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Online petition calls for 'appalling and victim-blaming' NHS campaign to be removed from Home Office microsite after eight years

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By Jennifer Faull, Deputy Editor

July 23, 2014 | 3 min read

An online petiton has called for a "victim-blaming" NHS and Home Office poster, which ran as part of a former 'Know Your Limits' campaign, to be removed entirely from all web properties.

The poster for the campaign, which originally ran in 2006, suggests one in three cases of rape happen when the victim has been drinking.

However, the 'Rape' poster, which was part of campaign aimed at highlighting key statistics around alchohol abuse, is still available to download in PDF form from an old 'Know Your Limits' web domain, and has also been spotted on the walls of NHS hospitals and clinics.

Its continued existence has led to the launch of the petition, which has gathered nearly 5,000 signatures since it was set up four days ago, and is addressed to secretary of state for health Jeremy Hunt

It stated: "This is a blatant and appalling case of victim-blaming, and one that must not be sanctioned by official government and public service bodies. It is misogynistic, hateful, and we will not stand for it.

"It is not consistent with the NHS' own guidelines on 'Help after rape and sexual assault' in which they say 'If you have been sexually assaulted, remember that it wasn’t your fault. It doesn’t matter what you were wearing, where you were or whether you had been drinking. A sexual assault is always the fault of the perpetrator.' This is a much more helpful approach, and we ask the NHS and the Home Office to destroy this poster in all formats."

When approached by The Drum, a press representative for the Department of Health reiterated that it is an eight-year old campaign but said it was entirely possible that it is still being used in NHS premises.

The Department of Health had not reponded to the question of whether it would remove the PDF of the poster from the 'Know Your Limits' site.

Other posters which ran as part of the 2006 Know Your Limits campaign had statistics such as 44 per cent of all violent crime is alchohol related and 80 per cent of pedestrian deaths on a Friday and Saturday night are alchohol related.

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