Source · Select Committees · Home Affairs Committee
Recommendation 11
11
Accepted
Set ambitious, long-term proposals for reforming the policing system and addressing crime.
Recommendation
Given the importance of the Government’s ambitions on crime and policing, including halving knife crime and halving Violence Against Women and Girls, and the significant challenges facing the policing system, we encourage the Government to be ambitious in setting out its proposals for reform and not just focus on easy, short-term wins. (Recommendation, Paragraph 43) Impact on police forces
Government Response Summary
The government states it has an unprecedented objective to halve VAWG in a decade, underpinned by a new Strategy and a White Paper on policing reform, demonstrating an ambitious, long-term approach. It also highlights £13.1 million funding for a National Centre for VAWG and Public Protection.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The Government has set out an unprecedented objective of halving the levels of Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) in a decade. We will deliver a cross-Government transformative approach, underpinned by a new Strategy to be published later this year based on the best possible evidence, both in the UK and internationally. The new VAWG Strategy will set out the strategic direction and concrete actions to pursue the Government’s ambition to halve VAWG in a decade. It will take a long-term approach to addressing systemic issues over 10 years with prevention and education being fundamental to the approach. We will use every tool available to target perpetrators and expect to see sustained work across policing to drive up standards and to ensure there is always a swift and specialist response to these appalling crimes. The Home Office have already announced £13.1 million funding for a new National Centre for VAWG and Public Protection (NCVPP) to improve the national coordination and response to violence against women and girls and child sexual abuse. The Centre was launched in April 2025 to enable policing to better target these crimes. However, as set out in the Plan for Change, the Safer Streets Mission to halve knife crime, half violence against women and girls and restore the public’s confidence in policing cannot be achieved through further investment alone. We need to set up the policing system to succeed in the long-term and address systemic issues so that policing can better deliver for the public. The Home Office’s White Paper on policing reform will set out a significant and ambitious package of reforms to policing in England and Wales that will drive quality, consistency and efficiency and ensure that all police forces are equipped to deliver the Government’s Safer Streets Mission and Plan for Change.