The nature and scale of violence against women and girls

The UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women (PDF) defines violence against women as:

Any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life.

Examples of violence against women and girls (VAWG) include:

  • rape and other sexual offences
  • stalking
  • domestic abuse
  • intimate image abuse
  • female genital mutilation
  • forced marriage

Data published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on the extent of violent crime in England and Wales found that in the year ending March 2024:

Women were more likely to have experienced violent crime. A higher proportion of women experienced domestic abuse (6.6%), stalking (4.0%), sexual assault (3.4%), and harassment (11.2%) in the last year, compared with men (3.0%, 2.3%, 0.8% and 6.6%, respectively). However, men accounted for a higher proportion of victims of violence with and without injury where the perpetrator was a stranger (1% of men, compared with 0.4% of women).

The ONS has also published an overview of domestic abuse data gathered from the Crime Survey for England and Wales, police recorded crime, and other organisations. In relation to police recorded crime, the overview noted:

Domestic abuse-related crimes represented 15.8% of all offences recorded by the police in the last year.

Women were disproportionately represented among victims of domestic abuse-related crimes, as in previous years, with 72.5% of all victims being female in the last year.

Data published by the Home Office in November 2024 found that in the year ending March 2024, there had been 2,755 “so-called ‘honour-based’ offences” in England and Wales. This data followed the police and Crown Prosecution Service definition of this type of offending:

an incident or crime involving violence, threats of violence, intimidation, coercion or abuse (including psychological, physical, sexual, financial or emotional abuse) which has or may have been committed to protect or defend the honour of an individual, family and/or community for alleged or perceived breaches of the family and/or community’s code of behaviour.

Data published by the National Police Chiefs’ Council in July 2024 found that over one million VAWG related crimes were recorded by the police in 2022/23, which is equal to about 3,000 offences each day. The data also found that recorded VAWG-related crime increased by 37% between 2018 and 2023, with one in every twelve women a victim per year.

Several criminal justice agencies have published information on the criminal justice system’s response to VAWG. For example, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has published guidance and policy on identifying and prosecuting VAWG and the College of Policing has published a VAWG Toolkit and a national framework for the delivery of policing violence against women and girls (PDF). The CPS and the National Police Chiefs’ Council have also issued a Domestic Abuse Joint Justice Plan.

There have long been concerns about the criminal justice response to VAWG, including the police’s handling of investigations, police-perpetrated domestic abuse, low prosecution rates, delays to court cases, and support provided to victims.

Conservative government action

The Conservative government introduced several measures to tackle VAWG.

Domestic Abuse Act 2021

In March 2020, the Conservative government introduced the Domestic Abuse Bill to increase awareness of domestic abuse, strengthen support for victims and improve the effectiveness of the justice system. The bill became the Domestic Abuse Act 2021. Full details of the measures included in the act are available in a series of government factsheets.

Safer Streets Fund

In January 2020, the Conservative government introduced the Safer Streets Fund to tackle VAWG, anti-social behaviour and neighbourhood crime. By August 2024, £159 million had been invested in a range of crime prevention measures, including the roll out of additional CCTV, street lighting and educational activities aimed at changing attitudes and behaviours towards women and girls.

The End-to-End Rape Review

In June 2021, the Conservative government published an End-to-End Rape Review, which set out a range of actions aimed at returning the number of rape cases reaching court back to 2016 levels. The review also pledged to make sure victims had support and to improve timeliness of cases at each stage of the criminal justice process. The Conservative government published reports on progress against the actions every six months (the most recent progress report was published in February 2024).

Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy

The Conservative government published a Tackling violence against women and girls strategy in July 2021. It set out three ambitions:

  • to increase support for victims and survivors, ensuring they have access to quality support
  • to increase the number of perpetrators brought to justice, including an increase in the number of crimes reported to the police and increased victim engagement with the police and wider public service response
  • to reduce the prevalence of violence against women and girls

Full details of the strategy, including analysis on the progress made, is available in the Lords Library briefing Tackling violence against women and girls.

Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan

In March 2022, the government published the Tackling domestic abuse plan, which focused on prioritising prevention, supporting victims, pursuing perpetrators and creating a stronger system.

Domestic Homicide Sentencing Review 

In July 2023, following Clare Wade KC’s Domestic Homicide Sentencing Review, the Conservative government announced that it would legislate to introduce longer prison sentences for domestic abusers who kill their partners or ex-partners. Relevant measures were subsequently included in the Criminal Justice Bill, which was introduced to Parliament in November 2023.

However, the Criminal Justice Bill fell when the 2024 general election was called and will therefore make no further progress.

Private member’s bill on sex-based harassment in public

The Conservative government supported a private member’s bill which became the Protection from Sex-based Harassment in Public Act 2023. This sets out a new offence of causing intentional harassment, alarm or distress to a person in public because of that person’s sex or presumed sex. The new offence is not yet in force.

Labour government action

Manifesto commitments and the King’s Speech

Labour’s 2024 manifesto pledged that a Labour government would “halve violence against women and girls in a decade” by using “every government tool available to target perpetrators and address the root causes of abuse and violence.”

The manifesto also included specific pledges to ban the creation of sexually explicit deepfakes, place specialist rape and sexual offences teams in every police force, fast-track rape cases by introducing specialist courts at every Crown Court location in England and Wales, introduce domestic abuse specialists in 999 control rooms and legal advocates in every police force area to advise victims, and strengthen stalking protections.

The 2024 King’s Speech included proposals for a Crime and Policing Bill (PDF), which the government says will include measures to “provide a stronger, specialist response to violence against women and girls, to ensure the police have the capability to respond robustly to domestic abuse, rape and other sexual offences, and strengthen the law to improve the police response to spiking.”

The 2024 King’s Speech also included a Victims, Courts and Public Protection Bill (PDF), which the government says will include measures that give “victims the justice system they deserve and ensure victims of crime […] get the support they deserve.”

Neither bill has been introduced to Parliament yet.

Policy announcements

In September 2024, the Home Office announced plans for a range of measures aimed at tackling domestic abuse, including the following:

  • A pilot scheme (to be launched in early 2025) in targeted police forces to embed domestic abuse specialists in 999 control rooms to ensure that reports of domestic abuse are treated with urgency and that “victims get the specialist support they need straight away”.
  • The launch of Domestic Abuse Protection Notices and Orders (DAPNs and DAPOs) on a pilot basis from November 2024. These are new civil orders to protect victims of domestic abuse, which were introduced by the Conservative government as part of the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 but had not been brought into force prior to the election.

The announcement also said that “all parts of government” would be focused on tackling VAWG, and that action would include “supporting schools and educational institutions in teaching children about healthy relationships, respect, and consent”.

On 27 November 2024, the Minister for Safeguarding and VAWG Jess Phillips announced that the pilot for DAPNs and DAPOs had commenced. The government has issued statutory guidance for the police to follow when considering apply for a DAPO, and guidance for individuals on what DAPOs are and how to apply.

Also in November 2024, the Home Office announced further details of its plans to tackle spiking. The announcement confirmed that a new criminal offence would be introduced, alongside “coordinated action across the police, transport network and venues”. Training for staff working in the nighttime economy on how to spot and tackle spiking would be piloted from December 2024 and rolled out to “up to 10,000 bar staff across the country” by spring 2025.

During a November 2024 Westminster Hall debate on violence against women and girls, the Minister for Safeguarding and VAWG Jess Phillips indicated that a cross-government strategy on tackling VAWG would be published in 2025.

In December 2024, the Home Secretary announced new measures would be introduced to better protect victims of stalking, including giving victims the right to know the identity of their online stalker and strengthening stalking protection orders.

Also in December 2024, the Justice Secretary announced plans to introduce two new aggravating factors when sentencing offenders for murders involving strangulation or when the killing is connected to the end of a relationship. This would implement two recommendations from Clare Wade KC’s Domestic Homicide Sentencing Review (commissioned by the Conservative government).

On 7 January 2025, Justice minister Alex Davies-Jones confirmed that the government would be legislating to make creating sexually explicit ‘deepfake’ images a criminal offence. The new offence will be included in the government’s Crime and Policing Bill, which the Ministry of Justice said “will be introduced when parliamentary time allows”.

In January 2025, the Observer reported that the government had put its manifesto pledge to fast-track rape cases by introducing specialist courts “on ice”. It said the government had “stalled” on these plans “amid warnings there are not enough lawyers to make the proposals work”. It reported that government sources and the Ministry of Justice had indicated the plans would instead be “folded … into a wider review of courts policy being conducted by Sir Brian Leveson”. Sir Brian’s review, which was commissioned by the Lord Chancellor, was launched in December 2024 and is due to make initial recommendations in late spring.

Stakeholders’ reaction to the Labour government’s plans

Following the general election, the domestic abuse charity Refuge welcomed the Labour government’s plans for tackling VAWG. Refuge also stated that to truly tackle VAWG, the government needs to “put survivors at the heart of the system and the focus […] needs to be funding specialist support services for survivors that have been impacted by […] underfunding for over a decade.”

The End Violence Against Women and Girls Coalition has called on the Labour government to introduce a “whole-society approach to ending VAWG – one that looks beyond the criminal justice system and also addresses prevention, housing, health, education and much more” as well as funding specialist support services and tackling image-based abuse.

The domestic abuse charity Women’s Aid welcomed the Labour government’s pledge to halve violence against women and girls in a decade. However, it has also urged the government to address “the funding gap of £232 million that domestic abuse services are experiencing” and to ensure that “the valuable knowledge of specialist domestic abuse services […] are at the centre of this government’s mission to halve violence against women and girls in a decade.”

Women’s Aid has welcomed the launch of DAPOs on a pilot basis and the government’s announcement on new stalking measures, but in both cases it has expressed concerns about the effective implementation of these measures and the need for a consistent response from police and the wider justice system.

The Centre for Women’s Justice has also welcomed the DAPOs pilot, but the Centre’s director Harriet Wistrich commented that “the initiative will have very little impact unless there is a radical transformation in the implementation of these orders”.

In December 2024, a joint letter was signed by Rape Crisis, Victim Support, Welsh Women’s Aid, Imkaan and Women’s Aid Federation England highlighting the impact that the increase in employer National Insurance contributions will have on victims’ services. The letter warned that without an uplift in government funding to offset the National Insurance increase, victims’ services “will be left with little choice but to lose staff, close waiting lists and – in some cases – shut down altogether”.

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