it was out of my hands and I will of course take interventions. The background to this debate, there are two things. First, the research commissioned by the minister, which is very good. It would have been helpful to have seen it a little bit earlier. Secondly, tomorrow is international women's day. I am not a fan in general of naming days, because in my view every day should be women's day. It certainly is in my house. I will come on to the minister's research later. I would say at the outset that everyone has the right to feel safe on public transport, be they female or male, whatever their background or race, be they able-bodied or disabled. I was chatting to British Transport Police last week and they certainly share the view that everyone in Scotland has the right to feel safe when travelling by rail. They take a zero-tolerance approach to violence, anti-social behaviour and sexual harassment. Working in close partnership with Network Rail and Rail Industry colleagues, BTP, are out across Scotland's rail network day and night to keep the travelling public and railway staff safe. As part of their mission to keep everyone safe, they are asking the travelling public to report crime through their text 61016 service and the railway guardian app. Yesterday marked the 10th anniversary of that text service. It offers the travelling public and rail staff a means to contact British Transport Police directly and discreetly in order to report non-emergency crime. At that time, they have had half a million reports using the service. The free railway guardian app helps the travelling public and rail staff to report crime to British Transport Police and it offers information on what to do if you see sexual harassment on trains or at stations. Users now have the option of uploading media evidence directly to the app, which is great. By using those tools, the travelling public's small actions can make an enormous difference for the police. I mentioned the work of British Transport Police in the amendment in my name, which I now move. I have not in my life had a great deal of hassle on transport. Probably my most uncomfortable journey was being sat next to a fellow journalist who got increasingly drunk on a rather long flight when we had work to do at the other end. Drunken behaviour is, of course, something that people have to deal with on buses and trains. I am not out late too often, but I would try to avoid the last train home, especially if I am out with my wife. Fiona Hyslop. I think that the member for taking an intervention. I detect that he might be struggling with this issue somewhat, but could he give some indication that he genuinely understands the personal, very isolated and really defensive feeling that many women do face? Does he agree with me that it is actually very important that this Parliament debate this issue because it affects so many women, not just somebody who goes home with him on the last train or not at night? I would hope that this will be a consensual debate, and I completely reject that, because I fully accept that women face particular issues on public transport. Absolutely. Everyone does, but women in particular. The coping strategy that I have just described is something that women always have to think of, always. For them, drunken and boorish behaviour can be especially stressful. I note the report's recommendation in this area, but it is a tricky area, and I do not think that you can have a one-size-fits-all approach. There was some pre-pandemic work that showed that over half of women in London had been a victim of unwanted sexual behaviour while travelling on public transport. The most common type of incident that was experienced by over a third of women and 12 per cent of men was a stranger deliberately pressing themselves up against you. I noted in the minister's report a section on invasion of space and a description of men sitting next to women when there were other seats available. I am not sure any of us likes that, but it would be particularly uncomfortable for a woman. Transport focus also compiled a report on the experiences of women and girls on transport that was in March last year. They collected the views of 1,200 females across Great Britain. Most said that they felt very or reasonably safe across different modes of transport. Those who felt very safe ranged from 15 to 30 per cent, and that is in comparison to 59 per cent of people saying that they felt very safe using a car. 85 per cent thought about their safety when planning or making a journey, and the types of mitigations that were taken included travelling at particular times of day, using specific routes, avoiding certain types of transport or travelling with others. I suspect that we are going to hear that throughout this debate. Incidents described by respondents included sexual assaults, intimidating or predatory encounters, being physically assaulted or threatened and feeling unsafe due to antisocial behaviour. Around half said that they felt threatened when making a journey on public transport. Over two in five had been subject to verbal aggression. At 14 per cent said that they had been physically threatened or assaulted when making a journey on public transport. Transport Scotland produced a very useful report in June last year in the section on personal safety issues. It said that data from the Scottish household survey shows that twice as many women, the men disagree that they feel safe and secure on the bus and train in the evening. Twice as many women, the men cite concerns for personal safety on dark or lonely roads as a barrier to cycling to work. We have not mentioned cycling yet. UK Government Equalities Office data in 2020 shows that of those who have experienced sexual harassment in the previous 12 months, 28 per cent had experienced that on public transport. If we look at rail travel, we can see similar issues to all those. Statistics from British Transport Police showed that there were 63 reports of sexual assault on Scotrail trains between 2017 and 2021. On that point, campaigners have suggested that British transport police presence should be increased at stations. Is that something that the member would support? Graham Simpson? Yes, I would. It is mentioned in the report that the minister commissioned. More staff presence and police presence would be a great help. Women-only trains have been raised as a possible solution to safety concerns, but I do agree with my good friend Mick Hogg of the RMT that to do this would be a logistical nightmare. I hope that he is watching. The minister has told before of her own experiences, and I think that she was quite right to commission the research that she did. It is a very fair report. It shows that there are no easy answers. It also shows that women's experience differ not just from men, but from each other. Some of the strategies used in order to keep safe are also used by men. You should not have to sit close. Yes? Thank you to the member for taking the intervention. He was talking about strategies that people take around those circumstances. It is important for us, as men, to recognise that there is a huge responsibility on us to adjust our behaviour, to try and put ourselves in the mind of a woman who feels threatened in a particular circumstance and to try to understand what actions we might take that might alleviate that circumstance. One of the challenges that we have as men is that sometimes things that we, as men, would find comforting might be threatening to a woman. Recognising that, as well as being the bulk of the problem, men have got to be part of the solution. I thank Joe Fitzpatrick for his speech there, and I would agree with the point that he makes, because men really have to reflect on their own behaviour because we, men, are the problem here. It is not other women, it is men who are causing the issues for women. The report shows that women's experiences differ. Some of the strategies used are also used by men. You should not have to sit close to other women on board public transport or sit next to families who might be considered safer. You should not have to make telephone calls to friends or family while making journeys so that somebody could track your journey's progress. You should not have to ask male relatives or friends to meet you at bus stops or stations to accompany you on the last part of the journey home or wear flat shoes or trainers to be able to run away or escape if necessary. People spoke of the need for a more visible police presence raised earlier. That is the case in general, not just on public transport. I was pleased to see that staff were also spoken to, and I have been working very closely with women in rail. We will have an event in Parliament later this year. I note that Natalie Donne is hosting one for women in transport next week. We will not get women to work in the industry if it does not feel safe. The recommendations in the report were sensible but not surprising. Using technology, sharing best practice, providing better information for women, dealing with drunks, improving lighting, doing more research and training with drivers of public transport and reviewing the training that is already offered and having more staff at boarding points. That is the key point and one that should make ministers here and elsewhere think before cutting back. I am sure that we are going to enter a good and consensual debate today. Can I commend the minister for commissioning the research and for those who carried it out and took part in it? Thank you. I now call on Neil Bibby to speak to and move amendment 8122.1 up to nine minutes, please. Thank you, Presiding Officer, and I move the amendment in my name. On behalf of Scottish Labour, I welcome this important debate on the safety of women and girls on public transport. My Labour colleague Katie Clark called for the Government to hold such a debate last year, and I am pleased that we are holding one today. Violence and harassment towards women and girls is sadly an issue across our society. It affects women and girls everywhere, in the home, in the street and, of course, on public transport, too. As has been said, a survey by the Office of National Statistics suggests that nearly half of women across the UK feel unsafe using public transport alone after dark, compared to only one in five men. Transport focus found in a survey this month that only 15 to 30 per cent of women said that they feel very safe on public transport, compared to 59 per cent that felt very safe in a car. That is not a new problem, but sadly it appears to be a growing problem. It has been reported that the British Transport Police have stated that the reports of sexual harassment and sexual offences have increased by 175 per cent since before the pandemic. The first thing that I want to say at the outset is to recognise that this is almost entirely the behaviour of aggressive and abusive men and boys, which causes women and girls to feel unsafe on our public transport. I have said before, and I will say again that there is a duty on all of us, including men, to do whatever it takes to help tackle this issue, including challenging the behaviour of other men, whether they are strangers or friends. It is a cultural problem. I also do not think that it is possible for me to fully appreciate the experiences and feelings of women and girls when using our public transport, but there is a duty on all men to try to fully understand them and to do something about it. Women are more likely to be reliant on public transport than men, and their views must be listened to. It is vital that there is full engagement with women passengers, women's organisations and trade unions as well on this issue. The one thing that I hear loud and clear when listening to women on this issue is that, while they use our public transport, their fears regarding safety exist, particularly leaving their door to arriving at their destination, and particularly at night. That will involve walking to, waiting on and travelling on public transport. I was recently contacted by a constituent who was followed by a man after getting off her train in Renfrewshire. I would be happy to share details with the minister privately on that matter, but it is crucial that the voices of women passengers are heard. I join the minister in thanking the authors of the research that we received yesterday, and we will consider it and review it carefully. I very much agree with the recommendation about proving lighting at stations and bus stops and also ensuring real-time information on services is available and accurate. There is also clearly an issue about inadequate lighting in our communities for walks to and from stations and stops. That requires investment and the reality is that we will need to give councils the budgets to make that happen. The safety of women is also another reason why we need to improve the reliability of services that I know has been raised as well. On that issue, I am receiving more and more complaints about bus service cancellations and withdrawals from constituents, including many women. A bus service being withdrawn means women having to walk further to get a bus, and a bus service being cancelled without notice leaves passengers stranded at bus stops and at night particularly can leave women and girls left trapped in potentially unsafe and vulnerable situations. Despite several requests, the minister has been unable to compile how many bus services are being cancelled across Scotland on a daily basis. I really do not think that it is acceptable that the Government does not know how many buses are being cancelled on a daily basis. I urge the minister again to compile that information. Bus cancellations need to be monitored, they need to be tackled and ensuring the safety of women travellers makes this even more vital. The report also highlights the use of apps and technology that can potentially help to provide reassurance, advice and assistance. There is the railway guardian app run by the British Transport Police, which the Conservatives have highlighted in their motion. I also understand that free bus companies, including in Scotland, including McGill's, are using the MyTrip app. The feedback that I have had on those from women that I have spoken to is that they are positive and they are good, so we should make sure that they are publicised. However, in order for the apps to properly carry out their functions, someone needs to be at the other end of the apps to help to answer and respond to calls for help. Failing that, there must be clarity given during what hours women can expect that response. I have heard reports of British Transport Police techs going unanswered, and I know that the police are being asked to do more and more with less resource. However, the key is that, if we are rolling out that technology, it cannot just be a gimmick, it cannot just be an app that does not do anything. There needs to be people there to support its implementation and to support women passengers who do not need that assistance. Clearly, if it is a grown problem, the British Transport Police will need greater resources, and that needs to be considered fully as we go forward. That brings me to the issue of staffing more generally. The recommendation from the report states that, as the minister said, we should explore the feasibility of increasing staff presence at both points of boarding, alighting and interchange, as well as the possibility of increasing on-board staff presence at the times that women and girls feel most vulnerable, including evenings and weekends in particular. That reinforces what Scottish Labour said in our debate on ScotRail last year about the need to fully staff our transport network. Unsurprisingly, transport focus has also found a lack of staff presence that can heighten feelings of vulnerability. Our amendment today makes clear that the minister and the Government should reject proposals to cut ScotRail ticket desk opening hours. Staff who work in booking offices do much more than sell tickets to give advice to passengers, assist disabled passengers and make our railways more accessible. They also importantly deter anti-social behaviour and our presence that makes the railway safe, which is a concern for many women who travel alone. We talk about the importance of listening to users and women's voice, and we should do that then. Last year, ScotRail consulted on cutting opening hours at 117 ticket offices, and just 1 per cent of people were in favour of those proposed cuts, with the remaining 99 per cent citing concerns around ticket sales, accessibility, anti-social behaviour and the safety for women and vulnerable groups. Given that, I would ask why are those cuts still on the table and why should it even be on the agenda for the national conversation on rail. We need to fully staff our stations and fully staff our trains too. The issue of alcohol is discussed in the report. People intoxicated with alcohol and public transport can fuel aggressive, abusive and intimidating behaviour towards other passengers. Our rail union colleagues tell me that, largely, those people don't get drunk on the train, they're already drunk before they get on it, and this deserves further discussion on this matter. I understand the reasons for the ban in the evening after 9 p.m. I thank the member for giving way. I'm always struck by when I meet with our rail unions that there are no women in relation to the management of those unions, and I'd be interested if he spoke into any female members of our rail unions about their views on alcohol consumption and trains, because I was really struck by some of the feedback from those who work in our transport sector in the report. Some really quite horrific experiences are recounted in the report in a bit of detail, and I just want to be sure that we have been, or Mr Bibby has been, in discussions with female railway trade union members. If not, I'd be keen to hear more from them directly. Neil Bibby. I think it is important that we listen to the trade unions. I think it is important that we do listen to the voices of women, as I've said, and as I said, we do require further discussion on that, as I said just before the minister's intervention. While I understand the reasons for a ban in the evening after 9 p.m., I've said publicly, before, like many passengers, men and women, I'm not convinced by the complete all-day, all-services ban on ScotRail trains, a ban that was brought in because of Covid and not for any other reason. I'm not sure that it's proportionate, or the solution, given the cases of harassment have gone up since Covid. Having said that, what I do hear from passengers, including many women, is what is the point in a ban if it's not enforced anyway. The report mentions that. Surely it would make more sense to target resources in ensuring no consumption in the evening rather than an all-day and all-service ban. On that, I put down a series of written questions last year to the minister on how many times the ban had been breached and what the consequences for passengers were for doing so. I was disappointed that the minister responded simply by directing me to the British Transport Police again. I would hope that the Scottish Government and the Transport Minister would want to know this and would share this. I think that goes to the heart of the problem with the issues on alcohol on ScotRail trains. That takes me to the issue of anti-social behaviour more generally. Statistics show that incidents of anti-social behaviour are on the rise on our trains. Anecdotally, it's also happening more on our buses now too, but we don't know the full stats on that. Whilst the vast majority of young people are good citizens, I'm hearing more and more reports of an increasingly small number committing anti-social behaviour on our buses. We saw Kilmarnock bus station, for example, being closed last year. Again, we need to fully understand the extent of the problem and ensure that our police have the resources to tackle it. I thank the Government for bringing forward this debate and for the authors for the research that we will consider carefully. Scottish Labour will work with the Government and all parties on that matter so that we do all we can to ensure that women and girls are safe and feel safe, not just on public transport, but from their door to their destination. Transport is key to life in Scotland, not least in my constituency of Shetland. From inter-island ferries that link islands together to the bus network and air and ferry links to the Scottish mainland, transport is vital for commuting, business, healthcare, leisure and visiting family and friends. Everyone in Scotland should have the ability to use all our public transport networks, free from fear or harassment. However, for women and girls, the opposite is reported. Data from the UK Qualities Office sexual harassment survey showed that of those who had experienced sexual harassment in the 12 months prior to reporting, 28 per cent had experienced that on public transport. Fear of sexual harassment on public transport was reported by 72 per cent of women. That fear leads to avoidance, with 62 per cent of women changing their behaviour in relation to public transport. Women and girls are all too often forced by fear of male violence to change their behaviours at work, at social events, public spaces and the gym. It is clear that they cannot even travel between those places without fear of harassment. Research conducted by Transport Scotland prior to the introduction of the young person's bus travel scheme noted that women and trans and non-binary people are more likely than men to state that they never feel safe using the bus at night. Respondents reported feeling vulnerable and uncomfortable and experiencing cat-calling, inappropriate touching and learing from men. Public transport should offer a safe and stress-free environment where everyone can travel without fear. Public transport in Scotland's rural communities offers a lifeline linked to essential amenities, and we need to improve conditions on public transport so that women can travel without fear of being harassed. As we encourage people to choose to cycle, walk or wheel as an alternative to public transport, we must ensure that people are empowered to do so safely. An ONS survey found that one in two women feel unsafe walking alone after dark in a busy public place and disabled people felt less safe walking alone in all settings. Crime in public space impacts the decisions that individuals make on a daily basis, how they choose to travel and route choices to reach the things that they need to get to. It also can create fear and emotional work every time people simply want to leave the house. I welcome the publication of the Scottish Government's new research on women and girls' safety on public transport, and I thank the Scottish Government for advance sight of the report. All too predictably, the findings echo previous data, some of which I have already mentioned. Enactment of the report's recommendations is important in tackling women's safety on public transport, but more will be needed. British transport police have a well-known See It Say It Sorted campaign for reporting suspicious behaviour on public transport. Less well known, however, is the Speak Up Interrupt campaign to encourage and enable bystanders to intervene if they witness sexual harassment. They have a railway guardian app, as Graeme Simpson mentioned earlier, and a tech service to report crime or antisocial behaviour discreetly and directly from the train. We must see all crimes of all types on public transport treated with the same seriousness. Institutionalised gender bias and the lack of a diverse workforce within the policing and transport sectors must be addressed. Many people and girls do not feel comfortable reporting crimes to a male police officer. Having more visible female police personnel and women working in transport could help to change that, along with better training across the transport industry. Women and girls need confidence that reported crimes will be taken seriously. Education is a key factor that could embolden women to seek help and also encourage bystanders to intervene, both through public awareness campaigns and school education programmes. Public transport spaces should be designed with input from women and other minority groups to ensure that the design of the spaces themselves are more inclusive and preventative of harm, for example by ensuring that they are well lit. Full ranges of options of where to sit or where to sleep on overnight transport must be affordable and available for all. Transport providers, the third sector and public sector must work together to ensure that daily journeys for women are safe and that women can enjoy travelling and the outdoors as much as their male counterparts. We will now move to the open debate. I would advise members that we have some time in hand should members wish to take interventions or seek to make an intervention. Indeed, whilst there are members' speeches of around six minutes, some latitude may be afforded as well. I call Jackie Dunbar to be followed by Sharon Dye. I am pleased to speak in this debate today and agree with the minister that every woman and girl has the right to feel safe wherever they go, including how they travel. Travel is fundamental to how women access education, jobs and how they socialise. It is time for all transport providers in Scotland to pause and to reflect on the role they can play in helping to protect women and girls as they travel. We know that more women than men rely on Scotland's public transport network. However, our transport system in Scotland still does not seem able to listen to and act on women's views and lived experience. We must see an improvement in that. Last year, the Minister for Transport committed to undertake a consultation on women's safety across our public transport network. That included working with national and local organisations that represent the interests of a cross-section of women in society, as well as with groups that represent female staff who work on the public transport network. Options to take forward their work will be informed by discussions with women's groups, organisations, trade union partners and wider stakeholders, and I would make a play to the minister to ensure that the voices of women's aid are heard as part of that. It is important that the Scottish Government's public attitude survey has been able to provide more Scotland-specific data on harassment or anti-social behaviour on public transport. Interestingly, a third of women who took part told the Scottish Government that they were concerned about their personal safety in general when using public transport compared to a quarter of men, and that has influenced their travel choices. More women than men also said that they had been the victim of harassment when using public transport most commonly in the evening or at night time. It is not good enough to continue to expect women and girls to adapt their behaviour on public transport or, indeed, anywhere. In addition, women express much higher levels of fear for their personal security in public places whether on or waiting for transport or in the use of car parks, particularly at night. That fear can, in turn, place a constraint on the mobility of women and their participation in public life and, indeed, their private and social lives as they factor personal safety into routine decisions and activities. Addressing those issues alone will not eliminate violence, but it will support broader prevention efforts. Men should step up and say that such behaviour, especially what might be termed as low-level misogyny, which can often lead to other things, is entirely wrong and must be called out each and every time. Official statistics from British Transport Police show that there were 63 reports of sexual assault on ScotRail trains between 2017 and 2021. Over the same period, 26 sex assaults were recorded at Scottish train stations and one other was reported at a Glasgow subway stop. The BTB figures show a huge rise in the number of sexual assaults reported in 2021, reports more than doubled to 29 from 14 in 2019 before the Covid pandemic. Almost a third of all reports over the five years were recorded in 2021, with the number falling to nine in 2020 amid the Covid travel restrictions and advice for folk to stay at home. Alice Munford from the Feminist Organisation in gender said that policy makers need to recognise the safety implications around. For example, removing guards from trains and we need urgent action to change our culture, which allows misogynistic harassment and abuse to continue unchallenged. I would ask the minister to reflect on that point and especially for evening services to ensure the availability of train guards.  The campaign stimulated conversations and turned the narrative away from preventative advice to women towards focusing on men's behaviour. Collectively, we are responsible for the society that we live in under the underlying prejudices, sexism and misogynistic attitudes that are still far too prevalent. It is only by prioritising prevention that there can be an end to violence against women and girls.  I would encourage particularly men to take a look at that guy and ask the minister whether a refresh campaign is being considered. In closing, I again welcome this debate, the steps that the Scottish Government are taking to protect women on public transport and repeat my asks. I am pleased to be able to speak in this debate today to join with colleagues across the Scottish Parliament in sending a clear message that everybody should feel comfortable using public transport without fear for their safety. Sadly, as my colleague Graham Simpson and other MSPs have mentioned, the number of assaults at train stations has risen in recent years. Transport Scotland recently found that one in three women were concerned about their personal safety when using public transport, and a slightly higher number said that personal safety influenced their travel choices. A UK-wide study also found that more than four in ten women have been verbally abused on public transport and 14 per cent had been physically threatened or assaulted. Those numbers are depressing and concerning in equal measure, but looking beyond the statistics to individual cases is what should really concentrate minds on this issue. Last year, a criminal was convicted of attacking and robbing a 60-year-old woman at Paisley St James station. He repeatedly kicked her when she fell to the ground as he tried to steal her handbag. Sentencing him, the judge said, that this was a nasty attack on a random individual and you could tell she was vulnerable, and that's why you attacked her. Another offender who was convicted this month sexually assaulted a 15-year-old girl by putting his hand up her skirt. On the train from Addrossan to Glasgow Central, his horrific attack made the victim physically sick. She said, as soon as I got off the train, I just broke down as soon as there was room for me to do so. I was crying, I was in complete hysteria. Those appalling examples reveal just some of the threats to women's safety each day. As Kelly Given from the Young Women's Movement Scotland said last year, I know all too well the feeling of going home on a train at night, clenching your jaw and sitting tense and dreading getting on the train in the first place. It absolutely needs to be addressed, and she's right, it must be addressed. I hope to hear the Government outline today some of the specific actions that they will take in the near future to address this issue and give people greater protection when they are going about their lives. The document published today by Transport Scotland is just a starting point, but it's a good starting point. There are many points to raise from it, but I was most struck by this simple point, women are scared. Women are scared of abuse, of physical assault, of strangers following them, of antisocial behaviour, of harassment. Women in Scotland are scared every single day. They describe the feeling of terror, of the problems that they encounter each day as the norm. That's depressing, but it's true and it's wrong. There are many possible solutions, but it comes down to this. Men need to stop hurting and harming women. Not all men, but the men who inflict violence on women, need to stop. They need to be called out, they need to change their behaviour. We can bring in all sorts of measures, we can ask more of the Government, we can do more to act, but ultimately men need to change. Until they do, this will continue to be the norm. Although the onus must be in men not to inflict violence on women, this Transport Scotland report suggests some actions the Government and ScotRail can take to improve the public transport experience for women. First, I was shocked that the report says, across the board, female transport workers described little to no formal training either in relation to their own personal safety or that of others. I hope that the minister and the Government will agree to change that immediately. Secondly, there is clearly a need to reach those who attend football matches in concerts more effectively. I hope that the Government will look at the most appropriate way to do that, whether it is through a messaging campaign or targeted action from the authorities. Thirdly, women feel more at threat at night in poor areas of poor lighting, so I hope that the Government will launch a review of all public transport locations to check whether the lighting could be improved. Fourth and finally, improving the reliability of ScotRail would go a long way. That is certainly a major concern in my area. Women in this report raise concerns that they feel less safe waiting for a long time. That fear was heightened by not knowing if a service would be delayed or cancelled. Those are problems that are not specific to women, but this report makes it clear that a better ScotRail—not the sub-par service that Scots get now—would be a big boost to women's safety. To conclude, I urge everyone to do what they can to protect women's safety and prevent violence on public transport by working with the police to report crimes and provide front-line officers with the information that they need to catch offenders. British Transport Police are urging people to report concerns directly to officers or to flag incidents using the real-way guardian app, where people can upload media evidence or to discreetly and directly report any non-emergency crimes by texting 61016. I want to open with a quote. So often, when I'm being harassed by a man on public transport, no one intervenes. Then, when I'm off the train returning from work or a night out, there is no one to help. I've lost count of the number of times I've been followed home, terrified of being raped or murdered. Those are the words of just one woman, Sally, who spoke to my office as I prepared for this debate. They are so bring to hear and their experience is sadly one that most women in this chamber and watching at home will, in one way or another, recognise. Many women and girls will be familiar with sending a friend or live location when we transit to or from home and some of us change how we dress to avoid attracting unwanted attention from would-be harassers. Or else, we take a different longer or more convoluted route to our destinations to ensure that they are well-lit or busier. Some of us don't take the risk at all and spend a fortune on taxis and there are just a handful of occasions women are taking day in, day out to avoid harassment in public. Sadly, that extends to our transport system. Another woman told my office, every time I get on public transport, I have a flashback to a time that I was harassed. I thought I was going to die. One of the reasons I bought my car and learned to drive was to avoid encountering creeps on public transport. If I couldn't drive, I needed to take public transport to get somewhere at night, I would choose not to go. No one should live in constant state of fear like that, excluding themselves from public life for fear of their safety. I want to thank the women who shared their test and maze with me in my office. Your courage and honesty has left me dwelling on a number of questions in the lead-up to International Women's Day tomorrow. How can women thrive at work, for example, when too often their commutes are spent in a state of hyper vigilance? How can we tackle climate crisis through encouraging increased uptake in public transport when so many of us are fearing for our welfare and even our lives on our buses and trains? How can we tackle the scourge of harassment when, for too many women, there are still too many barriers to understanding and reporting harassment on our public transport? Women's safety and wellbeing should underpin all that we do in this area, but it is important to recognise that those matters have an impact on our economy, our climate and our justice system. It is important to reiterate that the voices and perspectives of women must be front and centre in any effort to resolve that on-going problem. It is vital that we have women representatives proportional to the population to ensure parity of attention to women's issues in this Scottish Parliament. Women make up 46 per cent of the Scottish Parliament as a whole and there is a wee way to go yet, but we are closer to equal representation than we have ever been. I had the privilege of being the SNP representative on the Scottish Parliament's gender-sensitive audit board, and I have played my part in the large body of work undertaken to recommend action in both within parties and Parliament. That, hopefully, will make a significant difference to women's participation in politics and elected office, because having women's voices and perspectives at the heart of Government is essential. We are fortunate to have had our first female First Minister who has ensured that, under her leadership, our Scottish Cabinet is gender balanced and has been for seven years. Our Minister for Transport, a woman, has talked previously about her own lived experience of harassment on public transport. We know from Transport Scotland's social and equality impact assessment that women are more likely to be the victim of sexual assault and we are also more likely to have concerns about safety and security issues on public transport at night, out of the fear of being harassed or sexually assaulted. The report published today makes a number of recommendations to tackle those issues, and I want to highlight and endorse one in particular. I welcome that the report specifically recommends raising awareness of the immediate and intermediate support that is available to those who feel vulnerable at any point before, during and after public transport journeys. Many of the women I have spoken to about harassment on public transport raise concerns that any effort to tackle harassment must be door to door. It cannot stop at the boundary of the train station or bus stop, and I want to commend the work of organisations like Strutsafe, a free non-judgmental service dedicated to making women, LGBT plus people and people of colour and others feel safe walking home. On a final note, we know that misogyny and the violence against women and girls that perpetuates is not confined to public transport. Sadly, we see it throughout our society. Eradicating the pervasive and deeply ingrained inequalities in our society will require radical and holistic efforts, but with a gender-sensitive Parliament and a gender-balanced cabinet, I know that we can prevail. I vow to do all that I can to ensure that the voices of women and a wide variety of backgrounds are heard in this place. I hope that working alongside colleagues cross-party and cross-gender, because only by calling out misogyny and creating a culture where the perpetrators of it are like social parias can we radically change the culture in our society. It is an important point that, on many occasions, MSPs have stood up and stated the absolute importance of keeping guards on trains, maintaining safe and regular buses, and ensuring that transport hubs are sufficiently staffed for the benefit of all. Whether it is to ensure that the public are protected, that people with disability can get on and off safely or to warn of developing hazards, those calls all have a logical and necessary reason for them. A key reason that those calls are so consistent, however, is to ensure that those who use trains, buses and boats feel safe and unthreatened whilst travelling. Of course, more often than not, when we speak of this, we are, sadly, focusing on women. Sadly, we still live in a world where many women do not feel safe when using public transport. We have heard already today that the survey by the Office for National Statistics suggests that figure is nearly half a woman in Britain feel unsafe using public transport alone after dark. Whether it is cat-calling, being pestered or indeed, as far as all-out sexual assault, the number of cases where women have been made to feel isolated and exposed by the behaviour of men on public transport is concerningly high. We have all heard today and at other times horror stories or experienced them ourselves. It is worryingly common that women's complaints about this are not taken as seriously as they should be. It may no longer be socially acceptable to insinuate that a woman where or are at fault is that it was regularly claimed when I was young, but there are still plenty of ways in which their concerns are diminished or emphasised as put on them changing their behaviour rather than the man carrying out that harassment. All women have been told at one time or another that they shouldn't get on board this or that bus if they are travelling on a train at night to bring someone else with them. While people do absolutely mean well by saying those things, it belies the fact that in 2023 we have still just accepted that there are no-go areas for more than half of the population of the entire country. The implication that men are born with an entitlement to Rome and travel that women can only enjoy in the company of men that they know. Some may scoff at the way I have characterised that, but it is absolutely true and it is reinforced by the fact that men who harass women on public transport often simply get away with it. They go on with their day, oblivious to the damage they have caused and yet for that woman her right to feel free in public is severely damaged and in some cases women simply will never get on a particular bus or a particular train again. Their life has been affected and limited by the selfishness of others and we must not put up with that. We must all agree that there is some urgency required in the actions that need to be taken from the report and from previous debates that we have had in the chamber. I was also shocked though, as has been mentioned in the chamber, to learn that after a survey from their ScotRail employee members last year, the RMT found that over 80 per cent of ScotRail women workers had been subjected to violent or antisocial behaviour at work in the last year. Of those who had been subjected to those behaviours, 80 per cent were lone working at the time. That is absolutely shocking and those workers should not have to put up with that sort of treatment. I think that, as a democracy and a functioning society, we cannot simply let those sorts of behaviours go on without treating it with the seriousness that it deserves. Further and perhaps just as importantly, we should not be making decisions that only worsen the problem and it appears that sometimes we are thinking of doing so. What can be done or better put? What should not the Government do in terms of cuts if they think that they are taking this seriously? I was glad of the minister's remarks at the start around looking at the points in the report and I would like more information on that. Making cuts to ScotRail's ticket office opening hours exacerbates that problem. Elderly passengers in particular still prefer to speak directly to someone when buying their tickets and often rely on the ticket office's knowledge to plan their journey and it is an important part of feeling safe to plan your journey so that support is absolutely necessary. It is a fact that the ratio of people in our country who are past retirement age and use in public transport are much older and skewed significantly towards women. Like so many other cuts that are made without thinking, that proposal would, while disproportionately, harm women. Cutting bus routes and leaving isolated stations and trains without sufficient supervision inevitably leaves many women in a vulnerable position, as we have heard. Indeed, the number of late night bus routes disappearing is very concerning, as my colleague Neil Bibby has mentioned. It is concerning not only because they have gone, but the number of women disproportionately affected because their working roles often finish after dark means that they have no way of getting home and we know that employers are not sympathetic to those concerns. Finally, we must keep guards on trains and adopt a zero-tolerance approach to those called harassing women or indeed anyone on public transport. If you cannot use the railways and roads with respect and decency, then there should be some limitations put on your freedoms, not the freedom of women who are being harassed. As we approach international women's day tomorrow, the debate is the first of several discussions at this chamber that we will have this week regarding women's experiences in Scotland today. The Scottish Government supports the notion that those living in Scotland should live a life of freedom and equal opportunity, and a safe, efficient public transport system is one of the ways in which that concept can be realised. The groundbreaking decision to accept reverse travel to those under the age of 22 has been a great success and I want to take this opportunity to put on record my praise of CityLink for its new 902 service, which runs through my constituency, again connecting Coatbridge to Glasgow following a number of years without a direct bus service. It was great to meet Simone Smith, the operations director yesterday, and I would say that it was clear from my chat with her that safety on those buses is a primary consideration, and that was very heartening to hear. Also, the decision to scrap train fares is another way in which the Scottish Government has encouraged people to utilise their transport systems. However, our investment in the public transport of Scotland can only be successful if those who use it feel safe to do so. Research undertaken by Transport Scotland found that roughly 33 per cent of women were concerned about their personal safety in general when using public transport, compared to just 25 per cent of men. A higher proportion of women than men said that personal safety concerns influenced their travel choices. In addition to that, as we have heard already, more women than men also said that they had been the victim of harassment when using public transport, and 15 per cent of those who have suffered from harassment have said that they no longer use any form of public transport. After their incident, this is really startling figures, especially as a man to read that. One of the more distressing statistics to come from separate British transport police research was that reported sexual harassment and sexual offences in the railways have increased by 63 per cent compared to pre-pandemic levels, a point that was made by Neil Bibby earlier when he was talking about the alcohol ban. That is simply not good enough. We must do more to challenge unacceptable male behaviour and better protect women from it. We all have a role to play in ensuring women and girls feel safer and more supported in Scotland's public transport system. In let me say, as other men have said today, it is men's behaviour that is the problem here and that we need to recognise this and do something about it. It is also incumbent on Scotland's British Transport Police to keep passengers safe. An extensive CCTV network of 24-hour customer information advisor hotlines can hopefully give some peace of mind to those with concerns. As others said, I should also highlight the 61016 number, which is a tech service that offers the travelling public and rail staff a means to contact the BTP discreetly in order to report non-emergency crime. I thank Fulton MacGregor for taking the intervention. Given the picture that he is so eloquently described, I assume that he would agree with me that staffer stations are of enormous value. Would he agree that we should not be cutting back the number of staffer stations or reducing hours at ticket offices? I thank him for that intervention. I wonder if he said that we look at my speech, because I am coming to that point exactly, because there are a couple of stations in my constituency, which he might well know are potentially impacted. Before I do that, I want to point out that, if you witness a crime occurring, or if someone has been threatened or in danger, you should always dial 999, following up from my previous point. A lot of CCTV and customer service hotlines are invaluable, as the presence of staff at stations is equally indispensable. As the minister and other people in the chamber will know, I raised objections when plans were released which intended to reduce the station staff hours of Blair Hill and Coatbridge sunny side train stations within my Coatbridge and Crescent constituency. I went out and spoke to workers who agreed with me in a key takeaway from my discussion that station staff do a lot more than sell tickets—a phrase that has been used already, but is very much worth repeating. The presence deters anti-social behaviour and station staff can act as an important point of contact for travellers who encounter any issues while travelling. To really emphasise this point, one staff member I spoke to told me that she had saved three lives during her time working at the station and that she had acted as a first responder. She also spoke about having been a help to many women and girls leaving the train feeling scared or worried and leaving at those points because there were staff there. I would say to ScotRail and other transport operators to take those factors into account when making decisions. It might just seem like a cost-saving or resource-moving issue, but in an area like Coatbridge—and I am sure that many others, but I will only speak from my constituency—it can be such a bigger message to women, and girls and everybody else. I do welcome the minister's response in this area earlier to Katie Clark. While some people might suggest that women and girls should avoid travelling at certain times, avoid travelling alone and not draw attention to themselves, why should women be forced to change their behaviour so that they can travel safely? The fact is that they shouldn't. This week we will observe international women's day. Although we can celebrate the slow progress made with women's rights over the last century, we must also acknowledge that huge inequalities continue to exist. It is a sad reality that a culture still exists, in which prejudice, sexism and misogyny thrive. Men are now recognising that they have a role in standing against violence against women and girls by changing the way they behave and calling out behaviour among other men. Men must take the lead in this challenge. We hold a unique place in challenging their peers, and it is vital that men speak out. We need men to lead, for example, to their friends, family and children. That is the only way in which real change can be realised. I think that we need to, as well as the more obvious issues to challenge in that, we need to look at even the smaller things. I would say to myself and other men in this chamber, have I said before to women, friends or colleagues why are you not taking the train? Maybe I need to think about that. I am sure men and other men in the chamber have said similar things. Maybe we all need to think about it. It starts at a small grass-roots level, and we need to think about it in the whole. I can see that over my time, but in conclusion, the Scottish Government has done excellent work in promoting the use of public transport. Failing safe is fundamental for individuals and communities to thrive. A strong and flourishing Scotland is one where all individuals are equally safe and respected and where women and girls live free from all forms of violence and abuse, as well as those attitudes that perpetuate it. I got on the train. A group of men was sitting next to the only free seat. One calls out, give us a smile hen, or better still, come sit on my knee. He was the only one at the bus stop. We both got on the same bus. The bus is empty, but he comes and sits next to me. I am wearing shorts. He touches my thigh. He says, you are cold.  I had nowhere to go. These are just two comments from women relaying their experiences using public transport. They will not be unfamiliar to any other woman in this chamber. That is why I welcome this report, its recommendations and our opportunity to discuss this vitally important issue today. For if women and girls cannot travel safely with confidence and assurance, then their participation in so many aspects of life will inevitably be limited in work and study, in social, cultural, political and sporting activities, as volunteers, as activists, as environmental protectors, and we cannot afford to lose their contributions to all of these. The recommendations of this report are wise, well thought out, some of them long overdue, but they are not enough alone, for we need to address the cause of women's and girls' experiences of danger and hostility, not just mitigate its effects. The cause, let us be frank, is misogyny, a misogyny which often intersects brutally with other forms of bigotry and bullying, including racism, homophobia and transphobia. It is important that we begin this parliamentary week with a specific issue, but it is at least equally important that we will be talking later this same week about that cause itself, about misogyny. Technical responses, monitoring and infrastructure are all welcome, but they cannot be the whole answer, because this is not fundamentally an issue of technology, it is an issue of people. We need, on public transport, what we saw on Cainmere Street, what we see in neighbourhood food ladders and climate camps, a sense of shared responsibility for one another, of solidarity, the creation and nurturing of a culture of care. That is why I am particularly pleased to see the recommendation about transport workers' safe return home at night. That reflects my own proposed member's bill for hospitality workers. I hope that the recommendation will be followed wholeheartedly, not only collating and reviewing best in current practice, but ensuring that real change happens and happens soon. Everybody, transport workers and transport passengers alike, should be able to finish work with peace of mind and the knowledge that they can get home safely. We know that public transport is safer than private cars in so many ways. We need to make it so in every way and be perceived and experienced as such. 340 women and girls were killed in motor vehicle accidents in Britain in 2021, with 137 car occupants killed for every one in a bus or coach. There were 241 child pedestrian casualties recorded in Scotland that year. It would be a tragedy if that number were to be increased because women and girls were discouraged from using public transport. We need to feel safe, not only while travelling on a bus or train, but for our whole journey from its beginning right until its end. That means stations that are staffed with safe places to wait, and it means joined up systems, making sure that intercity services are met by reliable local buses or trains and well-lit maintained and signposted paths at each end. It means taking bus travel and bus passengers seriously, and it is a source of shame that we talk so often about trains and so little about buses. That sneer of Margaret Thatcher's rarely does echo down the decades. There have been wonderful innovations in bus travel such as the amber electric buses between Dundee and both Edinburgh and Glasgow—reliable, reasonably priced, comfortable and low-carbon. However, experiences of local buses, especially in rural parts of Angus, Aberdeenshire, Fife and elsewhere and their connections to town and city centres, are far too often experiences of serious delay and cancellation without notice or information, leaving would-be passengers waiting at dark and isolated bus stops. We know that there are major challenges in recruiting and retaining bus drivers, another of those Brexit benefits, but more can and must be done to give passengers the service, the information and the security which they need. Finally, local authorities have a vital role to play to taking up and using the powers which they hold to support and promote local public transport. Instead, however, we see many moving in the opposite direction, ending subsidies for vital bus services used largely by women. Why have streets so close to bus stations been not only some of the most polluted in Scotland but also some of the least cared for, the last to be regenerated to have green spaces or welcoming facilities? Why do so many bus stations charge and in cash for the use of their toilets? We know the answer. It's because they can get away with it. Because this is, at its root, an issue of justice, there are choices to be made at every level of government within the public and the private sectors. There are also choices about whether, in some of the simplest decisions, we are to embed privilege or to dislodge precarity. We must make the right choice and ensure that others can do too. Of course, every girl or woman has the right to travel on public transport without fear of harassment or worse. Of course, it is not acceptable that they have to adapt and accommodate such possible events. The reality is that there are measures that will help, such as better lighting at bus stops and train stations, a role for CCTV, though I know that we do not always feel secure that these are functioning and, of course, are of limited prevention. Having personnel at bus stations and transport hubs, especially weekends and late at night, goes without saying. It makes everyone feel more secure. I would go so far as to suggest that, especially weekends at night, a police presence would not go amos. However, I believe that there is not a woman in this Parliament who has not experienced some form of harassment quite often of a sexual nature during the course of their adult life. That has certainly happened to me in my younger days. I will describe two. There are others, none of which I have officially reported. Traveling one winter's evening in my late teens, I felt my hair being tugged. It was long in those days. Then I could see in the reflection of the bus window the man sitting behind me stroking my hair. I called over the bus conductor—we had them in those days—but he did not believe me. Are you sure, hen? he said. Frightened as the bus turned into a dark street where I was at lighting, I stood up at the last minute. The man stood up too and followed me. I rushed off the bus, crossed a road to the stop opposite where a man was standing. I told him what was happening. He seemed to disbelieve me but noticed that I was being followed. So, on my request, accompanied me to my road end. The man following me simply stood at that bus stop. It was not my imagination. I dread to think what would have happened had he not been there or not believed me. The minister mentioned that it was important to be believed and so it is. The second was years later, when again on a summer's evening on the last bus, I was aware that a young man was immediately behind me standing too close for comfort. As I rose to leave the terminus, I got off and walked along the main road, which was unexpectedly quiet. He kept a pace too close by. Concerned to put it mildly, I suddenly crossed the wide road to put that distance between us. He too crossed the road. I crossed again, putting the width of the road between us and made up my mind to run to the first door and bang and ring the bell and shout if he followed. He stayed where he was and entered the driveway but, when I checked, he came back onto the pavement and turned to go back. I have other personal examples. I tell you this. Two reasons. Nothing has changed. I cannot say whether it is worse because of under-reporting and I encourage every instance to be reported. Secondly, women are still taking evasive preventative protection measures for their safety and they have to. I wish it was otherwise but it is not. In my constituency, I am advised by Borders buses that while it is satisfied with CCTV on the buses, it does have concerns with its female drivers when the shift is over and they have to disembark in quiet places. This is especially an issue in rural constituencies such as mine. As an aside, it is also the case that female taxi drivers have to take special care. Taxis sometimes are the better choice and I note that some taxi drivers will wait to see you have opened the front door before they leave. I am afraid that vigilance is still necessary in having strategies if you find yourself in a concerning situation. We all have that sense when something is just not quite right. Trust that sense. I think that it is also important that girls in schools are made well aware of situations that put them at risk. All unfortunate but I am afraid necessary. Use of a mobile console family can track them awful but not a bad idea. Avoidance of situations that might just might put you at risk. For example, taking a late night taxi might well be the better choice. Finally, while not exactly public transport, when parking my car to take the train to my local office and not just night time, I park my car where people will be about. Without naming the station there is one where I would not wait for the train. It is in the middle of fields. Hugh can take the train there and you can return to find your only car part there. I learned this when I returned one late afternoon and vowed that it would not happen again. Experience has shown me that that could be risky. CCTV is there but it has its limitations and will only be of use after the event. It certainly did not give me comfort. Of course, it is not practical to have personnel at these rural train stations. In conclusion, even at my stage in life I have to think ahead about what is safe and what is not, because while the vast majority of men in my experience are decent folk and some may be unaware that their behaviour may make a woman feel ill at ease, sadly there are those who are predatory and will always be with us. Identification through the porting is therefore key, followed by prosecution, if appropriate. We know what may appear in quotes, low-level close quotes, sexual intimidation can progress, as the Sarah Everard case has taught us. So, yes, we can push transport providers and local authorities to improve safety, but it will, in my view, still require vigilance from women. I welcome the publication of the research commissioned by the Transport Minister. It is not only welcome but, in my opinion, imperative to moving forward and addressing the concerns that women and girls have while using public transport. Those are issues that I recognise from my own experience. When I first started here in Holyrood, I took the train every day. The morning commute was fine and passed without incident, however, due to late sittings and the run-up to Christmas break, by the time I got to the station trains were often cancelled or delayed significantly, meaning that the next scheduled departure would be about an hour later. On a couple of occasions, I was travelling on the last train, getting home well after midnight, and every time I found myself sharing the carriage with a group of alcohol-fuelled men who always caused a disturbance. The reaction was the same by the handful of travellers sitting in the carriage. Heads went down, headphones went in, eyes quickly diverted to anywhere but where the group was sitting. The atmosphere in the carriage changed and there was a collective shallow breath. As a woman on my own anxiety, discomfort, tension all flowed through me till the group disembarked the train and I silently played that they would leave without incident. I mentioned my personal experience not because they are in any way unique, we have just seen that, but because it illustrates that the problem runs deep in our society and our collective experience as female travellers and our drive. It is not because I want to do that, it is because I need to get home in a timely manner and, in all honesty, I feel safer. However, I recognise that this is not an option for all. It is therefore not surprising to me that the first main finding in the report states that the risk of delays and cancellations specifically to buses and trains explicitly put some women off using public transport at night, and the risk of waiting alone in the dark was considered too great. What message are we as a society sending women and girls who want to travel, tune from work and school on public transport? In fact, public transport is an essential and affordable way for many to achieve independent social mobility. As an MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife region, I must also mention the appalling incidents of youth violence that we have seen on buses within Fife. Like others from across this chamber, I was shocked by what I saw on a video, and the fact that it took place on a bus in broad daylight should concern us all. Public transport should be safe for everyone. There is a collective responsibility for everyone to show respect for each other, but this is not always happening. It is a few small but sometimes incredibly violent or uncomfortable instances that can lead to lasting uneasiness with using public transport. Indeed, we must all use public transport if we are going to lower our carbon footprint. We have a duty to increase the usage of public transport, make it safe, reliable and convenient for everyone to use. If we put up barriers to its use, no one will use it. Now we know the depth of the problem, and if we want to ensure a proper transport system fit for everyone, especially women and girls, we must take on word the recommendations. There is a couple that stand out to me because others have already mentioned some today. One of them was to raise awareness of technology that is currently available to assist women and girls and explore a means of making this more accessible to all, including raising awareness of the immediate and intermediate support that is available to those who feel vulnerable at any point before, during or after public transport journeys. The second recommendation was for stakeholders to implement a more robust procedure and standard practices for following up with transport staff and public transport users who report negative incidents to the authorities. Women and girls need to know that their complaints are being taken seriously and that they are being heard to give them and others the confidence to share the experiences in the future. When my daughters were coming home from a night out in town, they were always comforted by the taxi detailed description in comparison to the nameless distant, almost cold disinterest from the bus. The person, the car type, the colour, the number plate were all given up front by taxi companies using technology to create a degree of ease. Surely we could utilise something similar to that and try to create that ease in other forms of public transport. A scannable code, for example, when you get on the bus or the train that lets you know who your driver's name is in the estimated journey time, an instant link to text numbers like 61016 and telephone and online support, proper use of CCTV, and all information regarding route, time, place, carriage number etc will be there on your phone just in case. If an incident is reported, then let us treat it with urgency. That information regarding the route, time, place etc is now on the phone so it is easier to document the incident and easier to track. We should improve waiting times for victims so they should not be left hanging. More confidence in the system that if something goes wrong it will be swiftly and properly dealt with. If instances are quickly acted upon and antisocial behaviour treated the way it should be, there is a very real opportunity of turning around the fear experienced by women and girls. In conclusion, the research commissioned by the Scottish Government shows that much more needs to be done to improve the experience of women and girls' personal safety when using public transport. Women and girls, as explained, have already taken the responsibility for adapting their behaviour so that they can feel safe and be safe when travelling, but it should not be up to the victim to adapt to allow the behaviour of the abuser. The specific recommendations cannot, however, be treated in isolation, and I wholeheartedly agree with the minister's points around broader partnerships. Police Scotland, British Transport Police, Educators and those working inequalities all need to work together to challenge wider stereotypes and systematic issues that lie at the heart of experiences of women and girls in Scotland. Dial 61016, the fact that we are talking about unloading a safe number for female passengers is absolutely appalling. As Ros just said, what does it tell us about the society that we live in today? I am very proud of my wife and daughters, their independence, their strength, their character, their determination to live their life to the full, but no matter how strong they are, there are certain toxic and potentially dangerous societal norms that they have to endure and almost always perpetrated by men. So why are they societal norms? Why do we allow it? Other countries don't. Lorraine Kelly talked about this in her TV programme. Her daughter had been living in Singapore and Lorraine admitted to having to have a very difficult conversation with her when she came back and she said that you simply cannot walk home on your own anymore. It's not safe. This society is different from what it is in Singapore. That struck me hugely because it's simply an infringement on freedoms that we should all expect to have as a man. That sickens me that that is our culture. I dropped my own daughter off at the train station last night and I waited to see her on the train. I looked to see how many folk were on the train, men and women. I told her to text me from the train station when she got to the train station and I told her to text me when she got home. I wouldn't think to do anything else because that's our society and it's disgusting. Whether it's travelling on trains, buses or taxes, we've all become used to the idea that women need to protect themselves from predatory males. How can that be okay? How can we as males be comfortable with the certain knowledge that, by doing nothing, we give a tacit approval of behaviour that is completely and utterly unacceptable? There are numerous examples of males using the captivity of a train or a bus as an opportunity to just get too close to sit in the seat right beside a woman when there are more than enough seats elsewhere to give them the space that they need to not feel intimidated or harassed. We need to call it out. Whether it's a sexual thing or a power thing, to me it is utterly irrelevant where it is is completely and utterly wrong. I listened to the same debate that happened in the radio this morning. There was a lady there talking about how women have to constantly adapt their behaviour to accommodate and mitigate the behaviour of those men. It is unacceptable and we have to change it. The only way to do that is by men changing their attitudes and their behaviour. Not by becoming saviours, not by becoming saviours or protectors of women. Women don't need white knights. What women and girls need is to be given the respect for their privacy, their dignity and their personal space and their right to live their lives as they choose without fear of intimidation, harassment or even worse. When we see it as males, we have to call it out. My message today isn't to the women of this country. There are plenty of people giving women the message today. It isn't about a hotline emergency service. My message today is to the men of this country and in particular those men who engage in this type of behaviour which creates fear. Your behaviour is the main thing that gives women and girls the security and the rhythm of the fear of the ability to travel safely at night or at any other time on public transport. The inappropriate behaviour isn't acceptable or tolerable. It's not just a laugh, it isn't just a bit of banter. There is no need for you to sit right beside her on public transport when there are other seats available. That's not you being friendly, that's you being intimidating.   I'm told that the Gen Z generation have a far better attitude in terms of not accepting this kind of unacceptable behaviour. We have no idea what Gen Z actually means. This is a conversation my daughter gave me. I hope that it is the case and that it means that we are getting the cultural messaging through that men and women, boys and girls, need to live together in that equilibrium and that a better future is to come. We have to accept today that safety measures are needed to protect women and girls, and I accept that we have to have them, but we have to, as men, change the culture, change the attitude and change the lives of women and girls in this country and be far more like Singapore. Thank you, Mr Fairlie. I'm sure Fergus Ewing can give you an update on Gen Z if you need. I'm going to call Siobhan Brown, who joins us remotely, to be followed by Pam Duncan-Glante, a generous six minutes, Ms Brown. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. Firstly, can I welcome this important debate on the importance of women and girls safety on public transport and commend the Transport Minister for her commitment to undertake a consultation on women's safety across our public transport network? To me, it is just so disheartening. In 2023, we still have sexism and misogyny, and we're still trying to tackle issues like this, and if I could just highlight the continuing challenges women face on a daily basis. Just over two years ago, we know Sarah Everard was murdered in the most horrific way possible while she was walking home at night. She was only walking home from her friend's house, and she never made it. She never made it because of the unfortunate truth is that the safety of women and girls is still not guaranteed across society in the 21st century. Myself and many of my colleagues in the Parliament attended a very moving vigil outside Holyrood last year on the anniversary of the sad death of Sarah Everard, and many of the moving tributes made me reflect on how many times I've walked home and changed my route or my behaviour if I felt at risk. One recent incident was on my way home walking down a dark close, which I've done hundreds of times before, and a man was walking towards me and had his hood up and he had a face mask on, and he did one thing that automatically just put me on edge. When he saw me, he looked behind him. It could have been totally innocent, but that slight movement made me question why he was looking around to see who was around as we approached each other. I automatically assessed the situation, saw a hotel about 20 yards away, and I started to walk quickly to the hotel and went into the lobby. The man walked on, I left the reception and I continued my journey home. I could have been completely safe and misread the situation, but whatever made me feel ill at ease made me walk into that local hotel room without giving it a second thought, and normally I would just continue my journey and never think about the incident again. The sad thing is I've probably done that hundreds of times in my life, but never really thought too much about it. Now it's just a habit for me to ring my husband as I walk home until I get through the door. Now today's debate is specifically about women and girls' safety on public transport, and every woman and girl has a right to feel safe wherever they go, including how they travel, and I'm sure we're all familiar with the constituents who have been in touch with us about their experience and concerns regarding intimidating behaviour on public transport. Public transport needs to better serve the needs of women as unpaid carers, workers, volunteers, survivors of gender-based violence. It needs to serve the young women, the older women, the LGBT women, the disabled women, and the ethnic minority women. As Graham said in his first speech earlier, everyone, because every single person in Scotland should be able to jump on a train or a bus without fear that they face violence. Last week I met with representatives from the British Transport Police in Parliament to hear more about their work of keeping law and order on Scotland's railways, and the British Transport Police have responsibility for safety on Scotland's trains, and they launched their own campaign earlier this year focused on women's safety. The railway guardian app and the use of the 61016 number is a role in the public reporting incidents on public transport, and if I could take this opportunity to ask anyone listening to say that number on their phone 61016, just in case you ever need to report an incident, and also to download the railway guardian app today. And please ensure you do report incidents. Historically, there has been a data gap on incidents as women are far more likely not to report sexual harassment when it happens, and if they do it's likely to be after the event. And I welcome that the Transport Minister has instructed her officials to take forward a programme of analysis which will allow for better data collection in Scotland. I welcome the findings from the report where unanimously women felt safe for travelling during the day than at night or in the dark, and travelling during the week was considered less hazardous than the weekend, largely due to the perception that public transport attracts a large amount of often intoxicated passengers at the weekend. The report also highlighted that the risk of delays and cancellations explicitly put people, women off using public transport at night as a risk of waiting alone in the dark was considered too great, and there were concerns around poor lighting and lack of staff. I welcome the recommendations in the report to raise awareness of the technology that is currently available to assist women and girls and explore means of making this more accessible to all and raising awareness of the immediate and the intermediate support available to those feeling vulnerable at any point before, during or after their journey. And I also welcome the recommendation to strengthen the existing rules around non-consumption of alcohol and public transport at points of interchange and increase penalties for non-compliance and better enforcement legislation. I note one of the recommendations is to explore the feasibility of increasing staff presence at both points of boarding, alighting and interchange, and the possibility of increasing on-board staff presence when women and girls feel most vulnerable, including in the evenings and the weekends in particular. And I believe that this will give women and girls safety reassurance on their journeys. Any form of violence against women and girls in any form is abhorrent and in 2023 has no place in our vision for a safe, strong, successful Scotland. And as we approach International Women's Day, I welcome the very valuable work that's being carried out during this consultation and report and the recommendations and commitment to the ongoing work, which is vital to ensure that everyone has the right to feel safe and supported on Scotland's public transport system. Thank you. Thank you very much, Ms Brown. I now call Pam Duncan-Glancy to be followed by Joe Fitzpatrick, again a generous six minutes, Ms Duncan-Glancy. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I welcome the launch of the Scottish Government research on women's safety on public transport, especially after the Scottish Labour has called for a debate on the subject last year. This is a much-needed step towards improving the safety of women and girls. As the minister has highlighted, as women, we consider our safety from the moment we leave our front door to the moment we reach our destination. We change our behaviour and routes to protect ourselves from potential danger. We send friends our location, take longer routes to avoid certain areas, and we pay for taxis instead of walking alone at night. It's no wonder that we do this, given that a staggering 55 per cent of women have experienced harassment or assault on public transport. That and the threat of it stops women from accessing opportunities. Fearing our safety not only has a significant impact on our wellbeing, but it has a wider impact on the economy and contributes to women's poverty overall, too. Women's fears of travelling are so great that around 4 per cent of the UK GDP is lost because of it. Morally, legally and economically, we must ensure that public transport is safe, affordable and reliable so that women can travel freely, without fear and participate fully in the economy and society. Sadly, in the Glasgow region that I represent and across Scotland, we are not there yet. Over the past five years, bus fares in the Glasgow region have gone up twice as fast as the average across the UK, while bus usage has plummeted. We know that that has a disproportionate impact on women, including on when they access services designed to support them against violence against women. Organisations such as Great Crisis Scotland are clear that cost is a barrier for many women accessing their services. We need to take serious action to make bus travel affordable. That is why Scottish Labour has called for fares to be capped. People in Glasgow are paying among the highest fares in Scotland. A two-mile journey with First Glasgow costs £2.60, whereas it only costs £1.80 to travel across Edinburgh where buses are council-owned. In Manchester and Liverpool, Labour mayors are capping fees at £2. I want to see the same thing in Glasgow. However, it is not just the cost that matters. Inaccessible transport also puts women at risk, too. As a wheelchair user, I know that only too well. I am unable to travel on the same bus as my partner because we both use wheelchairs. Late at night, returning home after a light lemonade in town, we had to split up and get on separate buses. Three months ago, as we travelled home separately, I was followed off the bus by a man who proceeded to ask me detailed questions about my impairment and where I lived. I had to wait 20 minutes on my own with the strange man until the next bus came with my partner on it. I was frightened and, instead of going home happy after a night out, I went home scared and angry. Buses in other countries do not have the rule of one wheelchair user each, so we must address that here in Scotland urgently. I also know how important it is to have people that you can trust around when you need help. One simple and effective way of helping women feel safer whilst using public transport is having members of staff available at bus and train stations. Closing ticket desks and booking offices seriously undermine station safety, as we have already heard, and women's safety. I hope that the minister will take action to protect those now and not necessarily after a national conversation. Of course, it is extremely interesting and valuable a contribution from your experiences, but would you agree with me that it is practically impossible to have personnel at very rural bus stations, the one that I described, which is in the middle of nowhere. It is not practical, so we have to have something else in rural stations. I thank the member for that intervention, and she highlights an incredibly important point, which is that transport in rural areas, including for women and disabled people, means particular attention. The issue that is highlighted is that we need to make sure that we address when we are asking women to use public transport in those areas, but we also need to look at the specificity of what we do in very remote areas. All of that is particularly worrying, of course, for disabled women who require assistance at train stations and platforms, including in some areas where they are remote. Without staff being available, we either have to do this without essential help or we have to rely on a stranger. CCTV is helpful, but there really is not a substitute for a human being when it comes to making women feel safe and closing those offices makes no sense for safety, service or for jobs. It is simply a result of cuts that could leave women having to spend money on taxis instead. Taxis, particularly black cabs, provide a safe travel option for women, especially at night. They will be key to Glasgow City Council delivering on its unanimous support for Unite's home safe campaign, and in the absence of accessible subways, trains or buses, are often the only truly accessible form of transport for wheelchair users, but they too are under threat. We are set to see hundreds of black cabs leave our streets in Glasgow without support from the City Council or the Government to help them to meet the requirements of the low-emission zone. The grants offered are insufficient, there is a significant back order for new taxis and supply chain issues for second-hand cabs, so even if they could find the money, they cannot meet the deadline. Cab drivers are asking for more time to meet low-emission zone demands. Other authorities across Scotland, such as in Edinburgh and Aberdeen, have extended deadlines to 2024. In fact, Glasgow is the only council in Scotland still pushing ahead with the June 23 deadline. That is not least a matter of jobs, but it is also a matter of equality and women's safety, too. I am once again calling on the Government to do everything in its power to encourage Glasgow City Council to extend the deadline, to help to protect Glasgow's black cab trades and, in turn, women and disabled people, too. A failure to do so will not only leave women and disabled people, including those who work in hospitality without a vital form of safe and accessible public transport. Finally, we must also make sure that our streets are safe, too. In November 2021, Radio Clyde launched its light the way campaign, calling for safety lighting to be installed in Glasgow's parks. I was pleased when Glasgow City Council confirmed late last year that at least three of the city parks will have safety lighting installed, but the council still needs to allocate cash for that, and it could be at least another year or two years before that work starts. Given the drastic cuts to transport in Glasgow and the anticipated loss of at least 100 black cabs from the city, more women than ever before may be left to walk home late at night. Glasgow City Council and the Government must prioritise installing safety lights in parks urgently. Women cannot afford to wait until 2025 for that. Launching research on women's safety on public transport is welcome, but there is action that the Government must take right now, as I and others have outlined today. Taking those actions in transport alone, of course, will not and must not be the end of the matter when it comes to women's equality. But ensuring that women can enjoy public transport without fear is key to unlocking so much potential. Potential, we in this Parliament all agree, must not be lost to inequality. Joe Fitzpatrick, who is the final speaker in the open debate, after which we will move to closing speeches, and everybody who has participated in the debate should be in the chamber for those closing speeches. Mr Fitzpatrick, again, is a generous six-months. Thank you, Presiding Officer, and thanks to colleagues across the chamber for important contributions in what has been a very constructive debate from start to finish. On the eve of International Women's Day, it is crucial that Parliament debates the deeply concerning findings of that research. The steps taken by this Government to expand free bus travel to under 22s, to nationalise ScotRail and to nationalise the Caledonian sleeper later this year should rightly be celebrated. However, it is essential that access to public transport is safe for everyone in Scotland. The Scottish Government's public attitude survey has shown that one-third of women who took part were concerned about their personal safety on public transport. That compares to one-quarter of men, as we heard from Jackie Dunbar earlier. The survey showed that more women reported being victims of harassment than men, most commonly in the evening. That is not just about a feeling of being unsafe, but it is about being unsafe. We as men really need to understand how that has an impact on how women feel in those circumstances. It showed that more women altered their travel choices due to that. That feeds into some of the points that Pam Duncan Glancy made just now. A shocking statistic from the British Transport Police has been that reports of sexual harassment and sexual offences on railways have increased by a staggering 63 per cent compared to pre-pandemic levels. In response to the Scottish Government's consultation on Scotland's national transport strategy, Engender highlighted that BME women and women of certain faiths face both racialised and sexualised abuse that can affect decisions around travel. That is simply not acceptable. It is not acceptable that women and girls need to adapt or change their plans out of fear of harassment. It is incumbent upon everyone in this Parliament, our Government, public transport authorities, police and other stakeholders to better protect women and girls. Most violence against women is committed by men, as we all know. Although not all men are responsible for that behaviour, as I said earlier, all men in society have a massive part to play in our collective goal of advancing gender parity.  Others, including Jackie Dunbar, have raised Police Scotland's Guy campaign, which highlights the need for all men to talk openly to our male friends and relatives about behaviour that is damaging to women and puts men at risk of offending. We need to challenge unacceptable behaviours, language and attitudes in our workplace at home in the pub and, as we have heard in our public transport system. I am glad that we are challenging it here today in Parliament, so I repeat the calls from Police Scotland. Please don't be that guy. Siobhan Brown clearly highlighted why we as men need to go further and consider how our behaviour might be perceived, even if it is innocent. Siobhan Brown, like many women, told us about a case where she had to change her behaviour, and, as men, we just need to take a little bit of time to try and put ourselves in the shoes of women like Siobhan in those circumstances and think about how we, as men, can change our behaviour to remove the fear, to make someone like Siobhan feel just a little bit safer. We need to understand that, sometimes, things that we, as men, might find signals of not a threat might appear to a woman in one of those circumstances as a threat. A smile between two guys might seem great and okay, but that very same smile might feel threatening to a woman in one of those circumstances. We need to think carefully, maybe just cross the road, rather than expecting the women to cross the road and get out of our way, so that we can go on our way. Maybe sometimes we need to just cross the road so that we are not putting ourselves in that threatening. Those are the kind of conversations that we as guys need to start having so that we can change our behaviour, even if we are not that guy. How can we do our bit to help make women feel safer? I welcome the Scottish Government's continued support for the third sector organisations to prevent and eradicate domestic abuse. Scottish Government's equally safe strategies prioritise and produced in partnership with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, Police Scotland, Health Scotland and specialist violence against women's support groups like Scottish Women's Aid and Rape Crisis Scotland. The delivering equally safe fund is providing £19 million per year to support 121 projects from 112 organisations that focus on early intervention, prevention as well as support services. Many of the organisations run training and outreach programmes aiming to prevent violence against women and girls. They also offer one-to-one emotional and practical support, as well as refuge, legal or financial advice and other services. As we look forward to International Women's Day tomorrow, a global celebration of women's achievements, we must also remember why International Women's Day is still needed. It is needed to raise awareness of discrimination, to drive forward action on gender parity, to remember the daily struggle of women and girls. I welcome the commitment in the motion that is being debated today to engage stakeholders in the Scottish transport sector in a summit that will progress the recommendations from this report to ensure that Scotland's public transport is made safer for women and girls. I call on the public transport operators, police authorities and other stakeholders to adopt the recommendations that have been put forward by the report. Everyone has a right to feel safe in Scotland's transport system, everyone, and it is time that we made that a reality. I refer to my entry in the register of members' interests, and I am pleased to close this debate for Scottish Labour. I thank the minister for bringing this important issue to the chamber. The commitment to carry out research was made in a Labour opposition day debate last year on booking office closures. Therefore, we are disappointed that the trade unions were not approached to take part in the consultation. I very much hope that, in the future, they will be directly involved in such initiatives. There is no doubt that this is an important issue and that there is an urgent need to ensure that women and girls feel safer on public transport and, indeed, at stops and stations. I would be happy to take an intervention. I thank Katie Clark for taking the intervention. I am not here to defend the minister, but, in the report, it was clear that staff were spoken to, so that perhaps addresses a point about unions. I will be expanding on this point later in my contribution, because, as I said in the intervention to the minister earlier, there have been previous consultations. The work was agreed to as a result of a debate on booking office closures in the chamber. Indeed, it was the railway unions that were campaigning against those booking office closures. I think that the voices of trade unions, and, indeed, as the minister will say, women trade union members need to be heard in these matters. I am happy to take an intervention. I am happy to take an intervention. I will respond more substantively to the member's point in my summing up. However, I think that I want to reflect that this research will now form part of a summit to which the trade unions will be invited. The point that I was making to Mr Bibi is that every single railway trade union is led by a man. I ask the question to Mr Bibi if any female members of those trade unions have been asked by the Labour Party for their views. I am more than happy to hear them today, but I just reflect that there is a gender imbalance in relation to the leadership of our railway unions. I fully accept what the minister is saying. Indeed, there have been some women who have been elected to some of the major trade unions recently, including indeed Sharon Graham, who is the general secretary of United Kingdom. Indeed, she is one of the leading unions that I am sure that the minister meets. Indeed, there are many women activists in railway unions in Scotland who I have met with. I hope that the minister has met with me, but, as I said, it is important to lay down that marker. Tinkering around the edges will not address the scale of the problem. A number of members have referred to the work carried out by the Women's Charity in gender. Indeed, their research has found that both bus services are currently being seen as incompatible with women's working patterns, and that women themselves are particularly concerned about safety on train travellers, as we have heard from a number of members. As we have also heard, in particular from Pam Duncan Glancy, that disabled women lack assistance and feel insecure when travelling and, indeed, at stations and on platforms. I was pleased that Pam Duncan Glancy, and indeed Maggie Chapman, spoke about the Unite Get Me Home safely campaign for employers to provide safe and free transport home for workers after 11 pm, and, indeed, when there is no public transport available. As we know, the sense of insecurity that women fear is a persistent theme. A number of members have referred to the survey by the Office for National Statistics, which suggests that nearly half of women in Britain feel unsafe using public transport alone after dark, compared with around one in five of men. As we know, that is not surprising. Indeed, a number of members, including Jackie Dunbar and, indeed, Graham Simpson, spoke about the statistics from British Transport Police, which show that there were 63 reports of sexual assaults on ScotRail trains between 2017 and 2021. Those are appalling figures. Staff themselves and the Minister has spoken about women's staff. Staff themselves must also deal with unacceptable levels of abuse and deal with antisocial behaviour. As Carol Mocken said last year, the RMT trade union found in a survey that over 80 per cent of ScotRail women workers had been subjected to violent or antisocial behaviour at work in the last year. Given that there is already an aggravated offence to assault or abuse emergency service workers, I would ask the minister to confirm whether she is looking at whether the Scottish Government will extend the legislation to cover public transport workers, particularly given that that seems to be an increasing problem. As has been said in powerful testimony by a number of members, those are issues that require a change in attitude and cultural change, but, of course, that will not be enough to address this challenge immediately. There is a need for significant investment in staffing and infrastructure. The Scottish Government's report, I believe, lacks concrete recommendations and how to combat attitudes among men that lead to gender-based problems and gender-based antisocial behaviour and violence. We need to think about whether we put so much focus on the responsibility on women. I do not disagree with any of the recommendations or conclusions, but raising awareness about technology available to assist women and girls, such as tracking apps, whilst a welcome step does not address the problem, and developing credible guidance for women and girls on what to do if they feel unsafe is not unhelpful but will only take us so far. The reason that I made an intervention on the minister about the survey that I took in place in the year 2000 was really to highlight that those issues are not new, and we must not reinvent the wheel. The survey carried out between July 1999 to May 2000, developed guidance and a checklist to assist central and local government transport policy makers and to ensure that a number of basic requirements are built into the formulation and development of policy, ensuring that considerations that affect women form a mainstream consideration. On behalf of you to take an intervention from the minister. I accept that women's work was transport minister. There was a body of work undertaken in relation to women's safety on public transport, but will she accept it? Twenty-three years have passed on the interim. Technology has moved on, and some of the behaviours that we see today simply did not exist over 20 years ago. They manifest in different ways. I think that there was a requirement for government to update our consultation to that end to get a better understanding of the landscape in Scotland at the current time. Does she accept that point? Yes, I do accept that point, but what I have been trying to get a better understanding of is whether the recommendations and guidance that were made then have been getting implemented over the past two decades and whether the recommendations that were made then were implemented. We know, for example, that in that work it was said quite clearly that surveillance technology must be supported by appropriate staffing and that technology was not a solution in itself. We know that now, in this century, a total of over 200 rail stations—around 60 per cent of the total in Scotland—are unstaffed. Indeed, in the West Scotland region, I represent, just a third of all railway stations are deemed fully accessible based on Transport Scotland's own methodology. The Scottish Government's own transport policy identifies that many women and disabled people feel vulnerable when using public transport. We have heard numerous contributions in the debate today in relation to how that impacts. Despite that, we know that the reality is that the proposals from the Scottish Government have been to cut back on services and to cut back on staffing levels across the railways. Indeed, we know from our constituency experience the cancellation of bus services. The Scottish Government today is still refusing to cut back to rule out cuts to existing ticket-hour offices. I would ask the minister today to rule out staffing cuts before the national conversation starts. We need to be investing in and expanding in our public transport systems. I would be happy to, but I think that I'm probably running out of time. We've got a bit of time in hand. Minister, briefly. I don't plan to cut any staff numbers. I would just ask people in the Labour Party, including Ms Clarke, not to mischaracterise any of the proposals that are currently drafted. I'm very grateful if the minister is ruling that out today. As she has said, the issue of harassment of women is a systemic problem and one that is particularly prevalent on public transport. We agree with that assessment. We think that that has been made very clear across the chamber today by women and girls in service, by women's groups, by workers and indeed trade unions, but we also think that this problem cannot be addressed without significant investment in staffing and infrastructure. I commend the minister for raising the issue. I am pleased by the commitments that she has made today in relation to staffing levels, and no doubt there will be a further discussion on that going forward. I commend the minister for raising the issue and for diminishing the report. I would encourage all parties to agree to Scottish Labour's proposed amendment today by ensuring that our stations, carriages and platforms are accessible and well-staffed and that women and girls feel safe and comfortable in using public transport in Scotland. Thank you, Ms Clark. I now call Russell Finlay, a similarly generous eight minutes, Mr Finlay. Thank you very much. I'm very pleased to contribute to this debate as my party's closing speaker ahead of International Women's Day tomorrow. Be assured, but my speech won't be as long as Graham Simpson's blockbuster 11-minute opener. Last week, I saw a new TV advert for ScotRail. I don't know if you've seen it. It was all smiling passengers, cheery staff, beautiful scenery and blue skies. At one point, a departure board flashed on the screen showing every single train was in time. It was created by a trendy design studio, and it looked like Scotland. It's just perhaps not the Scotland that I live in, and it also looked like ScotRail, but perhaps not the ScotRail that I use. I'm afraid that this wholesome TV advert bears little resemblance to what is experienced by women passengers every single day. Three months ago, I lodged a motion stating that everyone should be able to travel on public transport without fear of harassment or violence, and I'm grateful to members who supported it. It included the revelation that an estimated 75 per cent of sex crimes in the railways go unreported. My motion also supported British Transport Police's Speak Up, interrupt campaign, which aims to empower bystanders and witnesses to report incidents or to safely intervene when they can. Some of today's speakers, including Jackie Dunbar and Sharon Dowey, have been critical quite rightly that responsibility is too often put on women's shoulders. Why should women alter their behaviour? Why should women be expected to police the inappropriate or criminal behaviour of men? The answer to both those questions, of course, is that they should not. Men need to learn how to behave themselves, a point made very well by both Jim Fairlie and Fulton MacGregor. When men don't, the criminal justice system needs to act quickly and, decisively, in my view, robust policing. As Carol Mawkin put it, a zero-tolerance approach should be paramount. That should apply on our streets and on public transport. Last year, the minister appeared to be receptive to the idea of women-only train carriages for practical purposes and reasons that I don't think. That is the answer. Practicalities aside, what signal would this send out? We should always accept that some men will target women on trains. I recently met the British Transport Chief Constable Lucy Dorsie, and I have absolutely no doubt that she fully understands that it is her officers who bear responsibility for policing and that it is not the job of female passengers. While it is a fine line to tread, I do think that encouraging public awareness, reporting and safe interventions all have their place. The minister's motion and speech, referred to a new report published by the Scottish Government Agency Transport Scotland, is a weighty document that runs to 79 pages. It echoes this sentiment about women and girls, and I quote, "...shouldering significant responsibility for adapting their behaviours to try to be and to feel safe when travelling on public transport." I agree with the minister about the report's value and thank all the contributors to it. However, I am left questioning some of what is not in it. The following four words do not feature once, arrest, prosecution, conviction and sentence. The report does not tell us how many crimes have been recorded on Scotland's public transport network in recent years. It therefore does not tell us the nature of those crimes of particular interest would be how many were sex offences in which the majority of victims are women. Crucially, it does not tell us how many were prosecuted in court and of those how many resulted in conviction or what sentences were imposed. There was nothing about non-court disposals such as formal warnings or fixed penalties. I believe that this data is crucial and it could provide a meaningful picture to the public and MSPs. As the member has requested, the data is actually gathered by the British Transport Police, so it is not gathered by the Scottish Government nor by Police Scotland. However, I have provided this data to Tess White, his colleague, and I have been more than happy to make that data available to the member additionally. Russell Finlay. It is not a criticism of the minister or indeed of the report. It is just pointing out the key to the importance of knowledge. I think that some of the data relating to prosecutions and outcomes is not British Transport Police data, that is Crown Office data. As a member of the Criminal Justice Committee, I am familiar with hearing crime victims' troubling accounts of the system, the disrespect, the delays, the lack of transparency. I am also weary, as are the other members of the committee, sometimes of the battles we have in trying to access some basic data. It is often difficult to establish a full and true picture. I think that the demise of news journalism in Scotland is not helping. Increasingly what happens in our courts, good and bad, goes unreported and therefore unseen by the public, but occasionally you still come across reports that invoke disbelief.   I could not understand the thinking behind that. Sharon Dowey spoke about some truly horrific cases that expose the personal toll on victims in a way that the statistics never do. Cases like this are shocking and harmful. They need to be told. They often expose the gulf between the justice system's talk and its reality. Ross McCall no longer uses public transport partly because of her own ardeals is a damning indictment. I also agree with Neil Bibby that, as men, we cannot really know how female passengers feel. He also raises an important gap in knowledge about bus cancellation numbers and a gap in that data. I hope that the minister heeds that call. Beatrice Wishart pointed out that it is welcome as this new report is. There is really not much in its recommendations that are new. Christine Grahame's personal accounts were deeply troubling, but again confirmed that little or even nothing has changed over the years. Perhaps things have even got worse. Pam Duncan Glancy's experience also illustrates that unpleasant reality of what is still occurring out there. Preventative measures, stakeholder communication, big government reports, public awareness campaigns all have their place, but first and foremost, men need to behave, and there must be confidence in justice. To conclude, Graham Simpson has already said that my party is pleased to support Jenny Gold's motion and the Labour amendment. I hope that there is also consensus for his amendment. I thank members for their valuable contributions in the debate this afternoon. I thought that Labour and the Conservatives might have allowed women to open on behalf of their parties not to suggest that in any way I am tiring of the dulcet tones of Graham Simpson and Neil Bibby. However, I was certainly pleased to hear Ms Clark enclosing, because it was Ms Clark who requested this debate many months ago now, so I thank her for that. To make a serious point to male members today, I think that every single female MSP in this chamber will either have personal experience or witness inappropriate behaviour from men on public transport. I was thinking during the debate about the first time that it happened to me and I was 15 years old. I cannot begin to explain how exhausting it is as a woman to have to continue to adapt our behaviour throughout our lives to accommodate men's behaviour on public transport. As I outlined in the report that is being published today, there is a wealth of evidence internationally on women's safety on public transport. Of course, Scotland is not unique in that respect, but what is rather unique is the data gap on that issue historically. I am pleased that we have been able to rectify that to some extent and today's debate gives the groundwork required for the systemic change that we now need to see flow. The research that is being carried out by the Scottish Government contributes to that and it also underlines that safety on public transport prevents women and girls from realising their full potential here in Scotland. It is really important that Parliament recognises that, particularly given that tomorrow is international women's day. I want to now move to respond to some of the points that were raised in the debates. There were some notable contributions from lots of different members. First of all, I want to touch on Mr Simpson's contribution. The group of Simpson highlighted his engagement with the British Transport Police, and I know that colleagues across the chamber have been engaging with BTP in recent weeks, which is certainly welcome. I know that the Conservative amendment today highlights the railway guardian app, which I of course support, and BTP's text number 2. I hope that members will recognise that the onus should not just be on women to report when behaviour such as that that we have discussed today occurs. The emphasis really needs to be on men changing their behaviour, as I think we heard from Dolfitt's Patrick. Secondly, the report does tend to highlight that women do not always know how to report, and when they do, they do not have faith that it is necessarily making a difference. That needs to change, and I look forward to working with British Transport Police and others to develop a campaign across our transport network, which allows women a better opportunity to report inappropriate behaviour when it happens. Neil Bibby is happy to do so. I thank the minister for taking the intervention, because I was also reflecting during the debate how, member after member