Today, Monday, July 25, the Home Secretary announced that £50 million in new money will be provided to communities throughout England and Wales to keep the streets safer for everyone.
To stop violence against women and girls in public, neighbourhood crime, and anti-social behaviour, the money will be distributed to police forces, local governments, British Transport Police, and qualified community organisations throughout England and Wales.
These initiatives will be able to increase the amount of CCTV and street lighting in their neighbourhoods as well as the amount of work being done to alter attitudes and behaviours and stop these crimes from happening in the first place.
The PCCs for Northamptonshire, Humberside, and Nottinghamshire are just a few of the organisations that have already received cash from earlier rounds.
In order to deter young people from criminality, the funds were used for home security, neighbourhood improvement projects, and programmes like football and boxing.
With this latest round of financing from the Safer Street Fund, a total of £125 million has been given out between the two funds.
Home Secretary Priti Patel stated:
Since I first unveiled our comprehensive strategy to end violence against women and girls, a year has passed, and throughout that time I have presided over extraordinary efforts to aid victims, stop violence against women and girls, safeguard the public, and administer justice.
In our towns, our vital collaboration with specialised organisations is bringing about real change and providing support for women and girls, and the Safer Streets Fund keeps improving the safety of women and girls at the local level.
The Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Strategy has been in circulation for a year as of today.
Since the strategy’s release, the government has carried out a number of significant promises to support efforts to guarantee that women and girls are safe everywhere – at home, online, at work, and in public settings.
Securer Streets Fund
Investing in innovative programmes for crime prevention is made possible through the Safer Streets Fund for law enforcement and local governments.
The most recent round of the fund is the first to accept bids from qualified civil society organisations, and one of the successful bidders for this round is Her Centre, a charity with offices in London that provides free and private advocacy, counselling, advice, and training relating to domestic abuse, rape, sexual abuse, and other issues that affect women.
Her Center has received a grant of £140,000 to provide assistance to those who have been the targets of sexual harassment, assault, rape, or stalking in order to help them regain their confidence and lead normal lives without fear.
Her Center will also make use of the financing to educate young people about understanding and responding to violence against women and girls in communities that are disproportionately affected by these issues, as well as to involve them in active bystander training.
According to Stacy Smith, the CEO of Her Center:
More attention should be paid to getting men to stop intimidating and harassing women, according to her centre.
We are happy that this grant enables us to move forward with our efforts to inform the public about easy ways they can be active bystanders rather than implying that women must protect themselves.
These beliefs ought to be the exception, not the rule.
57 projects in England and Wales received £25 million through round three of the fund, which had a specific focus on assisting in the fight against violence against women and girls.
Additionally, the government contributed £5 million to the Safety of Women at Night Fund, which supported 22 projects testing new ideas to increase the security of women in public places at night, including in the nighttime economy.
Dealing with street harassment
In addition to announcing the start of a targeted consultation on whether a new crime of public sexual harassment should exist, the government is marking one year since the publication of the VAWG Strategy.
Experts are invited to share their opinions on whether a new specific offence would be helpful in resolving this issue.
These experts come from a variety of fields, including charities, the police, the legal system, education, and transportation.
This comes after the VAWG Strategy’s Call for Evidence, which received more than 180,000 responses, the majority of them from the general public, and it supports other efforts the government is making to address public sexual harassment, such as new police guidance, forthcoming new guidance for prosecutors to ensure existing laws are implemented, and the “Enough” behaviour change campaign.
Protecting against domestic violence and stalking
In addition to assisting victims, the Tackling VAWG strategy made it clear that we also needed to work to stop crimes from happening in the first place.
Over the past two years, the Home Office has given Police and Crime Commissioners more than £25 million in funding to support expanding the availability of interventions for those who commit domestic abuse and stalking.
These interventions include individual or group behaviour change programmes with the goal of reducing the risk posed by offenders and holding them accountable.
One of the first initiatives of its kind in England and Wales to provide stalkers with rehabilitative treatment that aims to increase victim/survivor safety is the Early Awareness Stalking Intervention programme, which is managed by the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner and funded by the Home Office.
Nicky Brennan, the victim’s commissioner for the West Midlands, said:
Abuse of any kind is never acceptable.
The West Midlands is working hard on early intervention and prevention, especially in relation to violence against women and girls, because reducing the incidence of crime is of the utmost importance.
We used funding from the 2021 Home Office Perpetrator Fund to pilot and evaluate the Early Awareness Stalking Intervention throughout the West Midlands in collaboration with West Midlands Police, Midlands Psychology Services, Black Country Women’s Aid, The Alice Ruggles Trust, and the University of Derby.
Early results are encouraging, we’ve already learned a lot, and we’re eagerly anticipating a comprehensive evaluation at the start of next year.
assisting victims of abuse involving sexual images
The Home Office increased its financial support for the Revenge Porn Helpline in the fiscal year 2021/2 to £120,000 in order to assist victims of non-consensual intimate image sharing, a grave and damaging problem.
The Helpline helps victims of non-consensual intimate image sharing by giving them confidential support and advice, assisting in reporting and taking down offensive content from the internet, providing guidance and support on reporting crimes to the police, and making referrals for specialised and longer-term victim support.
To ensure that the Helpline can continue to offer knowledgeable support to victims of exploitation of intimate images, the Home Office is increasing this funding to a total of £150,000 for the current fiscal year.
Manager of the Revenge Porn Helpline, Sophie Mortimer, stated:
The Tackling VAWG Strategy has put a much-appreciated emphasis on offering significant aid and support to those affected by violence against women and girls.
With the help of the new strategy and the additional funding the Revenge Porn Helpline received during the pandemic, we were able to offer meaningful assistance to those who had been abused by intimate images.
The helpline encounters a wide range of complex behaviours that call for specialised practitioners to provide direct support, handle the reporting and removal of private images shared without permission.
The removal of over 260,000 unique pieces of content on behalf of close to 15,000 people has so far been accomplished through this challenging and time-consuming work.
Along with strengthening the law in this area, the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 takes steps to support victims of intimate image abuse and ensure that those who threaten to share intimate images without permission and with the intent to cause distress are held accountable and punished for their actions.
Istanbul Convention ratification
The ratification of the Istanbul Convention is another announcement the government is happy to make.
The Council of Europe’s Convention on Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence, more commonly referred to as the Istanbul Convention, was ratified by the government as part of the Tackling VAWG Strategy.
Since ratifying the Convention in 2012, the government has worked to significantly strengthen its legal system and introduce a variety of tools to better protect victims.
The Convention is a gold-standard international charter for the protection of women and girls.
We have some of the strongest protections against violence against women and girls in the world, and some of them even go beyond what the Convention mandates.
The ratification sends a clear message that the UK continues to treat violence against women and girls with the utmost seriousness, and it will enable us to keep setting the bar in the fight against these terrible crimes.
Investigating rape in new ways
The Home Office is committed to funding Operation Soteria, a programme to change how rape investigations are handled and progress, with a focus on the suspect rather than the victim, in light of the Rape Review’s hard and honest examination of how the entire criminal justice system handles rape.
Operation Soteria will now be carried out by an additional 14 forces, up from the initial five that were involved, according to a government announcement made earlier this year.
In June 2023, all forces will have access to a new national operating model for the investigation of rape cases that will be based on this work.
The Rape Review Progress Update from June 16th published the main findings from the programme to date.
It is encouraging to note that there are more victims coming forward to report crimes to the police, more CPS referrals from the police, and more suspects being charged.
Behaviour modification campaign
We began a multi-year, nationwide “Enough” communication campaign in England and Wales in March 2022.
The campaign, which includes a television commercial, billboards, digital content, and a thorough website, aims to target and challenge the harmful behaviours that exist in larger society, teach young people about healthy relationships and consent, and make sure that victims can recognise abuse and receive support.
Successful Safer Streets Fund round 4 bids
| Lead bidder | Region | Total amount of funding awarded across 2022/23 and 2023/24 (£) | Number of bids covered |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lincolnshire PCC | East Midlands | £396,945.82 | 1 |
| Charnwood Borough Council | East Midlands | £149,200.00 | 1 |
| Blaby District Council | East Midlands | £67,000.00 | 1 |
| Northamptonshire PCC | East Midlands | £1,137,401 | 2 |
| North Northamptonshire Council | East Midlands | £261,500.00 | 1 |
| West Northamptonshire Council | East Midlands | £99,000.00 | 1 |
| Derbyshire PCC | East Midlands | £401,315.00 | 1 |
| North East Derbyshire District Council | East Midlands | £419,219.99 | 1 |
| Derby City Council | East Midlands | £749,973.46 | 1 |
| Nottinghamshire PCC | East Midlands | £3,000,000.00 | 4 |
| Ipswich Borough Council | East of England | £499,588.00 | 1 |
| Cambridgeshire and Peterborough PCC | East of England | £634,285.00 | 1 |
| Norwich City Council | East of England | £199,333.00 | 1 |
| Great Yarmouth Borough Council | East of England | £127,500.00 | 1 |
| Bedfordshire PCC | East of England | £729,932.00 | 1 |
| Luton Borough Council | East of England | £294,000.00 | 1 |
| Westminster City Council | Greater London | £289,600.00 | 1 |
| Royal Borough of Kingston Upon Thames | Greater London | £183,300.00 | 1 |
| Ealing Council | Greater London | £355,294.00 | 1 |
| Lambeth & Southwark Council | Greater London | £497,160.00 | 1 |
| Faiths Forum for London | Greater London | £93,100.00 | 1 |
| Her Centre Ltd | Greater London | £140,000 | 1 |
| Durham PCC | North East | £1,469,169 | 4 |
| Northumbria PCC | North East | £1,753,492 | 3 |
| Sunderland City Council | North East | £731,138.00 | 1 |
| Cumbria PCC | North East | 760,108.95 | 2 |
| Cleveland PCC | North East | £696,611.01 | 1 |
| Merseyside PCC | North West | £1,336,083.95 | 3 |
| Greater Manchester Combined Authority | North West | £453,080.00 | 1 |
| Stockport Council | North West | £436,810.00 | 1 |
| Wigan Council | North West | £745,518.00 | 1 |
| Cheshire PCC | North West | £1,500,000 | 2 |
| Preston City Council | North West | £146,568.00 | 1 |
| Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council | North West | £750,000.00 | 1 |
| Chorley Council | North West | £33,000.00 | 1 |
| GreaterSport Manchester (Greater Manchester Sports Partnership) | North West | £490,448.00 | 1 |
| Essex PFCC | South East | £1,182,795 | 4 |
| Kent PCC | South East | £1,433,091.14 | 4 |
| Hampshire PCC | South East | £1,379,196.19 | 2 |
| Surrey PCC | South East | £707,320.98 | 3 |
| Sussex PCC | South East | £1,499,556.00 | 2 |
| Thames Valley PCC | South East | £2,011,990.97 | 4 |
| Dorset Council | South West | £246,976.00 | 1 |
| Bristol City Council | South West | £748,498.50 | 1 |
| North Somerset Council | South West | £317,694.96 | 1 |
| Bath and North East Somerset Council | South West | £329,152.02 | 1 |
| Gloucestershire PCC | South West | £2,032,170.13 | 3 |
| Swindon Borough Council | South West | £742,500.00 | 1 |
| Wiltshire Council | South West | £128,960.00 | 1 |
| Swindon Borough Council | South West | £742,500.00 | 1 |
| Torbay Council | South West | £749,137.64 | 1 |
| Cornwall Council | South West | £664,802.40 | 1 |
| North Devon Council | South West | £348,632.00 | 1 |
| University of Exeter | South West | £680,250.00 | 1 |
| University of Plymouth | South West | £670,404.80 | 1 |
| Dyfed PCC | Wales | £292,761.00 | 1 |
| Gwent PCC | Wales | £746,706.00 | 1 |
| North Wales PCC | Wales | £1,568,917.35 | 3 |
| South Wales PCC | Wales | £1,497,668.35 | 2 |
| Warwickshire PCC | West Midlands | £354,010.00 | 1 |
| Staffordshire PFCC | West Midlands | £750,000.00 | 1 |
| West Midlands PCC | West Midlands | £458,545.00 | 1 |
| Sandwell MBC | West Midlands | £227,100.00 | 1 |
| City of Wolverhampton Council | West Midlands | £365,667.00 | 1 |
| West Mercia PCC | West Midlands | 1,774,964.75 | 4 |
| North East Lincolnshire Council | Yorkshire and Humberside | £750,000.00 | 1 |
| Humberside PCC | Yorkshire and Humberside | £91,641.60 | 1 |
| West Yorkshire Combined Authority | Yorkshire and Humberside | £1,236,091.21 | 2 |
| South Yorkshire PCC | Yorkshire and Humberside | £737,560.00 | 1 |
| Sheffield City Council | Yorkshire and Humberside | £230,000.00 | 1 |
| Doncaster Council | Yorkshire and Humberside | £750,000.00 | 1 |
| North Yorkshire PCC | Yorkshire and Humberside | £809,095.00 | 2 |
| English Football League Trust | Yorkshire and Humberside | £173,798.00 | 1 |
| British Transport Police | England and Wales | £455,750 | 2 |