Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many girls under the age of 18 have been the victim of gang-related sexual violence since 2010, broken down by police force areas in England and Wales.

The Home Office does not hold this information.

There is currently little hard data on the number of women and girls involved in gang violence. However, we know that women and girls who come into contact with street gangs are at greater risk of violence, particularly sexual violence.

The Government report on ‘Ending Gang and Youth Violence’ (November 2011) recognised the importance of tackling gang-related violence on girls, and refers to research by Race on the Agenda (2010:11) which exposed the significant harm that girls associated with gangs can experience. Further research has been undertaken by the Office of the Children’s Commissioner and Bedfordshire University. This was set out in their Interim Report (2012): "I thought I was the only one. The only one in the world" and the Final Report (2013): If only someone had listened".

Steps taken to protect girls from becoming involved in gang-related crime are set out in the ‘Ending Gang and Youth Violence Report: One Year On’ (November 2012) and ‘Ending Gang and Youth Violence Annual Report 2013’ (December 2013) documents.

This includes dedicated funding of £1.2m over three years (April 2012 to March 2015) to improve services for girls under 18 at risk, or victims of, sexual violence and exploitation by gangs.

The reports are available on the GOV.UK website.