Labour’s delayed strategy stresses prevention. Big changes in policing and the courts are needed too
Labour set itself a mammoth task when it pledged, before last year’s election, to halve violence against women and girls (VAWG) in 10 years. While many forms of crime have decreased over the past decade, sexual assault has not. In the year to March 2025, 1.9% of people in England and Wales experienced it, and 82% of victims were female. The prevalence of image-related offences has risen sharply. So has concern about the impact on young men of violent pornography and influencers.
Given this grim backdrop, and the fiscal constraints under which the government has chosen to operate, it is no wonder that the promised VAWG strategy was delayed. This is a societal issue that does not sit neatly in one government department. Jess Phillips is the minister responsible at the Home Office. But education and justice reforms are also essential if aims are to be met.
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