Sexual misconduct in surgery

Support

If you experience or witness sexual harassment or assault in the workplace, if you feel able, you can report such incidents through your employer's procedures and, if appropriate, to the police. Reporting can be challenging, and third-party support is available to help you navigate these challenges.

If you need advice on the legal process or emotional support from a trained counsellor, RCS England provides a 24/7 Confidential Support and Advice Service – the helpline can be reached on 0800 028 0199.

• NHS: Help after rape and sexual assault

• GOV.UK: Victim and witness services

• GMC: please visit the GMC website to raise a concern

Our actions in tackling sexual misconduct

Working closely with the WPSMS, we have appointed our Vice-President, Professor Vivien Lees and, at a staff level, Lucy Davies, Executive Director, to oversee the implementation of our work to end sexual misconduct in the NHS. We have also appointed Professor Rosalind Searle, an independent expert advisor. The actions we have taken to date are set out below. 

Implementation and investigation

• We publicly challenged the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) regarding the adequacy of their processes, advocating for consistent and appropriate penalties for perpetrators. We provided feedback on the MPTS' decision-making methodology and sanctions bandings for sexual misconduct cases and will continue to advocate for changes.
  
• We continue to lobby the government to inform their policies to tackle sexual misconduct in healthcare. Baroness Merron, Minister for Patient Safety and Women’s Health, attended the most recent RCS-hosted WPSMS meeting on supporting and reporting processes.
• We continue to meet with the GMC and other national organisations to hold them to account and discuss how to implement the WPSMS' recommendations.
• The next phase of our work is to pursue genuine reform of reporting processes to support targets and witnesses to feel safe and confident to raise concerns. We published our Turning the tide: progress and actions to support targets of sexual misconduct in surgery in April 2025.

Policies and code of conduct

• We published a Code of Conduct for our membership, volunteer base, and staff. This is supported by our Sexual Misconduct, Sexual Harassment and Bullying Prevention and Action Policy and reporting mechanism.
• We are signatories to the NHS England Sexual Safety Charter and the BMA Sexism Pledge and wrote to NHS trusts that were not signatories to the charter to successfully encourage them to sign. NHS England has since made these commitments mandatory. 
• We welcomed the GMC's updated Good Medical Practice, which now unambiguously states sexual misconduct is unacceptable and encourages active bystander behaviour.
• We updated Good Surgical Practice, our own core surgical standards document, which explicitly addresses the need to tackle sexual misconduct.
• All staff, Council members and volunteers will be required to undertake training on the Code of Conduct incorporating tackling sexual misconduct.

Education

We are committed to:

• Developing and promoting impactful resources and training on active bystander intervention, specifically addressing sexual misconduct.
• Continuing to provide our free unconscious bias e-learning and guidance on our online learning platform. 

Culture and performance

We have diversity, equity and inclusion firmly rooted in our strategy, values and operational delivery and we have made significant governance changes to ensure diversity in our leadership and in our activities. 

Read more about our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion work.

Research conducted by the University of Exeter and the University of Surrey, in collaboration with the Working Party on Sexual Misconduct in Surgery, revealed the extent of sexual misconduct within the UK surgical workforce. The in-depth study, published in the British Journal of Surgery in 2023, analysed anonymous online survey responses from 1,434 participants (51.5% women) from the surgical workforce.

• 63.3% of women and 23.7% of men had been the target of sexual harassment from colleagues
• the majority of participants (89.5% of women, 81% of men) said they had witnessed sexual misconduct by colleagues
• only 16% of those impacted by sexual misconduct made a formal report.

Figures from Breaking the Silence, the Working Party on Sexual Misconduct in Surgery report, September 2023

Read the research
Please note that this research contains information and experiences that are distressing and may be triggering to some. Please get in touch with the RCS England Confidential Support and Advice Line on 0800 028 0199 to talk to a trained counsellor.

NHS staff survey

The NHS Staff Survey results, published in March 2025, reported that 8.82% of all NHS staff and 9.61% of medical and dental staff in training have been the target of unwanted sexual behaviour in the NHS from patients, service users, their relatives or other members of the public. Read our response.

GMC national training survey

The GMC national training survey, published in July 2024, reported that 16% of females in surgical training reported experiencing unwelcome sexual comments or advances. Read more.

Discussion

In addition to the actions we are taking, discussion and awareness-raising play an important role in eradicating sexual misconduct.

Read

• Sexual assault in surgery: a painful truth, RCS England Bulletin, 2021
• Sexual assault in surgery: a personal perspective- A letter to the authors, RCS England Bulletin, 2021
• RCS England response to findings of GMC national training survey, 2024
• Breaking the silence on sexual misconduct in surgery: one year on, RCS England Bulletin, 2024
• RCS England response to the NHS Staff Survey results, 2025
• Turning the tide progress actions sexual misconduct in surgery, 2025

Watch

• Sexual misconduct in surgery: Breaking the silence webinar with Tamzin Cuming, Women in Surgery Chair, 2023

Listen

• Our archive of podcasts covers a range of topic relating to diversity in surgery and making our profession a more inclusive one.