Financial implications of the Bill
36 The published impact assessment for the consultation whose substance mirrored 1 this Bill as introduced states that the total estimated costs lie within a range of £37.6 to £685.0 million (present value), with a central estimate of £157.0 million over ten years. All such costs are assumed to be borne by the public sector, with the majority of the costs estimated to fall to the police, between £30.6 to £632.8 million (present value), with a central estimate of £139.3 million (present value) over ten years. There are no monetised benefits of this intervention. A breakeven analysis has been provided to indicate how many crimes would need to be prevented to offset the monetised costs of the policy options. This analysis indicates that there would need to be between 5,000 to 98,000 crimes prevented, with a central estimate of 22,000, to offset the monetised costs of the intervention. There are expected to be a range of non-monetised benefits following intervention including a greater awareness of public sexual harassment, a potential reduction in offending, a clearer framework for the police and criminal justice system around dealing with public sexual harassment, and increased victim satisfaction.
37 A final version of the impact assessment will in due course be published, in part to account for the production of guidance for the police, as provided for in Clause 2. This analysis poses additional costs on the police as a result of the need for certain officers to read the guidance. As this provision was added to the Bill at House of Commons Report Stage, it was not included in the original impact assessment.