Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the report entitled Abuse of women runners: implications for the violence against women and girls policy agenda, published by the University of Manchester in November 2024, whether she plans to recognise women runners as a distinct group for purposes of the forthcoming Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy.

This Government has been clear that the level of violence against women and girls (VAWG) in our country is intolerable, and we are treating it as the national emergency that it is. Everyone should both be and feel safe whilst going about their day-to-day lives - and we recognise the particular vulnerability that women runners may feel.

We will go further than before to deliver a cross-government transformative approach to halve VAWG in a decade, underpinned by a new VAWG strategy, which we are aiming to publish in September.

We are working across Government to use every tool available to target perpetrators and address the root causes of abuse and violence to keep all women safe.