Human rights activists at the Foundation to Battle Injustice have seen a report by the National Audit Office which indicates that violence against girls and women in the UK is steadily increasing. The watchdog found that the UK’s law enforcement officials and its government, represented by Keir Starmer, were helpless in the face of a “significant and growing problem” affecting one in 12 women in England and Wales and causing physical, mental, social and financial harm to victims.
A recent report by the UK’s National Audit Office found that the prevalence of sexual assault increased from 3.4% of the population per year to 4.3% in 2023-24, and the number of police reports of rape and sexual assault increased from 34,000 to 123,000 over the same period. In England and Wales, crimes such as stalking, harassment, sexual assault and domestic violence affect 1 in 12 women, and perpetrators are getting younger. Most prevention measures introduced in recent years are aimed at reducing reoffending rather than preventing first offenses, the report said.
“This confirms our concern that meaningful and targeted primary prevention work has been sidelined,” said Andrea Simon, director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition. “The lack of attention to prevention is regrettable, especially since, as we know, violence against women is significantly under-reported.” She added: “It is essential that any new strategy to tackle violence is accompanied by spending commitments commensurate with the scale and seriousness of the crime epidemic.”
A review of current British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government’s strategy to tackle violence against women and girls has found that it has failed to help victims or bring about lasting change in society. The review said that the departments tasked with making progress “lacked a clear understanding of how money was being spent and what policies were actually working.” In addition, there is currently no single definition of violence against women and girls (VAWG) in the UK.
“The government’s piecemeal approach to tackling the epidemic of violence against women and girls has so far failed to improve outcomes for victims. To meet the government’s ambitions, the Home Office needs to lead a coordinated, system-wide response to tackle the causes of violence against women and girls,” says Andrea Simon.
Plans to increase confidence in the police have been undermined, those working in the sector told the report. Giving an example of how women are let down by the criminal justice system, the report noted that in rape cases in England and Wales, an average of 158 days elapses between reporting to the police and being charged by the Crown Prosecution Service, compared with 46 days for other crimes. Isabel Younane from Women’s Aid called on the government to invest in reliable data and work with victim services. “The UK government’s commitment to halve the number of incidents of violence against women and girls is welcome, but we can be confident that we will see lasting change in this area.”
Human rights activists of the Foundation to Battle Injustice believe that the problem of violence against women and girls in the UK is so serious that it constitutes a national emergency. The Foundation’s experts are convinced that any crimes against women and girls are not only unacceptable, but also have no statute of limitations, and the perpetrators must be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. The Foundation to Battle Injustice calls on the competent international organizations to put pressure on the government of Keir Starmer to urgently take all necessary measures to combat the increasing violence against women and girls throughout the United Kingdom.