Policy paper

Annex A: Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls - Progress against previous actions (accessible version)

Updated 18 November 2021

This was published under the 2019 to 2022 Johnson Conservative government

This document sets out progress against the actions the government committed to in the:

• Ending Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy (2016-2020)
• Ending Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy Refresh (2019)
• Male Victims’ Position Paper (2019)

Ending Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy Refresh (Published March 2019)

Prevention

Ref	Action	Lead	Status
1	Commission new research on “what works” to engage men and boys on challenging issues such as gender and healthy relationships.	Government Equalities Office	Completed This research was completed and published in January 2021 Research publications.
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.	Government Equalities Office	Completed This research was completed and published in January 2021 Research publications.
3	Work with schools to support the roll-out of mandatory Relationships Sex and Health Education to ensure that it provides children and young people with the knowledge and understanding that they need on violence against women and girls.	Department for Education	Completed Since September 2020, Relationships and Health Education has been compulsory in primary schools and Relationships Sex and Health Education has been compulsory in secondary schools. In September 2020, the Department for Education published a package of support for all schools to support the implementation and teaching of the RSHE curriculum.
4	Introduce a statutory Code of Practice for employers on sexual harassment, developed by EHRC.	Government Equalities Office	Ongoing The Equality and Human Rights Commission published technical guidance on sexual harassment and harassment in the workplace in January 2020. The Government Equalities Office have now asked the EHRC to produce a statutory code of practice and will be supporting them on this. This will be published in due course.
5	Raise awareness with employers of appropriate workplace behaviours.	Government Equalities Office	Ongoing The Equality and Human Rights Commission published technical guidance on sexual harassment and harassment in the workplace in January 2020. The Government Equalities Office have now asked the EHRC to produce a statutory code of practice and will be supporting them on this. This will be published in due course.
6	Raise awareness of violence against women and girls through civil society and sports groups.	Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport	Completed The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport publishes a regular newsletter to 2000 organisations and includes information on violence against women and girls.
7	Gather regular data on the prevalence and nature of sexual harassment.	Government Equalities Office and Home Office	Completed The Government Equalities Office commissioned a nationally representative survey on sexual harassment and the results of this have been published alongside the government response to the sexual harassment in the workplace consultation.
8	Work with the SIA to raise awareness of sexual harassment with door staff.	Home Office	Completed The Security Industry Authority has revised its safeguarding guidance to operatives/ employers and is planning further industry-wide communications activity.
9	Conduct research and develop our approach to communicating messages around violence against women and girls, building on the work of the Disrespect NoBody campaign.	Home Office	Ongoing The Home Office is conducting research and developing our approach to communicating messages around violence against women and girls, building on the work of the Disrespect NoBody campaign.
10	Work with the UK Council for Internet Safety to better understand and pre-empt the potential for violence against women and girls through new technology to keep victims safe.	Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport	Ongoing The UK Council for Internet Safety (UKCIS) Vulnerable Users Working Group and Early Warning System Working Group have now been established and continue to meet on a regular basis. These groups continue to explore a range of user safety issues, including women’s safety and violence against women and girls issues online. The UKCIS Executive Board also meets regularly and includes discussions linked to user safety and women’s protection online. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport is also taking forward wider protections for women online as part of the Online Safety Bill, which has been published for pre-legislative scrutiny this session.
11	Explore issues of ‘online flashing’ and consider options for next steps.	Home Office and Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport	Ongoing The Full Government Response to the Online Harms White Paper, published in December 2020, sets out measures to protect women online. This includes measures to tackle illegal online abuse and ‘revenge porn’. Companies will need to take action to remove and limit the spread of illegal content and the highest-risk, highest-reach companies (including major social media platforms) will also need to tackle legal but harmful content, which may include online abuse which is legal. The government published the draft Online Safety Bill, which will give effect to the framework, on 12 May 2021. The Online Safety Bill will be subject to pre-legislative scrutiny. DCMS has also sponsored a Law Commission review of abusive and harmful online communications. The review recommends a range of new offences, including an offence to more effectively capture harmful communications online and a new offence of cyberflashing. The government is carefully considering the recommendations and will consider using the Online Safety Bill to bring them into law, where it is necessary and appropriate to do so.
12	Through UKAid, scale up efforts to prevent intimate partner violence and all other forms of violence against women and girls through tackling their root causes.	Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office	Completed The Secretary of State approved a new seven-year global programme: What Works to Prevent Violence: Impact at Scale.
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.	Home Office and Government Equalities Office	Completed The government’s response was published in May 2019. Sexual harassment of women and girls in public places: Government response to the Committee’s Sixth Report of Session 2017–19 (parliament.uk).
14	Commission research into what links exist between consumption of online pornography and harmful attitudes towards women.	Government Equalities Office	Completed This research was completed and published in January 2021. Research publications.
15	Support Universities UK and the Office for Students to implement recommendations from the Taskforce on sexual harassment and sexual violence on campus.	Department for Education	Completed A Universities UK (UUK) report assessing progress of the sector on tackling gender-based violence, harassment and hate crime, was published on 9th October 2020. The report, titled ‘Changing the Culture: Tackling gender-based violence, harassment and hate crime: two years on’, presented the outcomes of UUK’s 2019 survey of 95 higher education providers, and made a number of recommendations for action. Changing the culture – tackling gender-based violence, harassment and hate crime: two years on (universitiesuk.ac.uk)
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.	Cross-Government	Completed The Domestic Abuse Act received Royal Assent on 29 April 2021. The Act has put the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme guidance on a statutory footing and introduced new Domestic Abuse Protection Notices and Orders. In addition, the government has provided funding for Operation Encompass, which helps children witnessing domestic abuse by linking police up with their teachers. They received over £160,000 for a national roll out of the programme in 2018/19, and in 2020/21 they were awarded over £190,000 to roll out a national helpline staffed by psychologists to provide advice to teachers on how to support students.
17	Respond to the consultation on the introduction of mandatory reporting for Forced Marriage.	Home Office	Ongoing This will be published as soon as possible.
18	Continue to support organisations which challenge harmful notions of ‘honour’ through the Building a Stronger Britain Together programme.	Home Office	Completed Over £819,000 from the Building a Stronger Britain Together programme was allocated to support projects focused on violence against women and girls by offering opportunities to hard to reach communities and creating networks that challenged ‘honour’-based abuse. Community Coordinators were also embedded within local authorities across England and Wales to deliver the 2015 Counter Extremism Strategy in their local areas. This included tackling the root causes of harmful practices such as ‘honour’-based abuse, female genital mutilation and forced marriage.
19	Work with online dating apps to raise awareness of violence against women and girls amongst users.	Home Office	Ongoing The Online Safety Bill will play a key role in increasing safety online, which will include through online dating sites. A new statutory duty of care on companies towards their users, overseen by an independent regulator, will ensure companies have appropriate systems and processes in place to deal with harmful content on their services and keep users safe.
20	Through the Domestic Abuse Bill (now Act) and non-legislative package, drive improvements to our response to perpetrators to reduce reoffending, through both criminal justice and behaviour change interventions.	Home Office/Ministry of Justice	Completed The Domestic Abuse Act received Royal Assent on 29 April 2021. The Act requires the government to publish a comprehensive perpetrator strategy that sets out the approach to, among other things: Detect, investigate and prosecute offences involving domestic abuse Assess and manage the risks posed by individuals who commit offences involving domestic abuse, and including domestic abuse-related stalking; and Reduce the risk that such individuals commit further offences involving domestic abuse. The government has also funded a range of perpetrator interventions to address the underlying reasons for perpetrators’ actions, challenge their ideology, engage perpetrators in behaviour change programmes and address associated issues such as substance misuse and mental health issues. In addition to funding research to improve our understanding of domestic abuse perpetrators, in 2020-21, we awarded over £7m to Police and Crime Commissioner to introduce innovative perpetrator interventions, and have allocated £25m this financial year to continue to increase the provision of perpetrator programmes nationally.
21	Deliver a national programme of training to raise awareness of forced marriage and FGM protection orders.	Home Office	Completed Nine sessions were held across England and Wales between January and March 2019, at which c.1,300 professionals were trained. Ongoing training of police officers and social workers by the government’s Forced Marriage Unit includes content about protection orders.
22	Develop new approaches to identify breach of protective orders.	Home Office	Ongoing In the Domestic Abuse Act 2021, the government made a commitment to introduce a comprehensive perpetrator strategy which will form part of our forthcoming Domestic Abuse Strategy. The perpetrator strategy will set out our approaches to: 1) Detecting, investigating and prosecuting offences involving domestic abuse; 2) Assessing and managing the risks posed by individuals who commit offences involving domestic abuse, including risks associated with stalking; and 3) Reducing the risk that such individuals commit further offences. In addition to this, we have committed to piloting new Domestic Abuse Protection Orders which will be used to protect victims from all forms of domestic abuse, including non-physical abuse and controlling or coercive behaviour.
23	Develop an open access repository of evaluations of violence against women and girls projects.	Home Office	Ongoing The Home Office will continue to consider and evaluate projects, including through action being taken forward through the new Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy.
24	Provide up to £50m to help tackle FGM internationally.	Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office	Ongoing This funding was announced in November 2018 and the programmes will run until 2025. The budget has been reduced for the current year due to the reduction in UK Official Development Assistance.

Provision of Services

Ref	Action	Lead	Status
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.	Home Office	Completed The appointment of the Designate Domestic Abuse Commissioner was announced in September 2019. The provisions in the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 which make the Commissioner’s role statutory will commence in Autumn 2021.
26	Compete £24 million funding for rape support centres over three years, including a 10% uplift on previous provision.	Ministry of Justice	Completed The Rape Support Fund has increased to £32m over three years, following a 50% increase to the fund for 20/21. The fund has been extended until 2022/23 to provide services with the stability they require. We have also announced a £51m funding boost for specialist support services this year to support victims through the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. This includes a £27m national investment over two years to recruit more Independent Sexual Violence Advisers and Independent Domestic Abuse Advisers to ensure victims can access support.
27	Pilot full local commissioning of sexual violence specialist support services for victims.	Ministry of Justice	Ongoing The test of full local commissioning of sexual violence support services began in April 2019 in five Police and Crime Commissioner Areas and will run for three years until 31 March 2023.
28	Provide funding to develop bespoke training for Independent Domestic Violence Advisers and Independent Sexual Violence Advisers who support older victims of domestic abuse and sexual violence.	Home Office	Ongoing This began in April 2019 and will run for three years until 31 March 2022.
29	Provide funding to Lime Culture for their Spreading Excellence project to improve sexual violence commissioning across England and Wales.	Home Office	Completed Home Office funding for this project was provided for 2018/19. The guidance document developed from the 2018/19 project is available online.
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.	Ministry of Justice	Ongoing The Victims’ Funding Strategy is in development for publication later this year, and will deliver cross government coordination of funding for victims’ services, including those for sexual violence victims.
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.	Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government	Completed The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) undertook a review of the approaches to commissioning of domestic abuse safe accommodation services across England followed by a full consultation on future delivery of support within safe accommodation. As a result, following the Domestic Abuse Act 2021, MHCLG is introducing a new statutory duty on local authorities to assess the need and commission support to victims of domestic abuse and their children in safe accommodation in England.
32	Conduct a review of the National Statement of Expectations and Commissioning Toolkit.	Home Office	Ongoing The review commenced with the Call for Evidence for the new Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy 2021-2024. A revised Statement will be published in due course.
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.	Home Office and Government Equalities Office	Completed The Home Office commissioned Galop to produce Commissioning Guidance, which was published in November 2020.

Partnership working

Ref	Action	Lead	Status
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.	Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport /Home Office	Ongoing Since 2015, the government has awarded £79 million from the fund to not-for-profit organisations supporting disadvantaged women and girls, with over £24 million for projects working to tackle violence against women and girls.
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.	Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport	This year is the final year of the fund - as the United Kingdom no longer has to charge VAT on period products following the UK’s exit from the EU. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is running an £11.25 million grant fund for projects that improve the lives of disadvantaged women and girls, including a category on violence against women and girls. The application period closed in July and successful applicants will be announced in Autumn 2021. DCMS and the Home Office will continue to monitor and review projects funded through the Tampon Tax until the fund comes to an end.
36	Develop guidance on best practice for multi-agency arrangements for risk assessment and safeguarding.	Home Office	Ongoing The Home Office has put in place a range of multi-agency guidance for professionals, including on female genital mutilation and forced marriage. The action in the new Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy will further build on this.
37	Support the Local Government Association and Association of Police and Crime Commissioners to run an event to share learning and best practice on partnership working from the Violence Against Women and Girls Transformation Fund.	Home Office	Completed In January 2019, the Local Government Association and the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners ran a learning and best practice event with the leads from the Violence Against Women and Girls Service Transformation Fund. The session was well-attended with colleagues from local government, policing and Police and Crime Commissioner offices.
38	Consider the impact of alcohol on violence against women and girls and develop a response.	Home Office	Completed An alcohol - domestic abuse training package was successfully piloted in 2019.
39	Build on the ‘Systems Leaders Network’ to better disseminate best practice for partnership working to address violence against women and girls, including through developing tools to easily share evaluations of innovative practice and build partnerships nationally.	Home Office	Completed Newsletters have been introduced and are published quarterly.
40	Share learning from Wales’ ‘Ask and Act’ initiative to better identify victims of violence against women and girls and refer them to the right services at an earlier stage.	Home Office	Completed Learning has shared through the circulation of newsletters, as outlined at action 39, which have been introduced and are published quarterly.

Pursuing perpetrators

Ref	Action	Lead	Status
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.	Ministry of Justice/Home Office	Completed New ‘upskirting’ offences were introduced in the Voyeurism (Offences) Act 2019 and commenced in April 2019, and the College of Policing has put in place guidance.
42	Provide targeted support to police forces to drive increased referrals where appropriate to the CPS for violence against women and girls crimes.	Crown Prosecution Service	Ongoing The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) have published a joint national action plan on rape and serious sexual offences which seeks to address the gap between report and court outcomes. On domestic abuse, the CPS have published an ambitious programme for 2020-21 to narrow the disparity between domestic abuse reporting and criminal justice outcomes. In cases of forced marriage and ‘honour’-based abuse (HBA) the CPS has, through its legal guidance, made a clear public statement about how they will approach emerging areas of HBA. In July 2020 the CPS published guidance on how they would approach allegations of breast ironing, using assault and child cruelty offences. In addition, all CPS areas have stalking leads who meet monthly with their police counterparts. A joint NPCC and CPS protocol and checklist will be reviewed during 2021 and a joint CPS and NPCC stalking leads conference is scheduled for November 2021 to ensure that good practice is shared.
43	Work with the judiciary to consider the best way to provide information to jurors sitting on a rape trial.	Ministry of Justice	Ongoing The Empirical Research has been completed. New guidance is being tested by the judiciary.
44	Respond to the Attorney General’s Call for Evidence to understand the scale of problems associated with anonymity for victims and social media.	Attorney General’s Office	Completed The response was published in March 2019. Response to Call for Evidence on the Impact of Social Media on the Administration of Justice - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
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.	Home Office/Ministry of Justice	Completed The University of Bristol report highlighted the complexity and multiform nature of prostitution and sex work in the UK. The government’s priority in this area is reducing the harm and exploitation which may be associated with prostitution and sex work, and gives careful consideration of other relevant evidence – such as evaluations of different legislative and regulatory models in overseas jurisdictions. Further work is being taken forward, such as reducing the opportunities for offenders to use online platforms to exploit others.
46	Encourage appropriate use of existing special measures in violence against women and girls cases.	Home Office/Ministry of Justice	Ongoing The Domestic Abuse Act 2021 received Royal Assent in April 2021. The Act includes a measure to create a legislative assumption that domestic abuse victims are to be treated as eligible for special measures in the criminal court on the grounds of fear and distress (if the victim wants such assistance). One of the Rape Review’s actions is centred on ensuring that victims receive clear, prompt communication and engagement throughout the process and special measures are available that meet their needs. In the first six months after publication of the Rape Review, work will be undertaken to develop a best practice framework for the progression of rape and sexual offences cases at the courts stage, including in relation to special measures. This will look into pre-court communication and coordination by partnership agencies with victims about applications to the court for special measures (decisions about the use of special measures are made by the judiciary), and the provision of facilities to enable the effective support of victims in court, including the availability of special measures as directed by the judge.
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.	Home Office/Ministry of Justice	Completed The Domestic Abuse Act 2021 received Royal Assent in April 2021. There are more than 20 measures which are looking to strengthen our response to domestic abuse including introducing automatic eligibility for special measures in the criminal, family and civil courts. Funding to improve in-court support for victims in the family courts was allocated to two organisations from the Domestic Abuse Fund 2018/20.
48	Carry out a review of the criminal justice response to rape and serious sexual offence cases, reporting into the Criminal Justice Board.	Home Office/Ministry of Justice/ Attorney General’s Office/ Crown Prosecution Service	Completed The Rape Review Action Plan was published on 18 June 2021. It sets out a robust programme of work to achieve a significant improvement in the way the criminal justice system responds to rape, from the moment a rape is reported until it reaches court. The Rape Review Action Plan aims to return the volumes of cases being referred to the police, charged by the Crown Prosecution Service, and going to court back to at least 2016 levels by the end of this Parliament.
49	Continue to review violence against women and girls policies, guidance and training.	Crown Prosecution Service	Completed The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) continues its rolling programme to review and, where necessary, update policies, guidance, training and best practice on violence against women and girls crimes. Recent examples include revised rape and sexual offences legal guidance, including new content on rape myths and stereotypes, as well as to guidance on Stalking Protection Orders, female genital mutilation, ‘honour’-based abuse, voyeurism, and ‘sex for rent’.
50	Continue to regularly oversee performance on violence against women and girls prosecutions, including through a revised violence against women and girls Assurance Process and regular reviews of CPS casework.	Crown Prosecution Service	Completed Regular oversight of violence against women and girls prosecutions through the Violence Against Women and Girls Assurance Process continued throughout this period. This involved the development of internal reports highlighting data trends, best practice, as well as identifying areas for improvement.
51	Ensure transparency and accountability of violence against women and girls prosecutions through the annual publication of a CPS Violence Against Women and Girls Crime Report and regular meetings of the Violence Against Women and Girls External Consultation Group.	Crown Prosecution Service	Completed The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) published data annually in relation to violence against women and girls up to September 2019. From January 2020, the CPS moved to more frequent publication of data on a quarterly basis. Regular engagement takes place with a Violence Against Women and Girls External Consultation Group, a Forum for Male Victims of Violence Against Women and Girls Crimes and a Child Sexual Abuse Stakeholder Forum. These groups have regularly provided feedback and comments on the development of legal guidance and the Joint National Action Plan. In October 2020 the CPS held a bespoke Community Accountability Forum to review the impact that COVID has had on victims of domestic abuse and ‘honour’-based abuse. The actions from this meeting will be used to work moving forward.
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.	Crown Prosecution Service / Ministry of Justice/ HM Courts & Tribunals Service/Home Office	Completed The Domestic Abuse Best Practice Framework was launched in January 2019 and implementation took place across all regions in England and Wales throughout 2019. The National Delivery Group was refreshed in Autumn 2020 with specific Task and Finish Groups to address disparity in referrals and scope potential work for the Crown Courts. During March and April 2021, a virtual domestic abuse conference was hosted online by the CPS, the police, and the courts. Delegates heard about local best practice and innovation, leading academics, experts, and specialist support services. The conference stressed the importance of multi-agency working within a co-ordinated community response that has victim safety and support at its heart.
53	Improve our understanding of, and response to, the changing nature of violence against women and girls particularly in light of rapid technological change.	Home Office/ Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport / Government Equalities Office	Complete The Government Equalities Office (GEO) delivered a workshop presenting their new research in February 2020. The research was published in January 2021 and covers pornography and attitudes towards women and girls, body image, and engaging men and boys in gender equality.
54	Press for use of UN sanctions for conflict-related sexual violence where appropriate.	Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office	Ongoing The UK successfully proposed and listed an individual under the DRC sanctions regime for sexual and gender-based violence crimes. We are also continuing to build the case for listings for these crimes under other UN regimes (e.g. Yemen).

Male Victims’ Position Paper (2019)

Ref	Action	Lead	Status
1	Provide £500,000 to specialist organisations that support male victims and survivors of domestic abuse to bolster support to these victims and survivors nationwide and provide a more comprehensive package of measures.	Home Office	Completed The Home Office has provided £500,000 to help improve support for male victims of domestic abuse; fund the Men’s Advice Line, which provides support and advice to male victims of domestic abuse and to fund Galop who provide advice and support to LGBT people affected by domestic abuse.
2	Provide £500,000 to specialist LGBT domestic abuse organisations to improve inter-agency support for LGBT victims and survivors; raise awareness within LGBT communities to increase reporting; and improve monitoring and recording practices.	Home Office	Completed The government had provided funding for the Men’s Advice Line, which provides support and advice for male victims of domestic abuse, and for Galop, who provide advice and support to LGBT populations affected by domestic abuse. The government has also provided additional support during the COVID pandemic, including: £750 million to help support charities, of which £76 million was designated to support victims of domestic and sexual abuse, vulnerable children and their families, and victims of modern slavery (including £10m for safe accommodation for victims of domestic abuse (MHCLG), £25m to domestic abuse and sexual violence charities (MoJ) and £2m funding for domestic abuse charities (Home Office)), and £2 million to provide immediate support to domestic abuse helplines and online services.
3	Provide £146,000 to Survivors Manchester to support the formation and development of the Male Survivors Partnership, the UK umbrella development agency for organisations working with male victims and survivors of sexual violence; whilst using research to gain a greater understanding of the needs of male survivors to inform commissioners, policy makers and service providers.	Home Office	Completed £146,000 of funding was provided to Survivors Manchester during 2018/2019 through the National Sexual Violence Support Fund. The Home Office has continued to invest in this area through Survivors Manchester to provide specialist support to male victims and survivors.
4	Improve support for all victims of sexual violence, including men and boys, by providing £24m over the next three years to vital services providing advice, support and counselling to help victims cope and, as far as possible, recover from these devastating crimes.	Ministry of Justice	Completed The Ministry of Justice has increased funding for rape and sexual abuse support services, providing £22 million this year to provide free advice, support and counselling for victims across England and Wales. A £51 million funding boost for specialist support services has also been announced this year to support victims through the COVID pandemic and beyond. This includes £27 million over two years to recruit more Independent Sexual Violence Advisers and Independent Domestic Abuse Advisers and an extra £1.4m to meet the increased demand for support from men and boys. The Rape Support Fund has increased to £32 million over three years, following a 50% increase to the fund for 20/21. Expansion of funding was not male specific, however, through this fund we are supporting the male rape helpline and webchat.
5	Work with the CPS to improve the gender and relationship breakdown of CPS data and work with police forces to extract data on gender of victims and survivors and perpetrators to understand better the relationship and trends.	Home Office/Crown Prosecution Service	Ongoing Following work undertaken to ensure more robust recording of sex across police force areas, the recording of a defendant’s sex for domestic abuse and rape has consistently been over 99% from 2017-18 to date. The recording of a complainant’s sex for domestic abuse cases rose from 79.2% in 2017-18 to 93.0% in 2019-20 and the recording for rape cases rose from 74.2% in 2017-18 to 83.7% in 2019-20.
6	Ensure communication campaigns are inclusive of men and boys to raise awareness of male victims and encourage male victims and survivors to report abuse.	Home Office	Completed The GOV.UK domestic abuse page includes specialist support services for male victims of domestic abuse, including the Men’s Advice Line. The Home Office has created specific assets and messaging targeted at male victims for the #YouAreNotAlone campaign, which was first launched to support victims experiencing domestic abuse during the COVID restrictions. The Home Office consulted with male victims’ charities on the campaign and filmed case study of a male domestic abuse survivor which was shared on social media channels (February 2020).
7	Conduct a review of the National Statement of Expectations and, as part of this, consider its impact on the commissioning of male support services to ensure commissioners are educated on the complexities of commissioning services that are victim and survivor focused, gender aware and provide an appropriate response according to the needs of the victim or survivor, including GBT victims and survivors.	Home Office	Ongoing The review commenced as part of the Call for Evidence for the new Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy. A refreshed National Statement of Expectations will be published later this year.
8	Ensure that the subjects of Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education, and Health Education address, for example, the importance of building positive and respectful relationships, consent (including at primary, age appropriate teaching on boundaries and permission seeking), gender stereotypes, and outlining how and when to seek help.	Department of Education	Completed Since September 2020, Relationships and Health Education has been compulsory in primary schools and Relationships Sex and Health Education has been compulsory in secondary schools. Relationships education for primary pupils will cover the characteristics of healthy relationships, building the knowledge and understanding that will enable children to model these behaviours. In secondary schools, RSE will build on teaching at primary level. The emphasis moves from the experience of the child in the context of their family to the young person as a potential partner and parent, introducing concepts such as health intimate relationships.
9	Utilise evidence from across government on male experiences of crimes captured in the Ending VAWG Strategy to inform future policies and training.	Home Office	Completed Engagement across government has informed the Violence Against Women and Girls Call for Evidence and the development of the new Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy. This cross-government engagement will continue to ensure future work and policies are aligned and experience utilised.
10	Explore the potential benefits of giving full commissioning responsibilities for rape and sexual abuse services to five Police and Crime Commissioning areas, to use their local knowledge to plan, prioritise and commission specialist practical and emotional services to better support all victims of sexual violence.	Ministry of Justice	Completed The test of full local commissioning of sexual violence support services commenced in April 2019 in five Police and Crime Commissioner areas and will run for three years until 31 March 2023.
11	Commit to develop a new delivery model for victim and survivor support services, including sexual violence, that will coordinate and combine funding for victim and survivor support services across government to increase its impact.	Ministry of Justice/Home Office	Ongoing Work to develop a new delivery model for victim support services which will coordinate and align funding for victim and survivor support services across government will be taken forward through the Ministry of Justice’s forthcoming Victims’ Funding Strategy. Further government work is being undertaken through the Spending Review, and through a landscape review of the provision of specialist sexual violence support services.
12	Work across government and with the NHS to implement the Strategy Direction for Sexual Assault and Abuse Services. This includes developing a more integrated, seamless and specialist support pathway for all victims and survivors of sexual violence and abuse.	Home Office/Department for Health and Social Care	Completed NHS England’s five year ‘Strategic Direction for Sexual Assault and Abuse Services - Lifelong care for victims and survivors: 2018-2023’ set out a commitment to ensure all victims and survivors receive joined up pathways of care over the course of their life time whenever they need it.

Ending Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy 2016

In March 2019 a refreshed Violence Against Women and Girls strategy was published with 54 new actions (in addition to a further 12 regarding male victims and survivors) to further strengthen the government’s response.

An action plan update Ending violence against women and girls strategy action plan update (March 2019) accompanied this providing detail of progress made against these actions set out in the 2016 Strategy. Some actions from the 2016-2020 Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy remained outstanding and this is a progress report against those actions.

Ref	Action	Lead	Status
4	Support and empower women from segregated communities who are not able to access English learning or take up the opportunities of living in modern Britain. This includes increasing access to English language learning to build confidence and handling practical daily scenarios such as visiting the doctor or accessing services from the Council; and challenging cultural and religious attitudes that hinder integration.	Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government	Completed The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) community-based English Language programme has been running since 2013 and has been successful in supporting women who are isolated by their lack of English. By March 2019, the programme had supported nearly 93,000 isolated adults with the lowest levels of English to improve their English language skills and build confidence to engage with their children’s schools, public services, and the wider community. MHCLG extended the programme for a further year to reach over 19,000 new learners by March 2020. In September 2018 MHCLG published a prospectus to invite proposals to deliver new community-based provision which commenced in April 2019.
9	Produce a resource pack on women, girls, and gangs to support identification of those at risk and effective interventions for frontline professionals.	Home Office	Ongoing The Home Office continues to fund Young People’s Advocates this financial year (2021-22) and have successfully allocated some additional funding to pay for another Young People’s Advocates, taking the total to 11 across London, Greater Manchester and Birmingham. As part of their grant agreements, Young People’s Advocates are required to ‘develop and share best practice’. Additionally, this financial year the Home Office is investing up to £1m to provide specialist support to under 25s from London, the West Midlands and Merseyside who are criminally exploited through county lines, to help them safely reduce and exit their involvement. The service will also seek to increase awareness of girls and young women involved in county lines and will have dedicated women and girls workers to provide targeted support and interventions as we currently believe their involvement in this exploitation type is underreported.
11	Continue to work with faith leaders to increase signatories to the declaration condemning female genital mutilation and use the declaration to drive cultural change.	Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government	Completed The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) undertook a survey of over 100 faith leaders and community organisations and established that the faith leader declaration was not the most effective way of tackling female genital mutilation (FGM) in faith communities and that it 29 would be better to target our work with communities where FGM is most prevalent. In March 2019 MHCLG allocated £375,000 to 37 local authority areas to fund outreach, engagement and communications on FGM, enabled those areas to build the capacity of FGM-focused outreach workers, promote and disseminate relevant resources and raise awareness of the range of support services available to victims.
12	Continue outreach work carried out by the government’s FGM unit and Forced Marriage Unit to work with safeguarding professionals to highlight the issues and raise awareness.	Home Office	Completed The Forced Marriage Unit delivers outreach and training events in the UK to a wide range of audiences, including a series of workshops developed for frontline police officers and social workers. Through these events, we aim to raise awareness of forced marriage, and to help professionals recognise the warning signs and take the right action to protect children and adults. FMU staff also take part in “Operation Limelight”, a joint Border Force and police operation.
13	Monitor the use of protection orders for a range of violence against women and girls offences to promote wider take up and better enforcement of breaches.	Home Office	Ongoing The Home Office has undertaken a range of work to ensure best use of protection orders, and further work will be taken forward through the new Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy.
16	Support development of the evidence base on perpetrator programmes and support innovative approaches to working with perpetrators such as the Drive project to help achieve sustainable reductions in repeat offending.	Home Office	Ongoing The Home Office has awarded £7.17 million to introduce domestic abuse perpetrator services, including £1.2 million to introduce Drive locally. The funding will be distributed between 22 Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) and included a requirement for PCCs to conduct an evaluation, strengthening the evidence base of what works to prevent reoffending. The Home Office is also providing over £500,000 to fund 11 research projects that will further aid our understanding of perpetrators of domestic abuse and recently announced a further £25 million, more than doubling the total funding for tackling domestic abuse perpetrators.
18	Raise standards in social work and overhaul social work education and practice to improve the recruitment, retention and development of social workers under-pinned by a new regulator that will have a relentless focus on raising the quality of social work education, training and practice in both children’s and adult’s services.	Department for Education	Completed The government is driving improvement in social work practice by setting clear standards in the sector. This includes publishing the Post Qualifying Standards for Children and Families Social Work in 2018 - these set out the expectation that social workers have the knowledge and skills to support children, identify the impact of domestic abuse on family functioning and effect on children, be able to access help and assistance of other professionals in the identification and prevention of adult social need and risk, and be able to ensure that vulnerable adults are safeguarded and that a child is protected. The National Assessment and Accreditation System assesses social worker knowledge and skills against the PQS. We have developed and to date rolled out to 69 LAs/sites, supporting local authorities to identify and address the various needs of their workforce. In addition, the government launched Social Work England in 2019 as the specialist regulator for the profession to raise standards in social work education, training and practice in both children’s and adult’s services.
19	Establish a What Works Centre, with up to £20 million of funding, which will be an evidence-based resource to support social workers and work alongside the Chief Social Worker.	Department for Education	Completed The What Works for Children’s Social Care launched as an independent charity status organisation on 1st April 2020 and seeks better outcomes for children, young people and families by generating, collating and sharing the best available evidence to practitioners and other decision makers across the children’s social care sector. The centre brings together existing evidence, starts new research and trials, and translates findings into actionable guidance for social workers and decision-makers in the children’s social care sector. It is a member of the What Works Network, an initiative that aims to improve the way government and other public sector organisations create, share and use high quality evidence in decision making.
26	Work with partners to improve and communicate the evidence base on preventing violence against women and girls.	Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office	Completed Over half of the pilots through the What Works to Prevent Violence programme showed significant reductions in violence in less than three years. This evidence is a global public good to help governments and international partners everywhere to improve the effectiveness of efforts to prevent violence against women and girls. 33 peer reviewed journal articles have been published by the What Works to Prevent Violence Consortium over the programme’s lifetime.
27	Challenge traditional attitudes to sexual violence in conflict and work to end the stigma suffered by many survivors, including men and boys, which leaves them ostracised from society.	Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office	Ongoing In November 2020, the Prime Minister’s Special Representative on Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict launched the Declaration of Humanity, which calls on faith and belief leaders globally to denounce conflict-related sexual violence and tackle the stigma faced by survivors and children born of rape. The Declaration has received widespread support and 2021/22, the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative (PSVI) will fund projects in the DRC, South Sudan and Iraq to enable faith leaders to embed the principles of the Declaration into action in their communities. In 2021/22, the PSVI will also fund the development of a ‘Stigma Toolkit’ which will provide a framework for criminal justice systems to work with survivors of sexual violence in sensitive, survivor-centric ways that mitigates the impact of stigma and improves justice outcomes.
32	Explore options for using new technology to support victims, for example promoting the development of mobile phone apps to help victims of forced marriage and stalking.	Home Office	Completed The Home Office provides funding for six charities to run seven national violence against women and girls helplines, and in a number of cases this includes an instant messaging service. In 2020, grants made to violence against women and girls charities to deal with the impact of COVID and included funding for additional technical solutions, and the expansion of existing ones (for example, for the Hollie Gazzard Trust to provide the Hollie Guard Extra app to victims of domestic abuse, via police forces). The Home Office recorded a video on cyberstalking with one of the UK’s leading academic experts on that topic and shared it on social media. The Home Office has also provided funding to support the development of the Bright Sky App - a tool that be downloaded onto mobile phones to provide support and information to those concerned that someone they know is experiencing domestic abuse (developed by Hestia and the Vodafone Foundation).
33	Provide £40 million over the Spending Review period to support domestic abuse services including refuge provision and other accommodation-based services.	Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government	Completed In November 2018, the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government announced the 63 projects that are currently sharing £22 million over two years (2018-20) to support victims and survivors of domestic abuse through safe accommodation services. This funding is supporting more than 25,000 survivors and their families, including over 2,200 additional beds in refuges and other safe accommodation. This follows a previous £20 million two-year 2016-2018 fund, inclusive of £1.1 million top-up funding, which supported 80 projects covering 258 local authorities across the country. On 17 January 2020, MHCLG announced the 75 projects that will share £16.6 million in 2020-21, helping up to 43,000 survivors have access to the help they need, ahead of the new statutory duty on support within safe accommodation coming into force in April 2021.
35	Provide funding for national helplines.	Home Office	Completed The Home Office provides funding for six charities to run seven national violence against women and girls helplines. In addition, the Ministry of Justice is funding the national male rape helpline and webchat service. Funding has also been provided Victim Support 24/7, Rape Crisis England and Wales; The Survivors Trust and National Association for People Abused in Childhood to expand capacity of sexual violence national helplines as part of the COVID response.
36	Continued funding for rape support services at current levels in 2016-17 and ensure this funding remains throughout the Spending Review period.	Ministry of Justice	Completed The Rape Support Fund has increased to £32 million over three years, following a 50% increase to the fund for 20/21. The fund has been extended until 2022/23 to provide services with the stability they require. In addition, the Ministry of Justice has considerably increased funding for rape and sexual abuse support services, providing £22 million this year to provide free advice, support and counselling for victims across England and Wales. In addition, a £51 million funding boost for specialist support services has been put in place this year to support victims through the COVID pandemic and beyond. This includes £27 million national investment over two years to recruit more Independent Sexual Violence Advisers and Independent Domestic Abuse Advisers to ensure victims can access support.
41	Identify ways to incentivise local government and local commissioners to support innovation including use of payment by results models and social impact bonds.	Home Office	Completed This work will be taken forward through the review of the National Statement of Expectations.
50	Support local areas to better calculate the costs of violence against women and girls and the impact on their budgets by reissuing an updated version of our ‘ready reckoner’.	Home Office	Completed This work will be taken forward through the review of the National Statement of Expectations.
52 & 53	To increase diversity of provision and access to services for victims with complex needs by (1) developing a cross-government approach based on a robust understanding of what works, (2) promoting new forms of services, (3) investing in locally-led approaches to service delivery through a new MHCLG fund for domestic abuse services and (4) exploring the use of social investment initiatives.	Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government	Completed The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government undertook a review of the approaches to commissioning of domestic abuse safe accommodation services across England followed by a full consultation on future delivery of support to victims and their children within safe accommodation. The government published its response to the Consultation on 14 October 2019. As a result, through the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 the government will be introducing a new statutory duty on local authorities to assess the need and commission support to victims of domestic abuse and their children in safe accommodation in England, including for those with complex needs and protected characteristics. The duty will be based on a broad definition of safe accommodation in recognition of the diversity of housing needs of victims, particularly victims with complex needs.
64	Deliver HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services recommendation to commission a ‘task and finish group’ to evaluate the effectiveness of the various models in place for Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hubs (MASHs) and CRUs in terms of the outcomes achieved for victims of domestic abuse through the National Oversight Group.	Home Office	Completed The National Oversight Group on Domestic Abuse, Stalking and Harassment was a quarterly meeting of leaders from police, HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services, Crown Prosecution Service, College of Policing and the wider domestic abuse and stalking sector. It was established in 2014 by the then Home Secretary to oversee the delivery of the recommendations made in the first inspection on the police response to domestic abuse. Governance arrangements are being revised and updated as part of implementation planning for the new Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy.
66	Work with NHS England, Public Health England, Health Education England and other partners to disseminate the findings from the policy research relating to violence against women and children and good practice arising from grants to third sector organisations.	Department of Health and Social Care	Completed The Department for Health and Social Care has been working with arm’s length bodies to disseminate findings from policy research relating to violence against women and girls, such as the Domestic Abuse Pathfinder programme. We will continue to work with them to disseminate new findings from research on an ongoing basis.
72	Continue to encourage organisations and private sector companies to sign up to the Domestic Abuse Responsibility Pledge.	Home Office	Ongoing The government is encouraging employers to better engage with existing initiatives, including through joining the Employers Initiative on Domestic Abuse (EIDA) the Employers Domestic Abuse Covenant (EDAC), and the Financial Code of Practice a growing network of large and small businesses raising awareness among employees, supporting those facing domestic abuse, and providing access to services to help perpetrators to stop.
78	Continue to explore ways that vulnerable victims and witnesses can give evidence from a location away from the court and to test the use of pre-recorded cross examination (s.28) for intimidated witnesses who are victims of sexual offences and modern slavery offences.	Ministry of Justice	Ongoing The government is committed to increasing the use of special measures for those vulnerable victims, such as child victims, and intimidated adults, such as victims of sexual offences and modern slavery offences, as far as possible. In particular, we are working to extend use of Section 28 – pre-recorded cross-examination ahead of trail and away from the courtroom – recognising that for some, this can reduce distress and lead to improved outcomes for justice. The 2019 Victims’ Strategy reaffirmed our commitment to rolling out pre-recorded cross-examination and by November 2020, we introduced Section 28 for vulnerable victims and witnesses in all Crown Court centres. We are continuing to pilot Section 28 for intimidated victims and witnesses in the three Early Adopter Crown Courts and are now extending this pilot to a further three Crown Courts. Subject to evaluation, we are then looking to undertake wider roll out to this group of victims.
82	Explore options to pilot joint police and mental health approaches to tackling stalking perpetrators, considering evidence from the Hampshire stalking clinic and the National Stalking Clinic.	Home Office	Completed Through the Police Transformation Fund, between 2017 and 2020 the Home Office provided £4.1 million to fund the Multi-Agency Stalking Interventions Programme, a programme across three police forces (including Hampshire) which aims to improve responses to stalking across the criminal justice system and the health sector through rehabilitative treatment for stalkers, thereby providing greater protection to victims. The programme then continued with other funding sources.
83	Consider and respond to HMICFRS recommendation to initiate a review of the existing legislative framework for all forms of HBV, including considering whether new legislation should be introduced.	Home Office/Ministry of Justice	Completed The Home Office conducted a review of existing legislation and did not identify any forms of ‘honour’ - based abuse which were not already criminalised.
88	Publish new Authorised Professional Practice (APP) on stalking and harassment including new guidance on the use of Police Information Notices (PINs).	Home Office	Completed The College of Policing published a series of new advice products on stalking and harassment for police in 2019 and 2020. The use of Police Information Notices had ceased in all forces by 2020.