Efforts to handle the problem have failed to enhance outcomes for victims of abuse, the Nationwide Audit Workplace has reported
Makes an attempt by the UK authorities to handle the problem of violence in opposition to ladies and ladies (VAWG) have been ineffective, in accordance with a current report by the nation’s public spending watchdog.
The House Workplace failed to guide “an efficient whole-system response” to the “critical and rising drawback” of rape and sexual assault recorded by police, the doc launched by the Nationwide Audit Workplace (NAO) on Friday stated.
The report, which evaluations the federal government’s 2021 technique to handle VAWG, concludes that efforts have neither assisted victims nor achieved long-term societal change.
“Over one in 4 ladies are estimated to be victims of sexual assault or tried assault of their lifetime, and one in 12 ladies are victims of VAWG annually, though the precise quantity is more likely to be a lot greater,” the watchdog acknowledged.
The evaluate discovered that UK authorities departments liable for addressing violence in opposition to ladies lacked correct management over the allocation of funds and clear oversight of coverage effectiveness.
The report famous that the House Workplace allotted £57 million ($70.6 million) in 2024-25 to deal with VAWG, together with home abuse. It confused that 13 departments and different authorities companies are formally dedicated to coping with the challenges below the VAWG Technique and the Home Abuse Plan.
The federal government launched each packages in 2021 and 2022, respectively, in response to a number of high-profile circumstances of girls and ladies who tragically died by the hands of abusers.
The NAO report highlighted {that a} ministerial oversight group liable for cross-government work for efficient adoption of the methods “solely met 4 occasions in three years.”
The prevalence of sexual assault in opposition to ladies aged 16 to 59 in England and Wales rose to 4.3% in 2023-24, up from 3.4% in 2009-10, in accordance with the report. It added that police-recorded incidents of rape and sexual assault in opposition to ladies and ladies surged from 34,000 to 123,000 in the identical interval. The NAO acknowledged that the rise may very well be partly attributed to improved crime recording.
A House Workplace spokesperson informed Sky Information that the NAO report seemed on the “earlier authorities’s work” and its “failure to ship systemic change to take care of these devastating crimes.”
“We’re delivering a step-change within the authorities’s response, as we work to ship our unprecedented manifesto dedication to halve violence in opposition to ladies and ladies in a decade,” the official stated.
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