Found: Written evidence submitted by the Gender and Tech Research Group, University College London (UCL) - Dr
Written Evidence Feb. 06 2024
Inquiry: Children’s social careFound: 45% drop in domestic abuse convictions leaves a huge increase in violent men out in the community
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to (a) evaluate and (b) review the violence against women and girls strategy.
Answered by Laura Farris - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)
The ambitious cross-Government Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Strategy set out a series of measures to help ensure that women and girls are safe everywhere - at home, online, at work and in public. This was followed by a complementary Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan, published in March 2022. So far, we have completed 69% of the commitments across both strategy documents.
Delivery is overseen by a cross-Government VAWG Ministerial Steering Group (VAWG MSG). The last VAWG MSG took place on 1st May and was chaired by the Home Secretary. Part of the meeting focused on accelerating delivery of the remaining strategy commitments.
Many of our interventions are funded through grants awarded to third parties. These grants are actively monitored with recipients providing regular monitoring and end of financial year reports.
We are assessing the overall impact of measures set out in the strategies against the ambition to increase support to victims and survivors and bring more perpetrators to justice.
Our long-term ambition is to reduce the prevalence of violence against women. This is monitored via the published crime statistics, which include police recorded crime and Crime Survey for England and Wales data, as well as via other published criminal justice agency data. The latest data can be found here: Crime in England and Wales - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk).
Estimates from the 2022/23 CSEW showed that 5.1% of adults aged 16 to 59 years experienced domestic abuse in the previous year (Domestic abuse prevalence and victim characteristics - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)). This was a statistically significant decrease compared with the year ending March 2020 (6.1%), a year largely unaffected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the same period, the prevalence of sexual assault and stalking has remained stable with no statistically significant changes.
Found: (iv) technology-facilitated abuse, and (v) the impact of trauma on victims of violence against
Found: advisors” and insert “, independent sexual violence advisors, child independent domestic violence
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing new policies to help improve protection for people at risk of domestic homicide in all regions.
Answered by Laura Farris - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)
In the 2022 Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan the government outlined a package of measures to reduce domestic homicides and reform the Domestic Homicide Review (DHR) process.
DHRs are reviews into deaths related to domestic abuse which seek to identify what lessons can be learnt and implemented to prevent future deaths.
In June 2023, we launched the online DHR Library to help ensure police and partners have easy access to material to learn from previous homicides and prevent future deaths linked to domestic abuse.
The implementation of reforms to DHRs will improve our understanding and drive down the frequency of domestic homicides.
The Home Office also funds the collection of data on deaths related to domestic abuse through the National Police Chiefs’ Council’s Domestic Homicide Project. The project brings together data and information on prior agency knowledge of victims and risk factors to improve the evidence base and subsequent policy responses for preventing domestic homicides.
To gain protection from domestic abuse a protective order can be applied for. Police can apply for a Domestic Violence Protection Order, victims can apply for a Non-Molestation Order and criminal courts can impose a Restraining Order on acquittal or conviction of a criminal offence. The introduction of the new Domestic Abuse Protection Notice and Order, will help simplify and strengthen the protection for victims avaliable, introducing new features like mandatory notification requirements and electronic monitoring (“tagging”). The new order will be piloted in Greater Manchester, the London Boroughs of Croydon, Sutton, and Bromley, and with the British Transport Police.
Nov. 25 2010
Source Page: Call to End Violence against Women and Girls. 29 p.Found: Call to End Violence against Women and Girls. 29 p.
Correspondence Jan. 17 2024
Committee: Women and Equalities CommitteeFound: against women and girls.
Mar. 09 2009
Source Page: Together we can end violence against women and girls : a consultation paper. 48 p.Found: Together we can end violence against women and girls : a consultation paper. 48 p.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will implement a public health approach to preventing (a) violence and (b) sexual violence for (i) boys and (ii) men.
Answered by Laura Farris - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)
Since 2019, the Government has invested over £160m in 20 Violence Reduction Unit’s (VRUs) in England and Wales. VRUs are expected to deliver a ‘whole system’, public health approach to tackling violence, bringing together key partners to identify the local drivers and root-causes of serious violence and implementing a multi-agency response to them. VRUs are supported to adhere to the six key pillars of the public health approach to reduce violence, as set out by Public Health England (now OHID).
The Youth Endowment Fund was established in 2019, which will invest £200m over 10 years to identify, and build an evidence base around, what works in diverting children and young people away from involvement in serious violence and making this information accessible to practitioners.
The Serious Violence Duty introduced through the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 (PCSC 2022), requires a range of specified authorities, such as, the police, local government, youth offending teams, health, and probation services, to work together to prevent and reduce serious violence within their local communities, enabled by new powers to share data and information. Specified authorities are encouraged to take a public health approach in executing their responsibilities under the Act. The PCSC Act does not define serious violence for the purposes of the Duty but makes clear that local areas may also consider domestic abuse and sexual offences as part of their strategies, particularly where preventative activity is directed at risk factors which are shared between these crimes and public space youth violence.
The Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy (published July 2021) and Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan (published March 2022) contain over 100 cross government commitments and take a whole system approach to tackling these crimes. Commitments in these strategies cover all victims, including men and boys.
In 2021, we published the Rape Review Action Plan and set out a series of commitments to deliver cross-system improvements in the criminal justice response to rape. The National Operating Model, developed through Operation Soteria, provides policing with new training and tools to build strong cases and understand patterns of sexual offending, and seeks to support officers to building stronger cases, understand sexual offending behaviour and ultimately identify and disrupt offenders at the earliest opportunity.