Suzy Lamplugh Trust’s legacy to improve personal safety
In Summer of 1986, something no one thinks can happen to them, happened to one young woman and her family. Suzy Lamplugh, a 25-year-old estate agent disappeared while showing a client round a house in Fulham.
Paul and Diana Lamplugh were devastated never seeing or hearing from their daughter again. This inspired The Suzy Lamplugh Trust in memory of their daughter and to help stop what happened to her happening to anyone else. Their dedicated work since 1986, led them to be experts on personal safety in the UK raising awareness through what happened to Suzy and their family to try to raise awareness and prevent it from happening to others
We all know personal safety shouldn’t be taken for granted, but many times it is. There have been many advancements in public health and safety for the masses — worker’s health & safety legislation, intelligent policing, the criminal justice system- but there is a wider gap in personal safety.
One reason for this is it is infinitely complex to understand an individual’s personal safety risks across different times, places and interactions with potentially harmful people. While there are important population safeguards in place in the UK, there also needs to be an acute awareness that it isn’t always someone else’s responsibility to keep ourselves safe-it is also ours.
This is by no means placing the blame on victims or absolving employers, companies and governments from their role in prioritising the personal safety of employees and service users. Legal and policy frameworks provide the structure through which to create a personal safety culture. But in every circumstance, the more we can all learn, measure and improve on what we know, we can follow what the Lamplugh family did and try to prevent it from happening to others.
The Suzy Lamplugh Trust’s education, campaigning and policy work has created historic changes in legislation and practices nationally. They have focused across a spectrum of personal safety issues, such as harassment, stalking. To name a few, they lobbied for the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 and the Stalking Protection Act 2019. Today, they are releasing impactful research on National Personal Safety Day about an important aspect in our COVID-19 digital world; cyber safety at work which has concerningly escalated throughout the pandemic and the increase in home lone working.
I am proud to be supporting the work of Suzy Lamplugh Trust, inspired by their legacy to continue what Suzy would have wanted for others, for everyone to be and feel safe.
Have you been a victim of stalking? Suzy Lamplugh Trust has a free helpline for advice and support — 0808 802 0300
