A new tool for monitoring violence against women and girls (VAWG) has drawn a mixed reaction from campaigners as the government seeks to halve its levels within the next decade.
The Office for National Statistics’s (ONS) new combined estimate of the prevalence of domestic abuse, sexual assault and stalking in England and Wales will be used as the main measure for assessing Labour’s landmark goal.
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Experts and MPs told Sky News that it was a “welcome sign” ministers are taking the manifesto pledge seriously.
But there is concern it doesn’t capture all crimes that affect women, including femicide and online misogyny, with the End Violence Against Women coalition suggesting the new metric has been created “for the ease of government”.
According to new ONS estimates published on Thursday, about one in eight women aged 16 and over in England and Wales were victims of domestic abuse, sexual assault or stalking in the year to March.
It is the first time an estimate has been made of the combined prevalence of domestic abuse, sexual assault and stalking.
The figures use data collected as part of the Crime Survey for England and Wales.
Labour MP Jess Asato, who previously worked for domestic abuse charity Safelives, told Sky News this is the “best way” to measure VAWG as not all victims report crime so police figures “don’t give a view of the actual prevalence”.
“This is a really good sign the government is taking this mission very seriously,” she said.
Ms Asato has recently urged the government to ban “nudification apps”, which use artificial intelligence to create fake nude images of people without their consent.
The Lowesoft MP said the tools “disproportionately affects girls” and should be seen for what they are – “a tool for facilitating digital sexual assault”.
It comes amid mounting concern about online misogyny, with MPs warned earlier this summer that deepfake pornography is the next sexual violence epidemic facing schools.
Meanwhile Clare Moody, the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners Joint Lead on Victims and VAWG, wrote an article for Policing Insight today in which she said called tackling VAWG “one of the great societal issues of our time… particularly in a digital era with social media and the online world fuelling so much misogyny and male violence towards women”.
‘Created for government ease’
Rebecca Hitchen, Head of Policy and Campaigns at End Violence Against Women (EVAW), warned the data being used to assess the government’s goal fails to capture the full scale of incidents affecting women.
The government’s own definition of VAWG includes online crimes such as revenge porn and upskirting, as well as honour-based abuse and female genital mutilation.
Ms Hitchen said.”Our concern is that this measure has been created for the ease of government, rather than trying to truly represent the scale and impact of violence against women and girls.
“Questions must be asked about the extent to which this measure may impact on funding decisions, as the government’s choice to assess itself on this basis may dictate the direction of resources.”
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The Home Office’s efforts to address violence against women and girls have not yet improved outcomes for victims, according to the public spending watchdog.
EVAW are now calling for a consultation to open so that women’s groups can discuss with the government how best to measure its commitment.
Labour’s 2024 manifesto pledged that they would “halve violence against women and girls in a decade” by using “every government tool available to target perpetrators and address the root causes of abuse and violence”.
A number of policies have since been announced to tackle what Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has called a “national emergency”.
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More details about the VAWG strategy and how its progress will be monitored will be set out in September.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “As part of our mission to tackle the national emergency of Violence Against Women and Girls, we have made sure that for the first time the figures are being recorded in a combined way, showing that 1 in 8 women were victims of domestic abuse, stalking or sexual assault last year.
“That is why we have already started to put domestic abuse specialists in 999 control rooms, invested in major new perpetrator programmes, and why we are publishing a transformative cross-government VAWG strategy in September, because everybody has a right to feel safe on our streets.”
