The scale of the problem

Over one in four women are estimated to be victims of sexual assault or attempted assault in their lifetime, and one in 12 women are victims of VAWG each year, although the actual number is likely to be much higher. The National Police Chiefs’ Council reported that, in 2022-23, 20% of all police-recorded crime was related to violence against women and girls. The victim was female in 86% of all police-recorded sexual offences in the year to March 2022. In the year ending December 2023, over 97% (23,723) of people convicted of sexual offences were male, and crimes are often committed by someone known to the victim.

The Government response

The Home Office introduced the Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls strategy (the VAWG Strategy) in 2021, the third such strategy since 2010, and published the Domestic Abuse Plan in 2022. However, the Home Office does not know what effect government’s work has had on VAWG.

Key findings

Violence against women and girls is a serious and growing problem. In 2023‑24 the prevalence of sexual assault against women aged 16 to 59 in England and Wales (the percentage of the population estimated to have suffered a sexual assault each year) was higher than in 2009-10 (4.3% and 3.4% respectively). Conversely, the prevalence of domestic abuse against women was lower (9.2% and 7.4% respectively).

To date, the Home Office has not led an effective whole-system response. Successfully addressing the harms caused by VAWG requires the coordinated effort and commitment of many government departments. But the cross-departmental governance in place did not ensure all departments were prioritising the VAWG Strategy’s aims and were pulling in the same direction. The Home Office created a dedicated team to lead the VAWG Strategy, but it has found it challenging to get buy-in from other government departments. The Home Office’s Officials’ oversight group, established to progress the Strategy, did not meet until a year after the VAWG Strategy’s launch.

The lack of a consistent definition for VAWG across public bodies and their approaches to measuring the scale of VAWG crimes has made it difficult to measure progress in a consistent way. The Home Office’s definition of VAWG includes all victims, across all ages and genders, whereas police forces only include women and girls. The Home Office told us it uses estimates from the Crime Survey for England and Wales to measure prevalence, which does not include children under the age of 16, even though they are included in the Strategy.

While 78% of the 126 commitments from the VAWG Strategy and Domestic Abuse Plan had been met by July 2024, several of these were not new, and many were activities such as holding meetings or publishing guidance. In July 2024 there were 25 commitments still to deliver – the Home Office originally planned to implement all commitments by December 2024 but has been behind schedule since the beginning of the VAWG Strategy.  

The Home Office did not develop the VAWG Strategy based on an understanding of what works. It has published three VAWG strategies since 2010, all with consistent aims, but the NAO found little evidence that the Home Office had applied learning from previous strategies.

The Home Office has not made the most of the available expertise and knowledge to inform the VAWG Strategy.

The Home Office does not know what effect the government’s work is having on VAWG.

The Home Office is conducting a review to improve its ability to tackle VAWG, in parallel with developing a new strategy, due in spring 2025. Despite the review being due to complete in spring 2025, the scope of the review was still evolving in November 2024.

Conclusion

The new government has set an ambitious target to halve violence against women and girls within the next decade. To meet this ambition the Home Office will need to lead a coordinated, whole-system response that addresses the causes of VAWG. The Home Office’s review of the existing evidence base could provide a foundation from which to develop the next strategy. But it will need to maintain a focus on continuous evaluation to ensure it can capture learning from local innovation and adapt its approach. The Home Office also needs to quickly establish the structures and incentives necessary to align all delivery partners behind the goal of reducing the significant harms caused by violence against women and girls.

The NAO makes three key recommendations for the Home Office to take forward the new VAWG strategy more effectively:

1. establish a shared vision for how the government’s target to halve violence and women and girls will be met;
2. strengthen accountability for delivering against the government’s target; and
3. embed learning and evaluation through the new strategy.

Thanks to Omar Lopez for kind permission to use the header image in this post which was previously published on Unsplash.