Government not spending adequately or effectively to end VAWG

The National Audit Office (NAO) has today (31st January 2025) published its review of government spending to tackle violence against women and girls (VAWG), finding that it has neither improved outcomes for victims nor made progress in developing measures to prevent VAWG and deliver long-term societal change – a key tenet of its commitments in the 2021 Strategy.

The study by the independent public spending watchdog examined government spending against outcomes relating to VAWG, finding a number of key areas of concern. These include:

• Violence against women and girls is a serious and growing problem
• To date, the Home Office has not led an effective whole-system response
• The Home Office has not made the most of the available expertise and knowledge to inform the VAWG Strategy
• The Home Office has made little progress developing measures to prevent VAWG
• The Home Office did not develop the VAWG Strategy based on an understanding of what works
• The Home Office does not know what impact the government’s work is having on VAWG

Lack of focus on preventing VAWG

The report highlights that the focus of the VAWG strategy, including most ‘prevention activities’, has been on supporting victim-survivors and preventing re-offending. These elements are crucial but much more must be done to prevent the harm from happening in the first instance.

While prevention was referenced as a central part of the previous strategy, this report confirms our concern that meaningful and dedicated primary prevention work has been sidelined.

We were pleased to see a recommendation to develop a system-level plan for halving VAWG that is informed by an evidence-based theory of change, places a greater emphasis on prevention, and is clear about what all delivery partners must contribute.

Cross-government accountability needed

The report states that despite leading the government’s efforts to address VAWG, the Home Office has not improved outcomes for victims or the safety of women and girls more widely, and it is also not leading an effective cross-government response.

Last year, the End Violence Against Women Coalition and other expert VAWG organisations published a government framework for accountability across departments, calling for action to deliver a coordinated, whole-society approach to ending VAWG.

We support the NAO recommendation to establish a cross-government team, based in the Home Office, to lead on the implementation of the new strategy. ​​The report finds that the Ministerial oversight group for the VAWG Strategy only met four times in three years. We note that the Home Office found it challenging to get buy-in from other government departments under the previous strategy, which underlines why we need leadership at the highest level.

Urgent need for sustainable funding

Alongside other specialist VAWG organisations, we have long criticised the absence of spending commitments to deliver the VAWG strategy. The report finds that the Home Office has historically underspent its own budget allocated to the VAWG Strategy, by an average of 15% between 2021-22 and 2023-24. This underspend is happening in a context in which specialist services are experiencing chronic underfunding and oversubscribed waiting lists. For example, 14,000 survivors are currently waiting to access rape crisis support, and specialist organisations led by and for Black and minoritised women are struggling to meet increased demand for their services.

We welcome the recommendation to coordinate available funding for tackling VAWG, including through considering a joint spending review bid for the strategy – but we believe it should go further. EVAW and other VAWG experts have consistently called for ring-fenced funding for frontline specialist VAWG organisations, along with ring-fenced funding for expert organisations led by and for Black, minoritised and migrant women, Deaf and disabled women, and LGBTQ+ communities.

The NAO also recommends that the government encourages “local innovation, particularly on preventing VAWG, and learning from this to identify opportunities to scale up effective interventions.”

While we appreciate recognition of the work being done by experts at a local level, we sound a note of caution on encouraging innovation, given that often there are established interventions that are working and struggling to maintain services in the context of austerity. We welcome the ambition signalled here in scaling up effective interventions.

Andrea Simon, Director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition (EVAW), said:

“An effective strategy to tackle and prevent violence against women and girls must sit across the whole of government because this work can not be done in siloes. The NAO have found the Home Office’s previous attempts at delivering a VAWG strategy were ineffective because it did not coordinate work across departments, draw on specialist expertise and lacked investment.

We have been calling for better leadership and a stronger approach across government for many years. It is imperative that any new VAWG strategy comes with clear investment and spending commitments that match the scale and seriousness of an epidemic of offending. The lack of attention to prevention is deplorable, especially as we know VAWG is significantly under-reported.  

However, the worth of the VAWG strategy cannot be determined solely on a value for money basis. The harms of VAWG are so significant and far reaching that the societal importance of addressing it must be recognised. 

This government has a huge opportunity to learn from past mistakes and ensure that the next VAWG strategy is effective at addressing abuse and delivers on its mission to halve VAWG.”

ENDS

Media contact

Sinead Geoghegan, Head of Communications, media@evaw.org.uk 07960 744 502