Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 12
26th Report - Tackling Violence against Women and Girls
Published 16 May 2025
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee Tackling Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG) All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
The Committee is aware of examples where domestic abuse survivors did not receive adequate support. Examples shared during our evidence session included women turning to an MP’s advice surgery for support having struggled to be rehomed despite engaging with the local authority and housing association.26 The 2021 Domestic Abuse Act introduced a new statutory duty making MHCLG responsible for ensuring all domestic abuse survivors have access to refuges or another safe form of accommodation. This duty requires local authorities to assess the need for accommodation– based support in their area and develop a strategy for providing such support. MHCLG told us that it’s understanding is that in the majority of cases survivors are supported to find safe accommodation by the local authority, funded through MHCLG. We noted that in our experience it is clear that what MHCLG described is not routinely happening and the examples we had heard were in no way unusual.27 20 Q 6 21 Q 7 22 Q 3 23 VAWG0040, VAWG0050 24 Q 7 25 VAWG0055 26 Q 25 27 Q 26 13 Funding a whole-system response
From: Public Accounts Committee, 26th Report - Tackling Violence against Women and Girls (HC 644), 16 May 2025
Government response
Latest Treasury Minutes progress report to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Twenty-sixth Report of Session 2024-26
The government responded to the whole report on 4 June 2026 (deadline 16 July 2025).
Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Twenty-sixth report from Session 2024-26
Published 18 September 2025.
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government states that it agrees with the Committee's recommendations across the areas covered, including governance, survivor engagement, funding, evidence, measurement, prevention and online safety.
- On cross-government accountability, the government says it has set up "robust governance and accountability" through the Safer Streets Mission, and that it is developing options for a cross-Whitehall team to monitor delivery of VAWG commitments.
- On funding, the Home Office will write to update the Committee once it has decisions and clarity on cross-government VAWG spending. Coordination is stated to depend on other departments completing their own internal allocation processes.
- On measuring progress, the target to halve VAWG within a decade will be set against a headline prevalence measure from the Crime Survey for England and Wales, with a target implementation date of September 2025.
- On prevention, delivery of the actions by September 2025 is stated to be "contingent on the publication of the Tackling VAWG Strategy within that timeframe". DSIT will "aim to update" the Committee in six months on early findings from Ofcom's Tracker.