Policy background Breast-feeding voyeurism
There has been increasing public concern expressed about situations where women have been photographed, without their consent, while breast-feeding their children. Women in these situations feel harassed and intimidated, and there is a concern that fear of such photography will put women off breast-feeding their children in public. The harm caused to the victims includes harms arising from the act of taking the photograph, the existence of that photograph and the possibility of that photograph being shared and viewed at a later point in time.
	It is possible that this behaviour may be captured by existing offences, including the offence of voyeurism, harassment and public order offences. However, the Government believes that the existing law does not fully cover all such situations.
	The Government asked the Law Commission to review the law on taking, making and sharing intimate images without consent. The Commission consulted on proposals in early 2021 and is due to report in Spring 2022. The review is looking at a range of behaviour including taking a photo without consent of someone breast-feeding in a public place where their breasts are exposed, partially exposed or covered only with underwear.
	Whilst the Government acknowledges that it would be ideal to wait for the Law Commission’s recommendations before making any significant changes to the law in this area, it believes it is right to act now to protect breastfeeding parents, and children, from this type of harassment and abuse.
	Section 48 therefore creates new offences to criminalise recording images of, or operating equipment to observe, a person at a time when they are breast-feeding without that person’s consent or a reasonable belief that they consent. For the offences to be made out, the perpetrator must be acting for the purposes of obtaining sexual gratification (their own, or another’s) or of humiliating, alarming or distressing the victim. These offences will be punishable by up to two years imprisonment.