The government has today revealed more details about its flagship manifesto pledge to “halve violence against women and girls in a decade”.
The figure it intends to use to measure progress against the commitment excludes girls under 16 – and includes men victims.
Through a survey taken by over-16s, the government plans to monitor how many people – women and men – have experienced domestic abuse, sexual assault or stalking in the past year.
The government said it was still working with the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on how to best measure how under-16s are affected by these crimes.
The strategy, unveiled in full today, does include measures aimed at young people such as supporting schools to challenge misogyny.
A Home Office spokesperson said that “girls under 16 who experience sexual abuse and exploitation are considered throughout the strategy, with specific commitments aimed at tackling these appalling crimes”.
What is the government’s new key measure of violence against women and girls?
The new key measure – the figure ministers are committing to “halve” in a decade – is gathered through a regular survey.
The Crime Survey of England and Wales, run by the ONS, asks a sample of adults over 16 about their experiences of crime.
This means it includes victims who haven’t reported crimes to the police – which is important, given how few sexual assaults and domestic abuse incidents come to the attention of authorities.
One new measure from this survey, published for the first time earlier this year, estimates the percentage of over-16s in England and Wales who have experienced domestic abuse, sexual assault or stalking in the past year.
While there are separate estimates for women and men, it is the overall figure for both women and men that the government has set out to halve.
This stood at about one in nine people (11.3 per cent) in the year ending March 2024, just before Labour took power.
That’s 3.4 million women and 2 million men affected by these crimes.
Ministers say they want to halve this rate by March 2034.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “We have declared violence against women and girls as a national emergency and are deploying the largest crackdown in British history to halve it within a decade.
“Children and girls under 16 who experience sexual abuse and exploitation are considered throughout the Strategy, with specific commitments aimed at tackling these appalling crimes.”
