VAWG group transparency

#28 — DfE's updated RSE curriculum shows potential, but lacks sufficient data on under-16s.

Public Accounts Committee

Recommendation: DfE also told us that it has made relationships and sex education (RSE) compulsory in schools since 2020, and in May 2024 revised the curriculum to include discussions on online harm, social media influencers, sharing of intimate imagery and upskirting …

Response attribution not verified

#24 — Lack of clear definitions for specific VAWG crime types hinders effective strategy and response.

Public Accounts Committee

Recommendation: The lack of clear definitions for some specific VAWG crime types also contributes to these challenges. The Domestic Abuse Commissioner told us that the government needs to decide a clear definition of so–called ‘honour’–based abuse55 while Professor Katrin Hohl described …

Response attribution not verified

#22 — Inadequate data recording obscures the full extent of VAWG, particularly for minoritised groups.

Public Accounts Committee

Recommendation: Written evidence submitted to the Committee highlighted the importance of ensuring all specific VAWG crime types are reflected within this target, and that there is transparency over how these crimes impact different people. Southall Black Sisters told us that the …

Response attribution not verified

#20 — Home Office evidence review highlights effective VAWG interventions but reveals data gaps.

Public Accounts Committee

Recommendation: The Home Office has also sought to improve its understanding of what works by conducting a review of the available evidence at a national level, which it intends to publish with the new VAWG strategy, in summer 2025.45 Officials told …

Response attribution not verified

#24 — Utilise Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy to raise awareness of abuse against Muslim women.

Women and Equalities Committee

Recommendation: The Government should use work around the Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy to raise awareness of the abuse of Muslim women in this country. It should complement an updated hate crime action plan. (Recommendation, Paragraph 103)

Response attribution not verified

#1 — Muslim women experience increasing, gendered, and intersectional abuse and discrimination in the UK.

Women and Equalities Committee

Recommendation: Muslims in the UK face increasing levels of online, verbal, and physical abuse and discrimination. Muslim women are disproportionately likely to face such abuse and experience it in ways that are specifically gendered and often linked to their race and/or …

Response attribution not verified

#18 — Keep Committee fully appraised of Government's work and decisions regarding ICAI's future.

International Development Committee

Recommendation: As its Parliamentary oversight body, this Committee must be kept fully appraised of the Government’s work and decision-making around ICAI’s future. (Recommendation, Paragraph 37)

Response attribution not verified

#43 — Set out communication plan for dynamic alignment realities to businesses and the wider public.

Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee

Recommendation: The Government should set out in its response to this report how it intends to communicate the realities of dynamic alignment—not only to affected businesses, farmers, producers, and industry stakeholders, but also to the wider public—explaining the benefits and challenges …

Response attribution not verified

#42 — Realities of dynamic alignment and its implications remain poorly explained to the public.

Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee

Recommendation: While the Government has been vocal in advocating for an SPS deal and highlighting its benefits for farmers, traders, and the wider UK economy, the realities and implications of dynamic alignment have not been well explained to the public. There …

Response attribution not verified

#40 — Publish plans for parliamentary scrutiny of dynamic alignment and Parliament's future role.

Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee

Recommendation: We believe that our remit and responsibilities make this Committee the most appropriate body for scrutiny of SPS policy. We are therefore disappointed that the Minister for the Constitution and European Union Relations refused to appear before us. We echo …

Response attribution not verified

#28 — Provide details of ministerial working group meetings and expand to include frontline agencies

Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee

Recommendation: In its response to this report, the Government should provide details on how many times the group has met since September 2025 and share minutes of its discussions. Defra should expand the ministerial working group to include an additional operational …

Response attribution not verified

#2 — Establish and publish the scope of SPS negotiations for effective consultation

Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee

Recommendation: The Government and EU should establish the scope of the SPS negotiations as a priority and publish this information on an interim basis, prior to the conclusion of negotiations, to enable effective consultation and scrutiny. (Recommendation, Paragraph 16)

Response attribution not verified

#27 — Require formal report outlining prison rehabilitation's contribution to violence against women reduction target

Justice Committee

Recommendation: The Government must outline how rehabilitation in the prisons, including for both convicted and remand prisoners, is going to contribute to the Government’s target of reducing of violence against women and girls by 50 per cent, with a formal report …

Response attribution not verified

#4 — Publish minutes of cross-government groups tackling VAWG as soon as practicable

Home Affairs Committee

Recommendation: We recommend that minutes of cross-government groups that have been set up to tackle VAWG should be published as soon as practicable after their meetings. (Recommendation, Paragraph 13)

Response attribution not verified

#3 — Increase transparency on cross-government VAWG work to build public confidence

Home Affairs Committee

Recommendation: Assessing the Home Office’s previous work, we are not convinced that it has the capacity or imagination to deliver on the Government’s target to halve VAWG in a decade. The Government needs to be more transparent about the work that …

Response attribution not verified

#2 — Introduce standardised VAWG definition into government strategy and report annual levels

Home Affairs Committee

Recommendation: We recommend that a new standardised definition of VAWG, to be used across government, police and the third sector, should form part of the Government’s VAWG strategy. We further recommend that the Government reports annually to the Committee on the …

Response attribution not verified

#23 — Inconsistent VAWG definitions across government impede consistent progress monitoring and accurate measurement.

Public Accounts Committee

Recommendation: There are also different definitions of VAWG used across government, which makes it difficult to monitor progress in a consistent way. For example, the definition of VAWG used by the Home Office includes all victims and survivors of VAWG–related offences, …

Response attribution not verified

#21 — Home Office VAWG prevalence measurement strategy uses limited data and undefined headline metrics.

Public Accounts Committee

Recommendation: Government has set an ambition to halve the prevalence of violence against women and girls in the next decade. To measure progress against this ambition, the Home Office told us it intends to use prevalence estimates from Crime Survey for …

Response attribution not verified

#14 — Home Office acknowledges current lack of comprehensive VAWG spending data, promising future improvements.

Public Accounts Committee

Recommendation: We asked the Home Office about the potential implications of this on how well it can prioritise efforts and ensure that work is not being duplicated. The Home Office agreed it did not have a comprehensive account of exactly what …

Response attribution not verified

#5 — Require Home Office to outline VAWG halving progress measurement and ensure departmental intelligence sharing.

Public Accounts Committee

Recommendation: There are considerable gaps in the Home Office’s understanding of the scale of violence against women and girls, which will undermine its efforts to target interventions and monitor progress against its ambition to halve VAWG. To improve its chances of …

Response attribution not verified

#16 — Provide and publish detailed updates on Inter-Ministerial Group work, meetings, attendees, and family engagement.

Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee

Recommendation: In its response to this Report, the Government should provide: • an update on the work of the Inter-Ministerial Group to date; • the dates and attendance of any Inter-Ministerial Group meetings since January 2024; • the names of each …

Response attribution not verified

#10 —

International Development Committee

Recommendation: There is a lack of transparency surrounding the UK’s Women, Peace and Security spending, including how much Official Development Assistance is directed towards Women’s Rights Organisations, making it difficult for civil society organisations and other actors to track and assess …

Response attribution not verified

#7 —

Petitions Committee

Recommendation: We recommend that the Online Safety Bill should include abuse based on the characteristics protected under the Equality Act and hate crime legislation as priority harmful content in the primary legislation. It should also list hate crime and Violence Against …

Gov response: We agree with the Committee’s suggestion that hate crime offences and offences associated with Violence against Women and Girls should be listed as priority illegal offences on the face of the Bill. Government announced this …

Accepted

#1 — Committee reviewed evidence from key organisations on tackling violence against women and girls.

Public Accounts Committee

Recommendation: On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, we took evidence from the Home Office, the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), the Department for Education (DfE) and the Department for Science, Innovation and …

Response attribution not verified

#2 —

Women and Equalities Committee

Recommendation: The rise of online abuse and harassment of female parliamentary candidates and MPs, including rape and death threats, is intolerable. It is unacceptable that such behaviour has become commonplace and contributed to female MPs standing down at the last general …

Response status not verified

#5 —

Petitions Committee

Recommendation: The Government’s online safety proposals do not go far enough in acknowledging and seeking to tackle the heightened levels of abuse faced by some communities online. While the requirement for Ofcom to consult with civil society groups in Tackling Online …

Response attribution not verified

#23 — Include non-consensual intimate image abuse in VAWG definition and identify prevalence data.

Women and Equalities Committee

Recommendation: The Government should ensure that NCII abuse is included when creating a common definition of VAWG, as part of its mission to reduce it by 50% within the next decade. It should also identify what data can be used to …

Response attribution not verified

#6 —

Petitions Committee

Recommendation: We recommend that the Online Safety Bill should include a statutory duty for the Government to consult with civil society organisations representing children and users who are most affected by online abuse on the legislation’s ongoing effectiveness at tackling online …

Response attribution not verified

#18 — Stress importance of women-led organisations in peace negotiations and peacebuilding structures.

Foreign Affairs Committee

Recommendation: The UK Government should stress the importance of the participation of women-led and women’s rights organisations in any peace negotiations and peacebuilding structures, and should lead by example by including such groups in all events in which it participates. (Recommendation, …

Response attribution not verified

#62 — Unacceptable levels of abuse and intimidation threaten democratic participation by candidates

Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee

Recommendation: The abuse, harassment and intimidation seen at the general election was totally unacceptable and antithetical to our democracy. The level and extent to which this occurred is a serious cause for concern. Candidates for election must be able to go …

Response attribution not verified