Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 15
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)
Written evidence submitted to the Committee highlights the impact that short–term funding settlements can have on locally run services’ ability to provide adequate, specialist support to survivors of VAWG. Women’s Aid told us that single–year finding settlements limit service providers’ ability to recruit and retain specialist staff as they are unable to provide long– term employment security.32 Evidence submitted by the Domestic Abuse Commissioner highlights that short–term funding settlements can lead to service providers recruiting and training staff at very short notice, only to potentially close the service or make staff redundant a year later.33 The Domestic Abuse Commissioner’s 2022 mapping of specialist domestic abuse services found that 80% of organisations receive statutory funding as their main source of income, meaning that the majority of organisations are affected by the short–term and insecure nature of funding.34 The Home Office told us that it is expecting the current spending review to be three years’ RDEL and four years’ capital, which moves away from a series of one–year 28 C&AG’s Report, paras 2.5, 2.9 29 C&AG’s Report, para 9 30 Q 28 31 Q 33 32 Q 6 33 VAWG0076 34 VAWG0076 14 spending reviews. Whilst acknowledging that it is a 10–year ambition to halve VAWG, the Home Office told us that it cannot expect a settlement longer than 4–years given the current financial climate.35
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.