Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many incidents of violence against women and girls were reported in rural areas in each of the latest years for which data is available.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publish estimates from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) on the prevalence of indecent exposure experienced by adults in England and Wales. The most recent statistics can be found in tables S41 and S42 of the Annual Supplementary Tables for the year ending March 2024, split by men and women, and by whether the respondent experienced indecent exposure any time since age 16, or within the last year. A time series for the prevalence of indecent exposure in the last year back to the year ending March 2013, split by men and women, can be found in tables S43a, S43b, and S43c. These can be accessed at:

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/datasets/crimeinenglandandwalesannualsupplementarytables

More detailed statistics from the CSEW on indecent exposure and other VAWG related offences broken down by output area classification and area type, including rural areas, can be found in table 8 of the Sexual offending: Crime Survey for England and Wales appendix tables. These data cover the period up to the year ending March 2018, and can be accessed at:

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/datasets/sexualoffendingcrimesurveyforenglandandwalesappendixtables

The Home Office collects and publishes information on the number of indecent exposure offences reported to and recorded by the police in England and Wales. This information can be accessed at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/police-recorded-crime-and-outcomes-open-data-tables

This does not include a breakdown on the location of crimes, which is not published by the Home Office.