This International Women’s Day, the government has reiterated its commitment to halving violence against women and girls in a decade
This International Women’s Day, as statistics show that a woman is killed on average every 3 days in the UK, the government has reiterated its commitment to halving violence against women and girls in a decade.
For the past 10 years, Jess Phillips has read the names of women suspected of being killed by men on International Women’s Day, provided by the Femicide Census. But today she read out the names for the first time from the front benches as a Home Office Minister, and reiterated that ensuring our streets and homes are safer for women is now a top government priority.
This comes as the data shows that 1 in 5 homicides are domestic homicides and that over the last decade there were:
These are numbers that the government has committed to change.
Following the toxic influence we have seen on and offline from misogynistic figures, Minister Phillips also pledged that the government’s milestone violence against women and girls (VAWG) strategy, expected to be published in the summer, will include actions specifically addressing the root causes of abuse – including underlying behaviours held by some men and boys.
Under the Prime Minister’s Plan for Change, the government has already set out a number of initiatives to tackle these appalling numbers and the scourge of abuse suffered by women and girls in this country.
Work is already under way to improve the policing and criminal justice system response, relentlessly pursue dangerous perpetrators and provide enhanced support for victims, and includes:
Today, the Home Office lit up in the colours of green, purple and white to mark International Women’s Day across four estates in the UK in a symbol of how crucial this priority is for Keir Starmer’s government.
For the first time, each of the 95 women’s names provided by the Femicide Census were displayed in the Home Office’s headquarters in London for staff to view.
Minister for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls, Jess Phillips said:
Julie Davey, Killed Women Trustee, said: