Violence against Women and Girls Strategy

Baroness Armstrong of Hill Top Excerpts

Wednesday 17th December 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

The noble Baroness is absolutely right, and she will know that my colleagues in the Ministry of Justice, who are responsible for the prosecution element, are going to review this issue. In the strategy to be published tomorrow, she will see that there is a real commitment to up the number of prosecutions and ensure that criminal justice outcomes are achieved. It is also important that we give victims of rape, both male and female, the confidence to come forward and report their rapes in the first place, and that they will be taken seriously by the authorities. That is one of the aspects of the strategy that will be further developed in due course.

As I have said, although both opposition Front-Bench spokespeople have used the word “delayed”, there has not been a violence against women and girls strategy before. Currently, there is no such strategy to address the halving of violence against women and girls over a 10-year period. On the question of the delay of some 15 months since the manifesto commitment was given at the general election to put in place a strategy to halve VAWG over 10 years, I think that is a reasonable timescale in which to have produced a strategy. We wanted to get it right, and the document to be produced tomorrow will be available for Members from the Vote Offices of both Houses. I hope that they will look at it over Christmas and come back and challenge me on its contents in the new year.

[Baroness Armstrong of Hill Top (Lab)]

I thank my noble friend for coming to the House today, but I hope he shares my disappointment. Because violence against women and girls covers so many issues, one key thing is what happens in early years and in the neighbourhoods people live in, and how people understand each other and their needs. The Opposition did not ask for a Statement on the child poverty strategy or on the neighbourhood strategy, both of which are central to tackling violence against women and girls. This programme has to cover the whole of government, because every government department needs to be doing something to change the culture in this country, so that women and girls are seen as people who need decent opportunities, just as anyone else in our society does. Until we tackle those fundamentals, we will always have to look at safeguarding, rather than changing the culture so that women and girls are treated in a fairer and more decent way.

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

I am grateful to my noble friend for her question. Key to that is help and support for young men from primary school age, so that they are inculcated in respect for women and the rights of women. One aspect of the strategy, which again will become clearer tomorrow, is the investment and support we are putting in through the Department for Education in England in order to put this issue at the centre of educational opportunity. My noble friend may have noticed that my honourable friend the Policing Minister this morning announced work with the Department of Health and with neighbourhood policing to raise this issue still further. This is a cross-government strategy involving all government departments and devolved Administrations to make sure that we take action to halve this scourge over the next 10 years.