Females: Safety

(asked on 15th July 2022) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to support local authorities with the provision of interventions to ensure that women feel safe when walking in their local areas at night.


Answered by
Tom Pursglove Portrait
Tom Pursglove
Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
This question was answered on 20th July 2022

We are delivering on the people’s priorities to cut crime and make our communities safe. The Safer Streets Fund provides local areas with the resources they need to prevent crime and improve safety in high crime locations across England and Wales. Since 2020, three Rounds of the Fund have completed, worth £70 million in Government investment. These rounds have focused on reducing neighbourhood crimes, such as burglary and robbery, and preventing violence against women and girls in public through interventions such as improved street lighting and home security, as well as education and training initiatives. The Fund has included funding for street pastors and similar guardianship initiatives.

The Safety of Women at Night (SWaN) Fund also ran over the 2021/22 financial year and was focused on improving women’s safety in the night time economy, including through awareness raising initiatives, creating safe spaces, and targeting perpetrator behaviour. The SWaN and all rounds of the Safer Streets Fund are subject to independent evaluation to assess impact.

This Government has committed £50 million a year to the Safer Streets Fund for the next three years. A fourth round of the Fund launched in March, open to Police and Crime Commissioners, local authorities, the British Transport Police, and eligible civil society organisations. This round focuses on improving the safety of women and girls in public, including in the night-time economy, as well as tackling neighbourhood crime and anti-social behaviour.

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