Policy paper

Ending violence against women and girls strategy refresh: 2016 to 2020 (March 2019) (accessible version)

Updated 21 July 2021

This was published under the 2015 to 2016 Cameron Conservative government

Home Secretary Foreword

Violence against women and girls (VAWG) can shatter the lives of victims, their families and those closest to them, and protecting individuals from violence, and supporting victims and survivors, remains a key priority for this government. Violence and abuse can affect anyone, and is still far too prevalent. I recognise that VAWG is both a cause and consequence of wider gender inequality, and so our response must be framed as such.

As Home Secretary, my mission has been to protect vulnerable people from harm and addressing VAWG forms a key component of that work. It is not acceptable that in today’s society, 1 in 4 women in the UK will experience domestic abuse in her lifetime, and 1 in 5 will experience sexual violence. We must therefore do all we can across government, working with statutory agencies and specialist third sector organisations, to support victims and bring perpetrators to justice.

VAWG is something that touches on the lives of all of us, whether we know it or not. As a father, I want to see my children grow up in a world where VAWG is a thing of the past, and where they have no reason to fear those closest to them. But it’s not just about women and supporting them; it’s about changing attitudes and behaviours amongst those who would cause them harm. I am clear that we must all play a role in challenging harmful attitudes, calling out VAWG when we see it, and supporting victims and survivors.

I finish with our vision, which remains as it was in 2016: that no woman should live in fear of violence, and every girl should grow up knowing she is safe, so that she can have the best start in life.

Rt Hon. Sajid Javid MP Home Secretary

Minister for Crime, Safeguarding and Vulnerability Foreword

VAWG strikes at the heart of our families, friendships and communities. These are crimes which fester in the shadows and it is our responsibility to bring light, justice and support to victims and survivors.

This government has done more than ever before to tackle VAWG. In March 2016, we published our new Ending VAWG Strategy, and have committed over £100 million over five years to support this. We have strengthened the law and provided agencies with the tools they need to support victims, bring perpetrators to justice, and prevent these crimes from happening in the first place. We’ve introduced new offences for coercive and controlling behaviour, stalking, forced marriage and female genital mutilation (FGM), and have made ‘revenge porn’ a specific criminal offence.

Much has changed in the three years since the Ending VAWG Strategy was published, however, we have seen increased public awareness of VAWG through the #MeToo and #TimesUp campaigns. We have a better understanding of the effects – whether in the short-term or longer-term – on victims. We have seen the publication of the first Victims’ Strategy, which sets out our response to support all victims of crime. We have also embarked on an ambitious new programme of work to tackle Domestic Abuse and supported the introduction of new Stalking Protection Orders.

As both the Minister for Crime, Safeguarding and Vulnerability, and Minister for Women, I am clear that our response needs to recognise and address the gendered natures of these crimes; and that our fight for gender equality is a vital component of our work to end VAWG.

Tackling VAWG is everyone’s business. This refreshed VAWG Strategy sets new ambitions for national and local government, as well as wider society, in tackling VAWG. All statutory agencies, government departments, employers and members of the public all have a part to play. It is vital that we join up our efforts to support and protect other vulnerable victims of exploitation and abuse, and make links between related issues such as modern slavery, child sexual abuse and exploitation.

The VAWG Strategy sits alongside our work tackling domestic abuse, which includes a draft Domestic Abuse Bill and a package of non-legislative measures.

I would like to thank all those who work in the voluntary and public sectors to protect and support women and girls. Finally, I would like to pay tribute to the victims and survivors of such violence. It is only through listening to and learning from victims and survivors that we will continue to make progress in tackling these terrible crimes and bring about the change we all strive for: to stop VAWG.

Victoria Atkins MP

Minister for Crime, Safeguarding and Vulnerability and Minister for Women

Introduction

Any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in physical, sexual, psychological harm or suffering to women including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or private life.

United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women (1993)

In March 2016 we published our new VAWG Strategy, which sets out an ambitious programme of reform, and was supported by increased funding of £80m. In March 2017, the Chancellor announced additional funding of £20m to support victims and survivors of domestic abuse, bringing the total committed to £100m, over twice what was committed during the previous Parliament.

Our long-term vision remains the same, and so this Strategy is set out according to our existing strategic pillars: prevention, provision of services, partnership working, and pursuing perpetrators. The crimes addressed through this strategy are the crimes that disproportionately affect women and girls, which are domestic abuse, sexual violence, stalking, and so-called ‘honour-based’ violence including forced marriage and Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). We will continue to measure our success by seeking reductions in overall prevalence of these crimes as measured by the Crime Survey of England and Wales, and seek increased prosecutions and convictions, where appropriate.

It is important to bring together our work in the UK with efforts to tackle these issues internationally, and so the 2016 Strategy, and this refresh, represents a ‘One Government’ approach. This Strategy Refresh also sits alongside other, closely linked pieces of work from across government such as the Victims’ Strategy. We are clear that all victims of crime should be supported, but that particular hidden crimes merit their own, focused, response.

We will also continue to ensure that our response to vulnerable people, and programmes of work to tackle modern slavery and child sexual abuse and exploitation, remain joined up and mutually supportive of this agenda. This refresh does not provide full details of all that has been achieved since 2016, and nor does it set out our full strategic vision for VAWG, which remains with the 2016 Ending VAWG Strategy. This document does not overtake the 2016 Strategy, and both should be considered together. Instead, this refresh provides a brief update on delivery achieved so far, captures additional programmes of work that have contributed to this agenda, and sets out new, additional actions that government will take forward that goes beyond those set out in the 2016 Strategy.

While we know that these crimes disproportionately affect women and girls, we also recognise that men and boys are victims too. The vision set out in this Strategy applies to male as well as female victims, but we have published a Male Victims Position Statement alongside this document, which clarifies and strengthens our response to male victims of these crimes, while still recognising the disproportionate impact on women.

We have also published a separate Action Plan Delivery Update, which provides full detail of our progress in delivering actions committed to through the 2016 VAWG Strategy.

VAWG Strategy Refresh: Achievements since 2016

This Refresh gives us an opportunity to provide a public update on achievements so far, and progress against delivery of the Action Plan first published in March 2016.

This section provides an overview of achievements since March 2016, and full details of delivery against the VAWG Action Plan can be found published separately.

Prevention

In order to prevent VAWG, we have embarked on an ambitious programme of work across government to tackle harmful gender norms, support children and young people at risk and make best use of new tools to prevent harm from escalating and to reduce reoffending and re-victimisation.

Our work tackling harmful gender norms has included working with the Advertising Association to update our Media Smart resources to help improve primary school children’s understanding of how gender is represented in the media, as well as introducing compulsory gender pay gap reporting for large employers, a crucial part of our work to raise awareness of gender inequality more generally. We have also introduced voluntary age ratings scheme with the music industry and the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) to ensure music videos are appropriate age classified.

Working with children and young people to understand VAWG has also been a crucial part of our approach to protecting them from harm and identifying those at risk. Since 2017 we have committed to introducing mandatory Relationships Education in primary schools and Relationships and Sex Education in secondary schools, and developed and run the award-winning Disrespect Nobody campaign, which targeted messages to teenagers about consent, healthy relationships, sexting and sexual harassment. We have also committed to introduce age verification for viewing online pornography through the Digital Economy Act, working closely with the BBFC, to protect children from viewing this material before they are mature enough, and have published, via the UK Council for Child Internet Safety, detailed advice for schools on responding to reports of sexting. We have worked with schools to better identify the most vulnerable children at risk, including through reviewing and publishing updated Keeping Children Safe in Education guidance, publishing the ‘Respectful School Communities’ tool and providing £163,000 for Operation Encompass, which supports police and schools to work together to support children affected by domestic abuse. We also published guidance on sexual harassment and violence in schools in December 2017, which emphasises the importance of preventative education, how schools should respond, support victims, and is clear on the gendered nature of this type of abuse.

We have also worked to address sexual harassment and sexual violence in Universities, working with Universities UK (UUK), who set up a Taskforce to address harassment, gender-based violence and hate crime in higher education. The UUK Taskforce published its first report in October 2016, and published an update in March 2018.^{[footnote 1]} Building on the outcomes of qualitative research into the progress of the sector, a survey was distributed by UUK to all universities in October 2018 to support institutions in assessing progress and identifying where further action was required. The outcomes from this survey will be published in early 2019 and used to determine further action and guidance from UUK to support the delivery of continuous improvement across the sector and drive cultural change. The Higher Education Funding Council (HEFCE) allocated £2.45m in funding to 63 projects specifically focused on tackling sexual and gender-based violence in higher education, and the Office for Students have published an evaluation of these projects to improve the response to sexual harassment and sexual violence in the higher education sector. Government will continue to work closely with partners, including UUK and the Office for Students, to drive progress on matters of sexual harassment in higher education.

We have sought to address gendered online abuse and misogyny, through the publication of the Internet Safety Strategy, and asking the Law Commission to conduct two separate reviews (on offensive online communications and on hate crime) that will build our understanding of gendered online abuse. The government has also responded to the Committee on Standards in Public Life report into intimidation in elections, which found a significant proportion of abuse was aimed at women.

To counter harmful notions of ‘honour’ which enable traditional harmful practices, we have continued to deliver a programme of outreach work to prevent forced marriage and FGM, providing information materials to community groups and frontline professions, as well as launching the ‘Let’s Protect Our Girls’ communications campaign in 2018 to raise awareness and understanding of FGM. We have delivered a £4 million national FGM Prevention Programme in partnership with NHS England to improve the health-based response to FGM and actively support prevention, as well as providing over £11m to support projects across England and Wales that work to address FGM and Forced Marriage through raising awareness, supporting victims and challenging harmful attitudes^{[footnote 2]}. We continue to provide advice through the joint Home Office and Foreign & Commonwealth Office Forced Marriage Unit (FMU), giving advice or support to around 1,200 cases in 2017, and have made good use of Forced Marriage Protection Orders (FMPOs) and FGM Protection Orders. We have also strengthened our evidence base by amending the police Annual Data Requirement (ADR) to give police forces the opportunity, to record on a voluntary basis where a crime has been committed in the context of preserving the ‘honour’ of a family or community.

We have also launched a number of programmes and measures to support earlier intervention to identify those at risk. We have introduced the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme (or ‘Clare’s Law’) that enable us to provide potential victims with information about a new partner, and have seen 65% increase in disclosures under this scheme in the past year. We are building our evidence base on how to support children and young people who experience Adverse Childhood Experiences, such as through funding £8m to South Wales Police to robustly evaluate a series of early intervention programmes, and launched the £13m Trusted Relationships Fund which will support interventions with at-risk young people and enable us to build our evidence base for effective interventions. We have also expanded the threshold for intervention through the Troubled Families Programme to cover all forms of VAWG, not just domestic abuse, and committed an additional £2m funding to scale up the ‘health pathfinder’ project, funded by the Tampon Tax Fund, which will increase the number of local areas that are developing a bespoke, community-wide health response to domestic abuse. Following our consultation on the response to stalking, we have supported Sarah Wollaston’s private member’s Bill which will introduce new Stalking Protection Orders, which will enable the police to intervene earlier.

Through the Serious Violence Strategy we have committed £22m in the Early Intervention Youth Fund and £200m through the Youth Endowment Fund to support young people at risk of serious violence, many of whom will have experienced or witnessed VAWG during their lifetimes. The Strategy also reconfirms our commitment to funding Young People’s Advocates working with gang-affected young women and girls in Manchester, Birmingham and London.

Finally, we have, as required by the Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence (Ratification of Convention) Act 2017, published reports in November 2017 and October 2018 setting out our progress towards ratifying the Istanbul Convention.

Provision of Services

Maintaining and promoting effective services remains a key strategic aim of the VAWG Strategy. Since 2016, we have committed increased funding of £100m over this spending review period, after the March 2017 Spring Budget announced an additional £20m to support victims of domestic abuse. This includes launching the £17m VAWG Service Transformation Fund which has provided support to 41 local areas to build partnerships and promote early intervention, and two rounds of funding totalling over £40m to support the provision of accommodation-based specialist support services for victims of domestic abuse. We have continued to fund Routes to Support, which support a database and staffing to provide support to victims who need to access refuges and provides detailed monitoring and analysis of the availability of bed spaces and other VAWG services, and the ‘No Woman Turned Away’ project which offers support to victims who have faced difficulties accessing refuge. We have also provided direct funding to VAWG charities through the Tampon Tax Fund, with £42m already committed since 2016, of which £13m has gone directly to support VAWG projects. In addition, we have provided £21.6m to support rape support centres across England and Wales,^{[footnote 3]} and £5m for national VAWG helplines, including a new helpline to support victims of ‘revenge porn’.

We have supported local services through the publication of the National Statement of Expectations (NSE), which sets out a national blueprint for how VAWG services should be commissioned. It emphasises the importance of bringing local service providers together, understanding local needs, developing a strategy to meet the identified needs, commissioning services accordingly and setting out clear leadership and joint accountability for delivery. Alongside this we have published the VAWG Commissioning Toolkit to provide more detailed, practical advice to commissioners on best practice.^{[footnote 4]} And in April 2018 NHS England published their 5-year Strategic Direction for Sexual Assault and Abuse Services, which seeks to radically improve access to services for victims and survivors of sexual assault and abuse and support them to recover, heal and rebuild their lives.

We have published the first cross-government Victims’ Strategy, which includes proposals to strengthen the Victims Code and the role of the Victims’ Commissioner, as well as encouraging pre-trial therapy through refreshed guidance and a new toolkit for prosecutors and therapists.

We have launched a Female Offender Strategy, and committed £2m in funding to support female offenders who are also victims of domestic abuse.

We keep legislation under review, and so introduced new legislation to make ‘upskirting’ a specific criminal offence, and developed guidance with the College of Policing on the powers which currently exist to tackle these cases.

Partnership Working

We remain clear that tackling VAWG is ‘everyone’s business’, and all government departments, local agencies, specialist third sector organisations and the public have an important role to play.

To support local statutory agencies to work together to identify and support victims and their families we have published updated multi-agency guidance on FGM that was made statutory for the first time to provide advice and support to professionals, published updated statutory guidance on Domestic Homicide Reviews, established the What Works Centre for Children’s Social Care to support the translation of evidence into better practice across the whole safeguarding system, thus improving outcomes for children, young people and their families, and updated Working Together to Safeguard Children, the statutory guidance on multi-agency working to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.

To support a wider range of organisations to recognise that tackling VAWG is ‘everyone’s business’ we have directly funded £1.5m to Women’s Aid to further extend the ‘Ask Me’ scheme, which encourages a community response to Domestic Abuse by training local and virtual ambassadors in communities to break the silence around abuse and support women with their disclosures, as well as £1m to Hestia Housing and Support, in partnership with the corporate alliance against domestic abuse, for their ‘Tools for the Job’ pilot, which aims to transform the way that employers respond to domestic abuse. We have also worked with the British Transport Police (BTP) to support their ‘Report it to Stop it’ campaign which is specifically designed to encourage the reporting of unwanted sexual behaviour in all its forms to police, and published the new Ministry of Defence ‘No Defence for Abuse’ 2018-2023 Strategy.

Pursuing Perpetrators

We have continued to work hard to ensure that we are able to bring more perpetrators to justice and support victims through the criminal justice system. Volumes of prosecutions and convictions for VAWG offences, at a record high in 2016/17, have fallen more recently in the context of wider falls across the Criminal Justice System, in 2017/18, as reported in the CPS Annual Crime Report on VAWG for this period.^{[footnote 5]}

To improve the police response to VAWG, we have published the Domestic Abuse Statistical Bulletin, which provides force-level data on domestic abuse to enable better oversight from HMIC, Government, and PCCs, and developed and published updated DA action plans in every police force area. We have also improved recording of stalking and harassment, and published updated National Police Chiefs’ Council and CPS joint protocol on the appropriate handling of stalking offences. We have published data from the Rape Monitoring Group in an interactive dashboard, showing more clearly data on 44 different force areas in England and Wales. We have seen good use of newer offences in the CJS, such as on controlling and coercive behaviour and those related to stalking offences.

To improve prosecutions for VAWG offences, and improve the victim experience of the criminal justice system we have given vulnerable victims and witnesses greater opportunity to give evidence from a location away from the court, such as through video-link. We have also piloted pre-recorded cross examination (Section 28) for vulnerable witnesses (child and vulnerable adults) and are committed to rolling it out for vulnerable witnesses in all Crown Courts and testing it for adult witnesses who are victims of sexual offences and modern slavery offences in three Crown Court centres. We have also provided £1.1m through the Tampon Tax Fund to RCJ Advice, who are piloting new schemes to support victims of domestic abuse to secure non-molestation orders, and conducted analytical work through the National Criminal Justice Board on the criminal justice response to domestic abuse, identifying issues and making recommendations for new work, as well as requiring prosecutors to undergo compulsory e-learning training on stalking. Led by the police and the CPS, we have conducted a review of disclosure and developing and implementing the National Disclosure Improvement Plan to ensure proper and fair decision making in every case. We have provided life-long anonymity of victims of FGM.

Finally, we have also worked to better support women involved in prostitution and sex work, who are at high risk of abuse and exploitation. To this end, we have provided £150,000 to the University of Bristol for research into the nature and prevalence of prostitution and sex work in England and Wales. We expect the final report in spring 2019.

International VAWG

Internationally, we have continued to tackle all forms of VAWG; a key mission for the Department for International Development alongside the Foreign & Commonwealth Office.

We have scaled up efforts to prevent intimate partner violence internationally: we have invested £25m in the ground-breaking, What Works to Prevent Violence research and innovation programme, which includes rigorously evaluating 15 innovative approaches to prevent VAWG across 12 countries in Africa and Asia and, provided £21m over six years (2014–2020) to the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women, the only global multilateral grant-making mechanism dedicated to addressing VAWG, with over 1 million women, girls, men and boys having benefitted so far.

We have continued to work to prevent VAWG through the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative (PSVI), including through providing capacity building on evidence gathering for criminal prosecutions in line with the International Protocol on the Documentation and Investigation of Sexual Violence in Conflict; the UK will host a PSVI international conference in November 2019.

In line with the commitment made by Heads at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in April 2018, we continue to support efforts to end all forms of VAWG, and announced an ambitious £5.6m programme to support Commonwealth governments to reform legislation that disproportionately affects women, girls and LGBT people.

DFID and FCO Ministers, including the Prime Minister’s Special Representative on PSVI, continue to drive forward partnerships internationally to tackle VAWG.

Chapter 1: Preventing violence and abuse

Prevention and early intervention remain the foundation of our approach to tackling VAWG, as we set out in our 2016 Strategy. Not only do we need to intervene earlier to identify and support victims before harm escalates, but we need to work to address the fundamental attitudes and societal norms that enable VAWG; in recognition that it is both a cause and consequence of wider gender inequality.

Our approach to prevention can be characterised in three ways: primary prevention, which is to prevent harm from happening in the first place; secondary prevention, to intervene earlier with individuals at risk and to prevent escalation of harm; and tertiary prevention, to prevent re-offending and re-victimisation.

Additional, future work, not set out in the 2016 VAWG Strategy is set out below.

Tackling harmful gender norms

VAWG is both a cause and consequence of gender inequality, and we know that exposure to negative gender stereotypes can fuel harmful attitudes towards women which create a fertile environment for VAWG.[^6] We will continue to challenge the deep-rooted social norms, attitudes and behaviours that discriminate against and limit women and girls across all communities.

GEO is planning a further programme of work to tackle harmful gender norms, with a focus on work with the advertising industry, on body image, and working with men and boys to challenge harmful attitudes. We are committed to building our evidence base on what works to address gender inequality, and to develop tools to support this.

Building on actions set out in the 2016 VAWG Strategy, we will:

• Commission new research on “what works” to engage men and boys on challenging issues such as gender and healthy relationships. This will include examples of how practitioners can work with men and boys in the areas of relationships, work, and being active in their wider communities.
• Commission new research into the causes, impacts and influencers of body dissatisfaction, and what works to tackle the cause and effects of low body image.

Sexual harassment

We welcome the advent of the #MeToo movement, which has helped to raise the profile of sexual harassment and VAWG, and support those who have come forward to publicly speak about their experiences.

Sexual harassment is never acceptable and unwelcome advances that intimidate, degrade or humiliate are an abuse of power and are unlawful. Sexual harassment is indicative of harmful attitudes, primarily towards women, that creates an environment in which VAWG is both hidden and normalised. Whether it’s in the workplace, on the street, or as part of domestic or sexual abuse; sexual harassment in any situation is unacceptable. We also recognise the strong intersectionality between sexual harassment and other forms of marginalisation and disadvantage, such as racialised sexual harassment experienced by BME women.

We have strong laws that make it clear that harassment, sexual assault and rape are against the law and, where a criminal offence has taken place, this should be investigated by the police.

We also welcome the work the Women and Equalities Select Committee has done through their two inquiries into sexual harassment: in the workplace and in public places, which have developed our understanding of these issues. We have considered their recommendations carefully and have responded to the inquiry on sexual harassment in the workplace, will publish our response to the inquiry on sexual harassment in public places shortly. These responses will provide further detail on our future work to tackle sexual harassment in the future. As we do not currently have clear, robust, data on sexual harassment, we have committed to gather regular data on the prevalence and nature of sexual harassment, to inform our approach.

To further tackle sexual harassment in the workplace and in public places, we will:

• introduce a statutory Code of Practice for employers on sexual harassment, developed by EHRC;
• raise awareness with employers of appropriate workplace behaviours;
• gather regular data on the prevalence and nature of sexual harassment;
• work with the SIA to raise awareness of sexual harassment with door staff; and
• raise awareness of VAWG in the night time economy as part of Home Office work on alcohol policy.

Education and young people

Educating and challenging young people about healthy relationships, abuse and consent is critical. We have, through the Children and Social Work Act, committed to introducing mandatory Relationships Education in all primary schools, and Relationships and Sex Education in all secondary schools. Schools will be required to start teaching the subjects from September 2020. However, many schools already teach about these important issues and will be able to adapt to the new requirements more quickly, and we will encourage schools to start teaching the subjects from September 2019. The subjects will be an important aspect of the prevention of domestic abuse and VAWG, by equipping children to understand and build healthy, respectful relationships and being safe both online and offline. We will also be developing a ‘Respectful Schools Tool’ to help schools deliver on a range of existing equalities, behaviour, bullying and safeguarding duties.

Our public consultation on the draft guidance and regulations for these subjects closed in November 2018. In primary schools, the draft statutory guidance advises schools to teach the foundation knowledge of what constitutes healthy, respectful relationships. At secondary, teaching will build on the knowledge gained at primary, while introducing concepts about healthy intimate relationships. The proposed statutory guidance states that pupils should be taught about the concepts of, and laws relating to, sexual consent, sexual exploitation, abuse, grooming, harassment and domestic abuse, including coercive and controlling behaviour, and how these can affect current and future relationships. Young people will learn about these subjects in an age-appropriate way. Schools may also want to address the physical and emotional damage caused by female genital mutilation (FGM), and will be supported to understand that other forms of so called ‘honour-based’ violence/ abuse, including forced marriage is unacceptable, and how to find help if they are at risk.

Communications will continue to have an important role in helping prevent VAWG through education and changing attitudes and behaviours. The Home Office’s Disrespect NoBody campaign aims to prevent the onset of domestic abuse in adults by challenging attitudes and behaviours amongst teenage boys and girls. The campaign is targeted at 12 to 18 year old boys and girls and aims to prevent them from becoming perpetrators and victims of abusive relationships by educating them about consent, healthy relationships, sexting and sexual harassment. We will continue to use the campaign to deliver these important messages to young people alongside broader communications activity to help tackle VAWG.

We will:

• conduct research and develop our approach to communicating messages around VAWG, building on the Disrespect NoBody campaign;
• work with schools to support the roll-out of mandatory Relationships and Sex Education; and
• support Universities UK and the Office for Students to implement recommendations from the Taskforce on sexual harassment and sexual violence on campus.

Protecting People Online and tackling online offending

The rapid rate of technological change, including around social media, has opened up new ways to exert power and control on VAWG victims. Following from the Internet Safety Strategy Green paper, DCMS and Home Office will jointly work on a White Paper, which will set out our proposals for future legislation that will cover the full range of online harms, including both harmful and illegal content. Potential areas include the social media code of practice, transparency reporting and the role of online advertising.

Through this work we have reformed the UK Council for Child Internet Safety to create the UK Council for Internet Safety, which will incorporate a wider range of harms, experienced by adults as well as children. The Council will have a clear remit to address VAWG online, including through challenge provided by the Ending VAWG Coalition who form part of the Executive Board. Through the Council, we are working with social media companies, Internet Service Providers (ISPs), mobile network operators and civil society to better understand the impact of the internet and of technology and how to protect users from harm, and the reformed UKICS will consider online VAWG as part of its new expanded remit.

We also recognise that the rise in the number of people using online dating services can create new opportunities for perpetrators to target and abuse women, but equally they offer us more opportunities to raise awareness of VAWG issues at an earlier stage. We will therefore work with online dating sites to raise awareness of VAWG at the point of starting a new relationship, as well as the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme (or ‘Clare’s Law’). We will explore issues of ‘online flashing’, raised by the Women and Equalities Select Committee report on sexual harassment in public places, and whether there is more we can do to address this.

The advent of the internet has also increased the availability and consumption of online pornography, and in addition to age restrictions we are introducing through the Digital Economy Act we are working to better understand whether links exist between consumption of online pornography and harmful attitudes towards women. We will also commission research in order to better understand the links between consuming pornography and attitudes to women and girls more broadly.

New technology can also be a force for good and we must realise the benefits it can bring to address VAWG, for example, TecSOS phones that link high-risk domestic abuse victims directly with the police, and the BrightSky app, developed in partnership between Hestia and Vodafone, which raises awareness of domestic abuse and provides resources to recognise the signs, seek help, and keep a diary.

We expect to see investigations, prosecutions and convictions for this type of offending continue to increase significantly as appropriate, as well as complex cases involving new and emerging forms of technology which could be co-opted for abuse, such as the ‘Internet of Things’.

We are pleased to have been able to provide £1.4m through the Tampon Tax Fund to Rape Crisis to transform frontline services through dynamic digital champions, and to bolster their ‘weaving the web’ project to support victims online.

The internet has also facilitated the obsessive behaviour of stalkers, not only allowing them to gather more information and data on their victims, but also by enabling perpetrators to stalk those they have not met or only have a slight acquaintance with more easily. We will ensure that these victims are adequately protected and know where they can seek help. Through the new Stalking Protection Orders, courts will be able to put restrictions on the online behaviour of stalkers, and will work with stakeholders and internet providers to understand the best way of constructing the orders so that they are as effective as possible online.

We will:

• work with the UK Council for Internet Safety to consider and address women’s safety online;
• explore issues of ‘online flashing’, and consider options for next steps;
• work with online dating services to raise awareness of VAWG at an earlier stage in a relationship; and
• commission research into what links exist between consumption of online pornography and harmful attitudes towards women and girls.

The Bright Sky app - Hestia

Bright Sky is a free mobile app which provides information on varying types of abuse and explains the support available, listing over 600 organisations across the UK alongside a location facility in order to locate the nearest service. It also has a risk assessment tool to better understand and assess the abuse and offers a private journal function for users to log entries via text, photo, email or audio. In addition, the app has an online safety guide providing advice on how to stay safe when using online technology and is available in several languages.

Refuge technology project, funded by the Tampon Tax Fund

Ellen (name has been changed) was living in one of Refuge’s safehouses with her two children when her former partner ‘bumped into’ them. She could not work out how they had been found. She had recently left him following years of violence, constant harassment, abusive language, and monitoring of her activities.

Speaking to her keyworker, Ellen deduced that he must have tracked her whereabouts through accessing her emails via her home computer. Thanks to the support of her specialist Refuge tech keyworker, she soon identified other ways in which she was vulnerable to abuse via everyday technology, for example through her daughter’s online video games, her own social media activity, and the various email accounts she had set up. Ellen also disclosed that, due to her fear of being tracked down by her ex, she no longer bought anything online and had shut down a lot of her social activities, losing contact with lots of friends and family members.

Ellen’s tech advocate created guides to show her how to keep safe whilst continuing to access many digital tools. They reviewed her Wi-Fi, PC, Smart TV, and wireless printer, and she was taught how to install firewall security. Ellen says she now feels safe and capable of handling day-to-day technology and troubleshooting issues herself. She has regained the confidence to make online purchases using vouchers, and in time she hopes to have the confidence to use a debit card again. She is able to recognise phishing emails, knows how to set up and access parental controls on the Smart TV, Nintendo Switch and laptop, is aware of tracking devices that could be placed on her daughter following contact with her ex, and has set up WhatsApp – an encrypted messaging service that is safe – so that she can get back in touch with her friends and family.

These new skills will “be relevant for the rest of my life – as I go forward, I no longer fear technology,” Ellen recently told her Refuge keyworker.

Traditional harmful practices

We will continue to challenge the attitudes that may underpin so called ‘honour-based’ violence/ abuse, including the practices of FGM and forced marriage, and ensure professionals have the confidence to confront these issues.

Through the Building a Stronger Britain Together programme, we will continue to support grassroots organisations that work with communities to address harmful notions of ‘honour’ and work with hard to reach women from isolated communities to raise awareness of so called ‘honour-based’ violence and abuse, as well as VAWG more broadly. We have committed nearly £725,000 to organisations supporting women so far and will continue to invite applications for funding to support this work.

In addition, DfID have announced UK aid will provide an extra £50 million – the biggest single investment worldwide to date by any international donor – to tackle FGM across the most affected countries in Africa. DFID will support the Africa- led movement to end FGM by supporting community programmes and grassroots campaigners; work with governments to get laws in place banning FGM; work with religious leaders to call for an end to FGM and dispel the myth that it is a religious practice – a major barrier in many countries; and support doctors, midwives and nurses to help end FGM and care for survivors.

We will:

• continue to support organisations which challenge harmful notions of ‘honour’ through the Building a Stronger Britain Together programme;
• provide up to £50m to help tackle FGM internationally.

Earlier identification and intervention to prevent abuse

As well as seeking to prevent abuse from happening in the first place, our aim is to identify individuals at risk – of either offending or becoming a victim – at the earliest opportunity so that we can intervene effectively to prevent abuse from escalating and to address high rates of re-victimisation.

The age at which an individual starts to experience or witness abuse or to access material which might influence behaviour and beliefs as an adult is crucial. There is strong evidence that experiencing adversity or trauma in childhood (also known as ‘Adverse Childhood Experiences’) is linked with poor outcomes later in life. This can include reduced educational attainment, lower economic participation, and poorer health and wellbeing. In some cases, it can also lead to a higher risk of being a victim or a perpetrator of violence as an adult.^{[footnote 7]}

Moving to an integrated family model of support – supporting children and young people at risk

We have been clear through the Domestic Abuse White Paper that the experience of children must be at the forefront or our response, in recognition of the huge impact that this has on them. Early identification of children who witness domestic abuse is vital for agencies to respond sensitively and effectively, including through raising awareness, and making better use of, the new offence of controlling and coercive behaviour. Studies indicate that between one quarter and one third live with domestic abuse and that children exposed to parental violence are almost three times more likely to experience violence in their own adult relationships.^{[footnote 8]}

We are therefore committing £8m to support children affected by domestic abuse, including through £6m to 9 organisations funded through the Children Affected by Domestic Abuse Fund, to provide interventions that support children who have witnessed domestic abuse, to help them to recover from the trauma they have experienced.

We will also continue to work to support women and girls involved in gangs or at risk of violence and exploitation by gangs, and will assess the impact of funding such as the £13m Trusted Relationships Fund and the £22m Early Intervention Youth Fund which will work with young people at risk of county lines, child sexual exploitation or other forms of gang exploitation. We have also established the £200m Youth Endowment Fund, which will support vulnerable young people at risk of violence or abuse and evaluate the effectiveness of interventions over 10 years.

Strengthening the role of statutory services

We also recognise the crucial role of the wider statutory sector, and in particular health services, in identifying and supporting victims and survivors of VAWG at an earlier stage, which forms a key part of NHS England’s Strategic Direction on Sexual Assault and Abuse Services.

We know that abused women use health care services more than non-abused women and they identify health care workers as the professionals they would be most likely to speak to about their experience.^{[footnote 9]}

Therefore, healthcare workers are uniquely positioned to identify abuse and have the opportunity to intervene early and direct victims to the most appropriate support. Using provisions within the 2018 Data Protection Act, they remain able to share information with other agencies in order to safeguard individuals at risk.

Effective training of healthcare workers to appropriately identify and respond will be vital, and we are working with NHS England to raise the awareness and understanding of domestic abuse amongst healthcare professionals.

We will also work to drive up reporting to the police where professionals suspect that someone is at risk of forced marriage, or is a victim of forced marriage. Therefore, we have launched a consultation on whether it is necessary to introduce a new legal mandatory reporting duty relating to cases of forced marriage for certain professionals, and if so, what that requirement might involve. We are also consulting on how the current guidance on forced marriage could be improved and strengthened. This consultation closed in January 2019 and we will respond in due course.

To succeed in tackling VAWG at an earlier stage it is also critical to do all we can to tackle child sexual abuse, and online child sexual exploitation. We have set up the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse to consider the extent to which institutions have failed in their duty to protect children from sexual abuse and exploitation. The work of the Inquiry is well under way and we look forward to the Inquiry’s findings about what went wrong in the past and recommendations for how children can be better safeguarded in the future.

Norfolk VAWG Service Transformation Fund Project

As part of Norfolk’s award-winning initiative training frontline workers in the Education and Health sectors to spot the signs of DA and provide appropriate support, an opportunity was identified to make links with the internationally recognised medical faculty at the University of East Anglia.

The DA Change Coordinators employed through the Transformation Fund have held meetings with the heads of department for nursing, medicine, paramedic science and midwifery to initially offer a selection of 2-hour DA awareness sessions tailored specifically to the needs of their students.

This provides an excellent opportunity to ensure that DA is embedded in the foundations of health care practice for the next generation of professionals, and ensures conversations around DA becomes routinely underpinned to gold standard practice.

Kent VAWG Service Transformation Fund Project

The Kent Domestic Abuse Support in Healthcare Settings (Hospital IDVA) service is an initiative which bases qualified IDVAs within acute hospital sites to offer immediate IDVA support to patients presenting with domestic abuse related injuries, or those disclosing abuse whilst in the hospital setting.

A referral via the A&E doctors’ handover stated the patient disclosed she has been pushed down the stairs by her husband. The Hospital IDVA (HIDVA) met with the patient and linked with the police to ensure bail conditions were in place and for attendance at hospital. The HIDVA completed risk assessments and safety plan and the police take the victim’s statement and photos. Upon further disclosures the HIDVA advocates for DVPO and alarms in the home; works with police in obtaining patient’s authority to release medical records; continues to work with police regarding DVPO and contacts local council to ensure property is secure on discharge.

Prostitution

We remain committed to tackling the harm and exploitation that can be associated with prostitution, and believe that those who want to leave prostitution should be given every opportunity to find routes out.

As set out in Chapter 1, we are conducting research into the nature and prevalence of prostitution and sex work in England and Wales, and will consider next steps when this key piece of evidence is complete in April 2019.

Working with Perpetrators

Protection Orders

We also support the police to make use of the civil order regime to intervene and stop abuse from escalating and protect victims before more serious harm is caused.

Domestic Violence Protection Notices (DVPNs) provide critical breathing space for victims by restricting a perpetrator from returning to their home, but through the Domestic Abuse Bill we are seeking to introduce new Domestic Abuse Protection Orders (DAPOs) which will go further in their ability to manage risk and support behaviour change in perpetrators. DAPOs will combine the strongest elements of the existing orders and provide a flexible pathway for victims and practitioners, and will be piloted to ensure the new orders work effectively on the ground. We are also considering new and innovative ways of identifying breach of protection orders to better protect victims and bring more perpetrators to justice. We are exploring options on how we can best use technology to identify where a protection order has been breached, including through electronic monitoring of perpetrators and in victims’ homes.

A national programme of training is currently being devised to raise awareness of Forced Marriage and Female Genital Mutilation Protection Orders. It is proposed that this will be delivered in early 2019 across several locations across England and Wales. The training will target professionals such as police, prosecutors, children’s services and health, along with providing a better understanding to those in education, NGO’s and those working within the courts, including the Judiciary. The training will seek to empower professionals by hearing the voice of the survivor, by understanding the legislation, discussing case studies and by being provided with the tools to assist them in application.

The Government is committed to ensuring that the police have all the necessary powers to prevent sexual harm. As such, we will continue to work closely with the police to review and improve the use of the relevant civil orders, including the Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) and Sexual Risk Order (SRO).

We are also supporting the introduction of new Stalking Protection Orders, and will work with police to encourage take-up of the new orders and ensure they are being used effectively.

The government will continue to robustly monitor the use of protection orders to promote wider take-up where necessary and support better detection and response to breaches.

Working with perpetrators of stalking

We have provided £4.1million through the Police Transformation Fund to the Mayor’s Office for Policing And Crime (MOPAC) to work in partnership with the Suzy Lamplugh Trust for a pioneering project working with perpetrators of stalking. The Multi-Agency Stalking Intervention Programme (MASIP) initiative will aim to improve responses to stalking across the criminal justice system and the health sector through rehabilitative treatment for stalkers.

We will:

• introduce new Domestic Abuse Protection Orders through the draft Domestic Abuse Bill;
• deliver a national programme of training to raise awareness of Forced Marriage and FGM Protection Orders; and
• develop new approaches to identify breach of protective orders.

Working with perpetrators to change behaviour

A sustainable approach to preventing abuse relies on changing the attitudes and behaviours of perpetrators and reducing reoffending. Within domestic abuse, there are high levels of repeat offending and few receive specialist perpetrator interventions. The evidence base for these have been mixed, and there are limited high-quality studies, mixed results as to effectiveness, and the programmes studied vary widely in their approaches. However, local areas are increasingly recognising the importance of tackling perpetrators as the root cause of abuse, and evidence on effective interventions is building.

The VAWG Transformation Fund programme evaluations will contribute to the global evidence and knowledge base, providing insights on effective service provision and multi-agency working. Of the 41 projects being supported through the Fund, 17 of them include some elements of working with perpetrators to change their behaviour, and we will ensure that learning from these projects is disseminated nationally. We believe that an open access repository of VAWG-related project evaluations would be a valuable tool to support commissioning decisions. We are currently undertaking a feasibility exercise, and will engage with the sector to ensure that user needs are at the heart of the project.

We will:

• develop an open access repository of evaluations of VAWG projects.

Case Study: Drive project

The perpetrator, J (name has been changed), was alcohol-dependent and had been charged with abuse of his ex-partner and multiple alcohol-related offences. He and his ex-partner had a 3-year-old daughter, who was on the Child Protection (CP) Register. J couldn’t read or write and refused help with this, using it as an excuse to continue perpetuating abuse against his ex-partner by insisting she come to his house daily to open his post and help him take his medication. He was posing an ongoing risk to his ex-partner and daughter.

He was also extremely concerned about losing his daughter and had taken an overdose before he was due to attend the first CP Conference. He was not engaging with any other services.

The Drive Case Manager (CM) worked on a 1-2-1 basis with J, challenging him to consider how his daughter would be affected by seeing the abuse, addressing his denial and minimisation, and not taking responsibility. The CM also referred J to a drug treatment programme which he successfully completed. For the first time, J has begun to engage with services, including his probation officer and child protection procedures. He is considering joining an adult literacy programme. His improved engagement with the CP Conferences has been noticed by all teams involved, and his daughter is no longer on the CP Register. Work on this case is ongoing, but most importantly, risk has reduced to his daughter and ex-partner.

Chapter 2: Provision of services

High-quality interventions, coupled with the right support at the right time, can have a hugely positive impact on a victim’s life. For many, this will mean the difference between short-term safety and survival, and living a secure life with the tools they need to cope and recover from their experiences.

The majority of formally commissioned services that support victims of violence and abuse are commissioned locally – by Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs), health commissioners, Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) and local authorities. This shift recognises that local areas are well placed to assess local need, to design comprehensive and good quality interventions, to join-up local services to improve support pathways and be held to account through local democratic accountability.

As government, we are committed to working with local authorities, the NHS, PCCs and others to ensure that the right support is available for this vulnerable cohort. We also recognise the important role that charitable trusts play in funding grassroots organisations that support victims and survivors of VAWG. Many victims will have numerous and complex needs and may need help accessing housing, assistance with debt, mental health treatment or drug and alcohol support, as well as specialist support to help them recover from domestic abuse, sexual violence, or so-called ‘honour-based’ violence including FGM or forced marriage.

Central Government Funding

Central Government funding can be utilised to test new models and incentivise good practice locally, as well as to provide national coverage for geographically dispersed services such as national helplines. Our approach to funding innovation was demonstrated through Home Office funding for Independent Domestic Violence Advisors (IDVAs), Independent Sexual Violence Advisors (ISVAs), and Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conference (MARAC) coordinators. We provided small-scale seed funding to local authorities to match-fund these individual posts over a number of years to test the model and provide proof of concept. Over this period, the number of IDVAs more than doubled, and even since Home Office funding ceased in April 2017, IDVA numbers have increased by 10%.

This example demonstrates the use of central government funding in building the case for more new approaches and embedding it locally. However, we recognise that there are concerns around inconsistency in the provision of IDVAS, and therefore the new independent Domestic Abuse Commissioner will have the remit to hold local and national Government to account on provision of effective domestic abuse services.

We recognise the value of, and need to provide funding for core services as well as innovation. Funding for rape and sexual abuse support services continues to be made available to fund essential service provision and basic organisational needs, such as rent. We are working with the five PCC test areas that will take on full local commissioning responsibility for sexual violence support from April 2019, to ensure they also recognise the importance of providing funding for core services.^{[footnote 10]}

The Victims Strategy has also committed to join up funding pots across government to simplify the commissioning and bidding landscape and to ensure that funding is well targeted and makes the most impact. The Home Office, MoJ and NHS England are working closely together to plan a sustainable funding model for sexual violence and abuse services.

Local commissioning, leadership and accountability

To continue our support for local commissioners, we will conduct a review of the National Statement of Expectations and Commissioning Toolkit, working with commissioners, specialist third sector organisations, and victims and survivors to ensure it remains effective and up-to-date.

As we commit to in the Victims Strategy, we are working with five PCC areas^{[footnote 11]} to explore the benefits of full local commissioning of sexual violence services from April 2019.

We believe that PCCs are well-placed to respond to the needs of victims in their area and join-up with other local commissioners to offer integrated, end-to-end support. We will be working with these test areas to identify any support and guidance PCCs require to commission these essential services.

In response to the increasing number of victims of sexual violence coming forward to access support, we have increased the funding for rape and sexual abuse specialist support services across England and Wales – offering £24m over three years to provide advice, support and counselling for victims of sexual violence and abuse. The Home Office has also funded LimeCulture, a leading sexual violence training and development organisation, to support the sexual violence voluntary sector by building capacity and capability to deliver high-quality, innovative and effective services. Their project, Spreading Excellence, will engage with service users, service providers and commissioners to ensure that excellent services are available for victims and survivors.

We will also be establishing a Domestic Abuse Commissioner through the draft Domestic Abuse Bill who will provide public leadership on domestic abuse issues, hold local and national government to account, and oversee and monitor the provision of domestic abuse services nationally. The Domestic Abuse Commissioner will work closely with the Victims’ Commissioner and Children’s Commissioner for England. Commissioners can play an important role in making sure that victims’ voices are heard and that victims are properly supported, and it is expected that they will work closely together on overlapping issues.

We are also working to implement NHS England’s Strategy Direction for Sexual Assault and Abuse Services (SAAS).^{[footnote 12]} The SAAS seeks to radically improve access to services for victims and survivors of sexual assault and abuse and support them to recover, heal and rebuild their lives. There are two elements to this, which are to provide:

• highly responsive, personal services delivered by trained doctors, nurses and support workers in settings that respect privacy and are easy to access, for those who have experienced recent sexual assault and abuse and who are in its immediate aftermath. These services should include specialist medical and forensic examinations, practical and emotional support and support through the judicial process; and
• therapeutic care that recognises the devastating and lifelong consequences on mental health and physical and emotional wellbeing for those who have experienced non-recent sexual assault and abuse.

Delivery of the SAAS is underpinned by the six core priorities:

1. Strengthening the approach to prevention.
2. Promoting safeguarding and the safety, protection and welfare of victims and survivors.
3. Involving victims and survivors in the development and improvement of services.
4. Introducing consistent quality standards.
5. Driving collaboration and reducing fragmentation.
6. Ensuring an appropriately trained workforce.

These set the context for national, regional and local programmes of work, which are due for delivery by 2023. The Sexual Assault and Abuse Strategy Programme Board is responsible for national implementation and oversight of this; ensuring partners from across government and the local policing, health and commissioning landscape are working collaboratively to support delivery of the core priorities, whilst setting the strategic direction for work at regional and local levels.

We will:

• review the National Statement of Expectations;
• pilot full local commissioning of sexual violence services;
• increase funding for rape specialist support services across England and Wales, and commit funding for 3 years;
• fund LimeCulture’s Spreading Excellence project to build commissioning of sexual violence services;
• provide funding to develop bespoke training for IDVAs and ISVAs who support older victims of domestic abuse and sexual violence;
• establish a Domestic Abuse Commissioner; and
• as set out in the Victims’ Strategy, deliver improved cross-government co- ordination and targeting of funding for sexual violence services.

Provision of services for victims from marginalised groups or with complex needs

It is vital that local commissioners put the victim at the centre of service delivery, recognising that every victim, whether adult or child, is an individual with different experiences, reactions and needs. Local areas should ensure that services are flexible and responsive to the victim’s experience and voice.

Therefore services must consider whether an individual may have particular vulnerabilities, complex needs or suffer from multiple disadvantages and, if so, the services must manage these. Women and girls with learning disabilities; mental health problems; drug or alcohol dependency; a history of offending and those facing homelessness are disproportionately subject to domestic and sexual violence and abuse, and are more likely to come into contact with other services and systems.

We also recognise the benefits of providing services through smaller, specialist organisations that are embedded within and part of the communities they serve. However, these organisations can struggle to compete with larger-scale competitors with greater experience in applying for grants, so we will continue to work to build capability within specialist sectors, as we did by investing nearly £400,000 (£100,000 from the Home Office; nearly £300,000 from MHCLG) to Imkaan to build capacity in the specialist BME sector.

We also recognise the links between VAWG and child sexual abuse. In recent years, we have also seen more victims coming forward to report cases of child sexual abuse (CSA) and to access much needed support. In response to a recommendation of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, we have committed to review the effectiveness and spend on services supporting for victims of CSA. We have launched the innovative ‘Child House’ model which brings together therapeutic care and criminal justice agencies for victims of CSA, and have committed an additional £14m over three years to Police and Crime Commissioners to spend supporting victims of CSA.

Case Study: Safelives and Stay Safe East

Maria (name has been changed), a disabled woman, is denied access by her partner to the specialist nurse for her condition; and her partner refuses to have handrails installed in their home. She stops Maria from using a walking stick, and Maria tries to walk without it, she mocks her walking and tells her to stand up straight knowing she will fall and hurt herself. Her partner has pushed and shoved Maria but never hit her – she doesn’t need to; the falls Maria has had over many years were put down to ‘accidents’ due to her impairment.

Maria’s partner controls her money, and Maria cannot leave the house without her partner’s help as the access is poor. Her partner has threatened to disclose their relationship to Maria’s family. A safeguarding alert was raised by the specialist nurse but the investigation found there were no concerns, except that Maria needed access to Dial-a-Ride to get to appointments

Case Study – Avon and Somerset VAWG Service Transformation Fund

Emma (name has been changed) lives in Bristol and has a learning disability, and 15 years ago she was raped while on a weekend away with family and friends. She struggled to speak on the phone and during her initial assessment by Safelink told the triage worker that she did not like to speak on the phone and prefers to meet face-to-face. During her triage assessment it became clear that due to her support needs she needed to be referred into the specialist learning disability service, rather than mainstream ISVA service.

The specialist ISVA arranged to meet with Emma and put a support plan in place, and provided her with an understanding of the police and court process, and informed her of her options for special measures and her right for an intermediary. Emma met with her specialist ISVA every 2-3 weeks and provided her with resources in easy read format, as well as emotional support and coping strategies. The specialist ISVA advocated for Emma and helped to facilitate meetings with the police to explain the process, and how the investigation was progressing, which made Emma feel involved and informed about what was happening.

Emma’s health and wellbeing, safety perception and re-integration improved significantly through her contact with the specialist ISVA, and she had a positive exit plan experience.

Support for LGBT victims

Recent evidence from the Government’s National LGBT Survey 2018, the National Institute for Economic and Social Research Report 2016, and the sector shows that LGBT people face unique experiences of domestic abuse and sexual violence and require support to address their specific needs.^{[footnote 13]} We know that when LGBT victims access support, LGBT organisations and charities are viewed as the most helpful, and there is evidence that LGBT victims face specific barriers when accessing mainstream domestic abuse services. While there are excellent examples of LGBT services, on the whole LGBT specialist provision is limited. For example, in 2017 Women’s Aid reported that less than 1% of refuges provided specialist support to LGBT victims, and while the recent Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) audit of domestic abuse services found that some local authorities surveyed provided support to LGBT victims, we know there is more to do to ensure LGBT victims receive the support they need. We are providing a number of local commissioners with funding through MHCLG’s domestic abuse accommodation services fund and the Home Office’s VAWG Service Transformation Fund for specialist LGBT provision.

However there continues to be a need for inclusive mainstream services, as well as specialist support.

The Government is also aware of calls from the sector for guidance for commissioners and providers on how to support trans victims of domestic abuse and sexual violence, particularly as we consulted on proposed changes to the Gender Recognition Act. Through government’s stakeholder engagement, we have also heard of a need for clear and accessible information for commissioners and service providers on their legal obligations under the Equality Act 2010, including how and when to lawfully apply the single and separate sex service exemptions. Therefore, working with commissioners, providers and the sector, we will develop and publish best practice guidance on supporting LGBT victims of VAWG, including setting out government’s views on how the Equality Act provisions operate, as necessary.

We will:

• develop and publish guidance for commissioners and service providers about best practice for supporting LGBT victims of VAWG through mainstream VAWG services.

Case Study: Birmingham LGBT

Anna’s (name has been changed) father found out she identified as a lesbian, and entered into a campaign of physical abuse towards her. Due to the perceived shame that her identify brought on her family, her father threatened to get her married abroad. Anna therefore fled her family home and moved in with her much older female partner Sue.

Sue convinced her that they should have a child together, leading to Sue giving birth to their child via a sperm donor. Due to Sue perpetrating ongoing coercive control and psychological abuse, Anna tried to end the relationship. However, Sue became increasingly controlling, using internalised homophobia to stop Anna from leaving. Sue threatened to get sole custody of their child, saying Anna had no biological connection to their child, and that the courts would not understand the dynamics of same sex relationships. Sue also threatened to ‘out’ Anna at her place of worship, knowing full well that Anna’s father was a prominent member of a religious community and that this exposure would lead to ‘so-called’ honour-based violence and potentially, the forced marriage Anna had been fleeing from.

Domestic Abuse Accommodation Services

The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) has carried out a review of how domestic abuse services are locally commissioned and funded across England. The review took forward the Manifesto commitment to review funding for refuge and the VAWG Strategy commitment to review the locally led approach to commissioning and delivering these services. The review has been informed by an independent audit of provision of domestic abuse services across England, led by Ipsos MORI, and by working closely with sector partners, drawing on their data, expertise and knowledge.

Following the review, MHCLG intend to announce next steps on future, sustainable delivery of support for victims and their children in accommodation-based services for domestic abuse across England shortly.

Chapter 3: Partnership working

Government cannot tackle the complexities of VAWG in isolation. We know that partnerships work across national, regional and local boundaries in helping victims and providing an effective first response to violence and abuse, and are clear that tackling VAWG truly is ‘everyone’s business’.

We will:

• develop guidance on best practice for multi- agency arrangements for risk assessment and safeguarding;
• support the LGA and APCC’s event to share learning and best practice on partnership working from the VAWG Transformation Fund;
• learn from the projects funded by the Tampon Tax Fund that improve the public and employer response to domestic abuse, sharing best practice;
• continue to provide funding through the Tampon Tax Fund to improve the lives of disadvantaged, vulnerable and underrepresented women and girls;
• share learning from the Wales ‘Ask and Act’ initiative;
• build on the ‘Systems Leaders Network’ to better disseminate best practice for partnership working; and
• consider the impact of alcohol on VAWG, and develop a response.

Improved multi-agency working

We know that multi-agency working has had a positive impact on tackling VAWG and itis a model we should continue to develop. The NSE set out a framework for service provision, supporting local services to join up more effectively, undertake a comprehensive assessment of local need, in consultation with key stakeholders.

We are encouraged by the early outcomes of the local areas supported through the VAWG Service Transformation Fund, who are adopting innovative approaches to supporting victims, improving service provision and investing in preventing VAWG in the long-term, and we will look to share learning from these projects across the country to build capacity and capability more widely. To that end, the Local Government Association and the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners have jointly hosted an event in January 2019 to share learning and best practice from across the VAWG Transformation Fund areas.

Making VAWG ‘everyone’s business’^{[footnote 14]}

All parts of society have an important role to play in responding to VAWG and supporting victims and survivors. HMIC’s 2014 review of services indicated that around that 85% of victims of domestic abuse seek help from professionals at least five times before getting the support they need.^{[footnote 15]} We will ensure that women can seek help in a range of settings as they go about their daily lives and have easy access to community based support at the earliest opportunity. Partnership working can make a real difference and make every encounter with service providers an opportunity for intervention. There are good examples of how agencies not specifically associated with VAWG can make a real difference which the government will promote.

Friends, family and the public

We know that victims of VAWG often disclose to their friends and family before engaging with services, and bystander programmes are also important to empower people to challenge unacceptable behaviour and intervene safely if needed. We will continue to monitor and evaluate the ‘Ask Me’ scheme and Hestia’s ‘Tools for the Job’, both funded by the Tampon Tax Fund, to understand what works to improve support for victims of domestic abuse through public and employer awareness; and we remain committed to allocating the funds generated from the VAT on sanitary products to projects that improve the lives of disadvantaged, vulnerable and underrepresented women and girls.

White Ribbon Ambassador Programme

White Ribbon UK works with men and boys to change the male cultures that lead to abuse against women. Funding through the Tampon Tax Fund enabled White Ribbon to develop its ambassador programme to recruit, train and enable men to act as role models in their communities. There are currently 773 White Ribbon volunteer ambassadors who engage with other men and boys to call out behaviour that leads to harassment and abuse when they see it, and who promote a culture of equality and respect. Ambassadors encourage men to sign the White Ribbon Pledge, to never commit, excuse or remain silent about male violence against women, taking this message out to their wider communities.

Case Study – Cambridgeshire VAWG Service Transformation Fund

Becky (name has been changed) was left traumatised after being sexually assaulted on public transport on two occasions. Her older sister was struggling with guilt of not having being able to protect her younger sibling. This burden of guilt led to the older sister self-harming.

These assaults affected the whole family. Becky suffered direct trauma, but the trauma permeated throughout the family. Mum had hit rock bottom, emotionally, trying to manage the impact of the abuse.

Project delivery partner, Embrace CVOC recognised the impact of a complex traumatic event on the whole family and that the safety needs of this family in dealing with this trauma had become systemic throughout the family. It was felt that both siblings and Mum needed one-to-one counselling, so all three were based with separate counsellors, the two girls under VAWG funded therapy and mum supported to self-refer into a local counselling service.

Since sessions began, mum reports that both of her daughters she feels have been placed ‘perfectly’ with their respective therapists, who are meeting their specific individual needs. The family have also mutually agreed a pact against self-harming, and to support each other.

Progress continues to be made and Embrace may offer a family therapy approach once individual therapy is completed and if felt to be useful.

Night Time Economy

Through our response to the Women and Equalities Select Committee’s inquiry into Sexual Harassment in Public Places, we are also working across government to reduce sexual harassment in the night time economy, and encourage businesses to respond effectively to all forms of VAWG.

As part of our approach to improving partnership working we are facilitating learning from best practice schemes such as safe spaces and recognising the role that door staff, street pastors, club hosts, taxi marshals and others can play in preventing incidents, including sexual harassment, from occurring or escalating.

Last year the Home Office launched the second phase of the Local Alcohol Action Areas programme to tackle alcohol-related crime and health harms and create a more diverse night-time economy. We will continue to encourage and support local areas to implement their plans which will see local agencies including licensing authorities, health bodies, and police coming together with businesses to address problems caused by alcohol in their local area.

Effective local initiatives to reduce VAWG in the night time economy

Ask for Angela – This initiative was pioneered in Lincolnshire and has now been adopted in towns and cities across the country. Posters in premises toilets advise anyone who feels unsafe on a date to go to the bar and ‘ask for Angela’. Staff can then provide assistance ranging from ordering a taxi to calling the police, and the initiative is promoted by National Pubwatch and police forces such as Avon & Somerset and the Metropolitan Police.

Vulnerability training – In 2013 the PCC for Northumbria commissioned a vulnerability training package following the rape of a young woman in three different incidents after she was thrown out of a night club in a drunken state and on her own. The training package was widely adopted elsewhere, with councils and police forces offering the training to a variety of night time workers, and forms a module of the Security Industry Authority’s training for door staff. An updated package, commissioned by the National Police Chiefs Council and called WAVE (Welfare and Vulnerability Engagement) was issued earlier this year.

Drinkaware Crew – Drinkaware Crew, originally called Club Hosts, were first piloted in Nottingham and Mansfield in 2014, as a measure to prevent sexual harassment in late night premises that attract young adults, but their role rapidly broadened to assisting a broad range of vulnerable individuals. Crew are employed by the premises they work in, with a dedicated role to protect the vulnerable and prevent harassment.

MOPAC’s Women’s Safety Charter – London’s Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) have established a ‘Women’s Safety Charter’, a voluntary charter or standards for venues, clubs and businesses. Its aim is to help prevent harassment and wider forms of VAWG at night, whether on the tube, at work or on the dancefloor.

Chapter 4: Pursuing perpetrators

While we want to stop violence and abuse happening in the first place, where it does happen, perpetrators must be brought to justice. Not only will we continue to ensure that effective criminal justice sanctions are taken against perpetrators, but we will also support sustainable behaviour change and robust disruption to reduce re- offending and stop perpetrators from moving from one victim to the next.

We will:

• carry out a review of the criminal justice response to rape and serious sexual offence cases, reporting into the Criminal Justice Board.

We are encouraged by increased reporting of VAWG, and want to see this trend continue. It is critical that we continue to encourage victims to come forward in order to help bring these hidden crimes out of the shadows, and bring more perpetrators to justice. In investigating and prosecuting VAWG crimes, we will continue to promote a strong focus on ensuring every report of violence and abuse is treated seriously from the time it is reported, every victim is treated with dignity, and every investigation and prosecution is conducted thoroughly and professionally. Victims should not be discouraged; increasing criminal justice outcomes wherever appropriate remains a crucial part of our response to VAWG. We know that still too few victims see justice, and we are committed to do all we can to improve the criminal justice response to VAWG.

However, since 2016/17 we have seen reductions in the volumes of police referrals, charges, prosecutions and convictions for VAWG offences, particularly for rape and serious sexual offences, following year-on-year increases. Meanwhile, we have seen increased reporting of these crimes as police have improved recording and victims have had greater confidence to come forward, which we welcome.

We will conduct a review to establish why this has happened, and identify any issues within the criminal justice system that have contributed to the fall in volumes. The review will be overseen by a new Sexual Offences Sub-Group, reporting into the Criminal Justice Board, which will comprise of senior officials and working level practitioners, and we will seek input and advice from specialist third sector organisations and the Victims’ Commissioner. Phase 1 of the review will seek to identify the reasons for the change, and Phase 2 will develop recommendations to address any problems identified. We will publish the outcomes of this review when complete.

We will:

• provide targeted support to police forces to drive increased referrals where appropriate to the CPS for VAWG crimes; and
• support the College of Policing in developing new guidance on stalking and harassment and upskirting.

Case Study – Suzy Lamplugh Trust

Rachel (name has been changed) was in a relationship with her stalker for seven months before they separated. Following this, her stalker began constantly sending emails to third parties alleging that she had cheated on him and given him a Sexually Transmitted Disease. Stressed and humiliated, she decided to report this to the police, and he was arrested. The police questioned him and warned him to stop his behaviour, but he was released without charge. Her stalker’s behaviour then escalated to making constant threats to kill himself if Rachel did not resume a relationship with him, and she noticed that there were devices being placed in her car and in her house which the perpetrator had keys to and refused to give back.

Rachel believed that her stalker had bugged her phone, and was seen entering her house by neighbours, in breach of a non-molestation order already out against him. She reported her concerns to the police but felt that they did not believe her account, specifically her concerns about listening devices being placed in her car and house. The National Stalking Helpline provided advocacy support; helping Rachel create a diary that detailed all the incidents that had happened to date and the effect it was having on her daily life. The helpline then liaised with the police, helping them to see that these were not isolated coincidental events and that Rachel’s fear and distress were due to the actions of the perpetrator. Because of the advocacy provided by the National Stalking Helpline, the police investigated the case and managed to trace the listening devices back to the perpetrator, providing them with sufficient evidence to formally charge him with the crime of stalking. The case is now in court.

The police response

The first interaction with the criminal justice system can be daunting, and it is imperative that the first response by the police to all victims, particularly those who are vulnerable, is right the first time, and every time.

We will continue to take further action to improve the police response to VAWG, including through targeted support to police forces to drive increased referrals where appropriate to the CPS for crimes related to domestic abuse, working with the College of Policing to develop guidance on tackling ‘upskirting’, and promoting police leadership, reward and recognition and promotion processes to give responding to VAWG crimes the prominence it merits.

The College of Policing is currently developing a suite of new guidance on stalking and harassment to give officers clear advice on what they should seek to achieve in each case and how to understand the nature of the behaviour with which they are dealing. This new guidance will be published in early 2019.

The CPS response

We want to ensure, and where appropriate see increases in, prosecutions for VAWG offences. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) will continue to build on their rigorous approach to prosecuting VAWG cases through regular reviews of guidance, training, policy and performance. The CPS will continue to be accountable for performance through the publication of its annual VAWG Crime Report.

The CPS is working with the police to ensure that complainants are given the opportunity to make an informed decision about allowing police access to their personal information; this is particularly relevant in cases of rape and serious sexual offences. This will ensure that complainants are aware of how their digital devices or records will be examined and the use that may be made of any data obtained through that examination, including if it is necessary to disclose it to the defendant. A new national approach is due to be rolled out in the new year replacing local approaches.

Case Study – Crown Prosecution Service

Helen (name has been changed), a deeply vulnerable victim was subjected to a long history of domestic abuse, including multiple rapes by her partner. She had previously retracted her statements detailing the abuse because of threat and intimidation by her partner. Her trust in the police and CPS was eventually secured and she provided a full statement, leading to the defendant’s prosecution. In light of Helen’s account, other non-recent complaints from previous partners of the defendant were identified and three victims came forward to provide evidence. All of the victims were highly vulnerable with histories of mental health issues and substance addictions. They had been targeted by the defendant because of their vulnerabilities. Complex disclosure issues were dealt with fully and bespoke special measures provided for all three victims to help them provide evidence. The defendant was sentenced to 20 years.

Supporting victims through the criminal justice system

Supporting victims through the challenging and often distressing process of bringing an offender to justice remains one of our main priorities and we have put in place measures to help improve victims’ experiences in court.

We recognise that engagement with the criminal justice system can be daunting, particularly for vulnerable victims who have experienced the trauma of domestic abuse, sexual violence or honour-based violence.

We also wish to ensure that those victims who do appear in Court are able to access the special measures they are entitled to in the easiest, least obtrusive way possible. For example, if it will improve the quality of the evidence the court can direct that alleged victims in sexual offences trials can give evidence from behind a screen, or that the public gallery must be cleared, but this is not always used.

Therefore, we will encourage take-up of existing provisions through working with HMCTS and the judiciary to raise awareness of the measures available, and their impact on victims, such as through working to make guidance on measures easier to understand. We will also be simplifying the process to obtain special measures in domestic abuse cases by creating a legislative assumption that all domestic abuse victims are to be treated as eligible for special measures in criminal proceedings. We are encouraging take-up of pre-trial therapy as an important way of encouraging victims to stay engaged with the criminal justice process.

Royal Courts of Justice & Citizens Advice Project

The Tampon Tax Fund is providing over £1m funding for the FLOWS ’Finding Legal Options for Women Survivors’ project, carried out by the Royal Courts of Justice and Islington Citizens Advice Bureaux. The project provides frontline domestic abuse workers with access to the legal resources they need to adequately safeguard the women they support, providing online tools and a pathway to free legal-advice options. By improving the capacity of frontline domestic-violence agencies it enables women and children to protect themselves from violence, gain court-orders, access legal aid and navigate court-processes.

Ensuring juries are well-informed while sitting on rape cases

We are also seeking to raise awareness of and debunk ‘rape myths’ in society. Some academics have raised concerns that ‘rape myths’ may be negatively impacting juries’ ability to analyse the evidence in rape cases and make informed, objective judgements on the merits of each case. They argue that these ‘myths’ appear particularly relevant to cases involving young people, and rape in a domestic abuse context. It is vital that no matter the circumstances, that victims of rape feel confident to come forward and report these crimes, knowing that they will get the support they need and that everything will be done to bring offenders to justice. Work is being done to establish whether this is an issue and if so how best to inform juries.

Ensuring that the balance is struck between jurors understanding rape myths, without encroaching on the rights to a fair trial of the defendant is not a straightforward task. The President of the King’s Bench Division, in his capacity as Head of Criminal Justice, is working with other senior criminal judges to consider the most effective way of providing sufficient information to jurors sitting on a rape trial.

As part of the work on how best to inform jurors, it is essential that appropriate research is conducted with those who have sat on juries initially to assess where there may be issues in relation to rape myths. This research has never been undertaken before and is a complex task that has been entrusted to Professor Cheryl Thomas, the country’s leading academic expert on juries and jury research. She will gather data from experienced jurors at a range of courts around the country. This will give the senior judiciary a detailed insight into where there may be any issues and will mean they are in a position to consider how jurors may best be informed in rape cases.

Victims of rape and other sexual offences are also granted lifelong, automatic anonymity, but despite these protections we are aware of some cases where the name of the alleged victim has been leaked through social media. We are clear that all victims afforded anonymity must never have this compromised without their consent, and so the Attorney General’s Office conducted a Call for Evidence to understand more about the scale of the problem and consider next steps for tackling it.

We will:

• encourage appropriate use of existing special measures in VAWG cases;
• work with the judiciary to consider the best way to provide information to jurors sitting on a rape trial; and
• respond to the Attorney General’s Call for Evidence to understand the scale of problems associated with anonymity for victims and social media.

Working with offenders in prison and the community

HM Prison and Probation Service currently operates 5 accredited programmes which are specifically designed to address the rehabilitative needs of those convicted of sexual and/or domestic abuse offences.

The eligibility criteria for each programme varies based on the rehabilitative needs of the individuals. Such criteria can include their risk of re-offending and the nature of their offending.

VAWG Strategy Refresh: New Actions

All new actions for the Refreshed VAWG Strategy are summarised below. Additional actions to support male victims are set out in the separate Male Victims’ Position Statement.

Prevention

Ref	Action	Lead
1	Commission new research on “what works” to engage men and boys on challenging issues such as gender and healthy relationships.	GEO
2	Commission new research into the causes, impacts and influencers of body dissatisfaction, and what works to tackle the cause and effects of low body image.	GEO
3	Work with schools to support the roll-out of mandatory Relationships and Sex Education to ensure that it provides children and young people with the knowledge and understanding that they need on VAWG.	DFE
4	Introduce a statutory Code of Practice for employers on sexual harassment, developed by EHRC.	GEO
5	Raise awareness with employers of appropriate workplace behaviours.	GEO
6	Raise awareness of VAWG through civil society and sports groups.	DCMS
7	Gather regular data on the prevalence and nature of sexual harassment.	GEO/HO
8	Work with the SIA to raise awareness of sexual harassment with door staff.	HO
9	Conduct research and develop our approach to communicating messages around VAWG, building on the work of the Disrespect NoBody campaign.	HO
10	Work with the UK Council for Internet Safety to better understand and pre-empt the potential for VAWG through new technology to keep victims safe.	DCMS
11	Explore issues of ‘online flashing’, and consider options for next steps.	HO/DCMS
12	Through UKAid, scale up efforts to prevent intimate partner violence and all other forms of VAWG through tackling their root causes.	DFID
13	Consider and respond in full to the Women and Equalities Select Committee’s recommendations on tackling sexual harassment in public places and in the workplace.	HO/GEO
14	Commission research into what links exist between consumption of online pornography and harmful attitudes towards women.	GEO
15	Support Universities UK and the Office for Students to implement recommendations from the Taskforce on sexual harassment and sexual violence on campus.	DFE
16	Introduce measures to prevent domestic abuse through the Domestic Abuse Bill and non-legislative package, including through providing funding to Operation Encompass, introducing new Domestic Abuse Protection Orders and putting the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme on a statutory footing.	HMG
17	Respond to the consultation on the introduction of mandatory reporting for Forced Marriage.	HO
18	Continue to support organisations which challenge harmful notions of ‘honour’ through the Building a Stronger Britain Together programme.	HO
19	Work with online dating apps to raise awareness of VAWG amongst users.	HO
20	Through the Domestic Abuse Bill and non-legislative package, drive improvements to our response to perpetrators to reduce reoffending, through both criminal justice and behaviour change interventions.	HO/MOJ
21	Deliver a national programme of training to raise awareness of forced marriage and FGM protection orders.	HO
22	Develop new approaches to identify breach of protective orders.	HO
23	Develop an open access repository of evaluations of VAWG projects.	HO
24	Provide up to £50m to help tackle FGM internationally.	DfID

Provision of services

Ref	Action	Lead
25	Introduce a new independent Domestic Abuse Commissioner to stand up for victims and hold local and national government to account for the provision of effective, high-quality domestic abuse services, to address a so-called ‘postcode lottery’ in provision.	HO
26	Compete £24 million funding for rape support centres over three years, including a 10% uplift on previous provision.	MOJ
27	Pilot full local commissioning of sexual violence specialist support services for victims.	MOJ
28	Provide funding to develop bespoke training for IDVAs and ISVAs who support older victims of domestic abuse and sexual violence.	HO
29	Provide funding to Limeculture for their Spreading Excellence project to improve sexual violence commissioning across England and Wales.	HO
30	As set out in the Victims’ Strategy, deliver improved cross-government co- ordination and targeting of funding for specialist sexual violence services for victims.	MOJ
31	Respond to the next steps on future, sustainable delivery of support for victims and their children in accommodation-based services for domestic abuse across England.	MHCLG
32	Conduct a review of the National Statement of Expectations and Commissioning Toolkit.	HO
33	Publish joint guidance for commissioners and providers on how to best provide support services for LGBT victims and comply with the Equality Act 2010.	HO/GEO

Partnership working

Ref	Action	Lead
34	Monitor and evaluate projects funded by the Tampon Tax Fund that will improve the public and employer response to domestic abuse, sharing best practice from the Women’s Aid ‘Ask Me’ programme and Hestia’s ‘Tools for the Job’ employers project.	DCMS/HO
35	Continue to allocate the funds generated from the VAT on sanitary products to projects that improve the lives of disadvantaged, vulnerable and underrepresented women and girls.	DCMS
36	Develop guidance on best practice for multi-agency arrangements for risk assessment and safeguarding.	HO
37	Support the LGA and APCC to run an event to share learning and best practice on partnership working from the VAWG Transformation Fund.	HO
38	Consider the impact of alcohol on VAWG, and develop a response.	HO
39	Build on the ‘Systems Leaders Network’ to better disseminate best practice for partnership working to address VAWG, including through developing tools to easily share evaluations of innovative practice and build partnerships nationally.	HO
40	Share learning from Wales’ ‘Ask and Act’ initiative to better identify victims of VAWG and refer them to the right services at an earlier stage.	HO

Pursuing perpetrators

Ref	Action	Lead
41	Tackle upskirting through the Voyeurism (Offences) (No. 2) Bill’, and work with the College of Policing to provide guidance to police officers on this.	MOJ/HO
42	Provide targeted support to police forces to drive increased referrals where appropriate to the CPS for VAWG crimes.	HO/CPS
43	Work with the judiciary to consider the best way to provide information to jurors sitting on a rape trial.	MOJ
44	Respond to the Attorney General’s Call for Evidence to understand the scale of problems associated with anonymity for victims and social media.	AGO
45	Consider the outcomes of the University of Bristol’s report into the prevalence and nature of prostitution and sex work in the UK, and consider next steps.	HO/MOJ
46	Encourage appropriate use of existing special measures in VAWG cases.	HO/MOJ
47	Introduce a series of measures to strengthen our criminal justice response to domestic abuse from pre-court to post-conviction including the introduction of automatic eligibility for special measures, exploring the use of conditional cautions and providing funding to improve in-court support for victims in the family courts.	HO/MOJ
48	Carry out a review of the criminal justice response to rape and serious sexual offence cases, reporting into the Criminal Justice Board.	HO/MOJ/ AGO/CPS
49	Continue to review VAWG policies, guidance and training.	CPS
50	Continue to regularly oversee performance on VAWG prosecutions including through a revised VAWG Assurance Process and regular reviews of CPS casework.	CPS
51	Ensure transparency and accountability of VAWG prosecutions through the annual publication of a CPS VAWG Crime Report and regular meetings of the VAWG External Consultation Group.	CPS
52	Implement the Domestic Abuse Best Practice Framework, which includes the reinvigoration of the Specialist Domestic Abuse Courts System, in order to further improve the Criminal Justice System response.	CPS/ MOJ/ HMCT/HO
53	Improve our understand of, and response to, the changing nature of VAWG particularly in light of rapid technological change.	HO/DCMS
54	Press for use of UN sanctions for conflict-related sexual violence where appropriate.	FCO

1. https://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/policy-and-analysis/reports/Documents/2016/changing-the-culture.pdf ↩

2. www.england.nhs.uk/fgm and www.gov.uk/dh/fgm ↩

3. £7.2m funding per annum for 2016-2019. ↩

4. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/violence-against-women-and-girls-services-local-commissioning ↩

5. https://www.cps.gov.uk/sites/default/files/documents/publications/cps-vawg-report-2018.pdf ↩

6. National household survey of ACEs and their relationship with resilience to health harming behaviours in England Bellis MA, Hughes K, Leckenby N, Perkins C, Lowey H, BMC Medicine 2014, 12:72. ↩

7. NSPCC. ↩

8. http://www.domesticviolencelondon.nhs.uk/uploads/downloads/DH_4126619.pdf ↩

9. Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hampshire, Nottinghamshire and London (MOPAC). ↩

10. Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hampshire, Nottinghamshire and London (MOPAC). ↩

11. https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/strategic-direction-for-sexual-assault-and-abuse-services/ ↩

12. https://www.niesr.ac.uk/publications/inequality-among-lesbian-gay-bisexual-and-transgender-groups-uk-review- evidence#.V5YRpGD2aM8 ↩

13. Taken from the HMIC report in domestic abuse: https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmic/wp-content/ uploads/2014/04/improving-the-police-response-to-domestic-abuse.pdf ↩

14. Review led by Department of Communities and Local Government. ↩