Gender Based Violence: Criminal Proceedings

The scale of violence against women and girls in our country is intolerable and this Government is treating it as the national emergency that it is. The Government was elected with a landmark mission to halve violence against women and girls (VAWG) in a decade. We are aiming to publish our new, cross-government strategy later this year.

We will use a wide variety of tools to target perpetrators and tackle the root causes of abuse and violence. The Ministry of Justice has already taken action by:

• Launching a pilot of Domestic Abuse Protection Orders in selected areas, to strengthen protections for victims by consolidating the strongest elements of existing protective measures into a single, flexible order.

• Preparing for the introduction of free Independent Legal Advisors for victims of adult rape this year, to help victims understand and uphold their legal rights through the criminal justice process.

• Introducing new criminal offences which capture creating sexually explicit deepfakes, and spiking.

• Announcing family court reforms, such as expanding our Pathfinder programme in the family court, improving the experience of domestic abuse victims and their children at court.
• Commissioning the Independent Review of Criminal Courts to improve court timeliness - including for victims of VAWG.