VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS

 ISSUE 45 April 2025 

Violence against women and girls: improving the response to restore trust and confidence 

Violence against women and girls (VAWG) is a serious problem in society, affecting policing and the police complaints system. High-profile cases involving police perpetrators or a policing response where improvements were required have harmed victim-survivors and damaged public trust and confidence. Our focus has been to support policing to improve. This issue of Learning the Lessons examines violence against women and girls in depth, with contributions from a wide range of leading experts and key stakeholders.

We are delighted to hear from the Minister for Sateguarding and VAWG Jess Phillips MP, outlining the Government's ambition to halve violence against women and girls in a decade, and the progress made so far - you can read her feature on page 4.

In an NPCC feature article, CC Maggie Blyth, ACC Sam Millar, and AC Louisa Rolfe outline the work to implement the national policing centre for VAWG, introduce improvements to policing such as Raneem's Law, and summarise the most recent findings of the Domestic Homicide Project.

The edition also includes news on projects such as Operation Soteria, a national operating model transforming the police response to rape and sexual offences to increase charge rates and improve support to victim-survivors. The role of Independent Sexual Violence Advocates is explained, along with the importance of engaging with victim-survivors to shape policing strategy in this area.