I wanted to make an FOI regarding sexual harassment/sexual assault allegations and complaints within Crossrail and on Crossrail sites. I’m not sure of the best way to phrase this, so please do let me know if it would be more useful to use different terms. If possible, I would like to know the below information, covering the most recent four year period: • How many allegations of sexual harassment/assault/misconduct have been made against employees or staff of Crossrail? • How many claims of unfair treatment (relating to gender or sexual harassment) under the equality act were made against employees or staff of Crossrail? • Details of how the above two bullet points were resolved – for example, how many were referred on to an employment tribunal, or to police? How many resulted in warnings or termination of employment? • What is Crossrail’s official guidance for dealing with allegations of a sexual nature, both in offices and on sites? How are they dealt with, for example, on sites involving subcontractors?

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Our Ref:         FOI-3884-1920

Thank you for your request received on 13 March 2020 asking for information about sexual harassment/sexual assault allegations and complaints at Crossrail

Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy. I can confirm we do hold the information you require. You asked:

How many allegations of sexual harassment/assault/misconduct have been made against employees or staff of Crossrail?
How many claims of unfair treatment (relating to gender or sexual harassment) under the equality act were made against employees or staff of Crossrail?

There have been no allegations of sexual harassment/assault/misconduct or claims of unfair treatment made against employees or staff of Crossrail.

Details of how the above two bullet points were resolved – for example, how many were referred on to an employment tribunal, or to police? How many resulted in warnings or termination of employment?

Not applicable.

What is Crossrail’s official guidance for dealing with allegations of a sexual nature, both in offices and on sites? How are they dealt with, for example, on sites involving subcontractors?

Please find Crossrail's policies attached. These are only applicable to Crossrail's staff. Non-Crossrail staff would be dealt with by the employer of the person the complaint was against under that employing company's process.

In accordance with our obligations under Data Protection legislation some personal data has been removed, as required by section 40(2) of the FOI Act. This is because disclosure of this personal data would be a breach of the legislation, specifically the first principle of Article 5 of the General Data Protection Regulation which requires all processing of personal data to be fair and lawful. It would not be fair to disclose this personal information when the individuals have no expectation it would be disclosed and TfL has not satisfied one of the conditions which would make the processing ‘fair’.

This exemption to the right of access to information is an absolute exemption and not subject to an assessment of whether the public interest favours use of the exemption.

If this is not the information you are looking for, or if you are unable to access it for some reason, please feel free to contact me.

Please note, the Government has announced a series of measures to tackle the coronavirus. It is essential for London, and in particular for all critical workers, that we continue to provide a safe transport network that enables them to make the journeys they need to.

In current circumstances, we are not able to answer FOI requests readily and we ask that you please do not make a request to us at present.

Answering FOI requests will require the use of limited resources and the attention of staff who could be supporting other essential activity. In any event, please note that our response time will be affected by the current situation.

Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal.

Yours sincerely

Gemma Jacob
Senior FOI Case Officer
FOI Case Management Team
General Counsel
Transport for London

[email protected]

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