Are the government tackling violence against women? Or just having lots of meetings?

Not long after taking office, Theresa May said that she wanted to end violence against women.  Today that promise sounds very hollow.   The government tell us it has a strategy.   If we believe what ministers said at the last Home Office questions, they are having lots of meetings.  What it certainly isn’t doing is tackling violence against women, ensuring that victims are protected and that the perpetrators are caught and prosecuted.

The figures speak for themselves.  Domestic violence is up by 31% under this government, yet 13% fewer cases are being referred to the CPS to consider prosecution.  Yet between 2007-10 the number of cases sent to the CPS rose by 23%.  The number of rapes and sexual assaults reported is up by over 5% yet 33% fewer cases are being referred to prosecutors.

None of this would come as any surprise to ministers if they thought through the consequences of their actions – but they don’t.  It’s not just that police numbers are being cut by 20% and over 10,000 front line police officers have already gone.  All the support services which help to protect women and help them see a case through are being hollowed out.  Women’s Aid estimate that over 27,000 women were turned away from a refuge last year and 71 specialist non-refuge support services closed.  If women have no safe place to stay, no support through a dreadful time, then they are much less likely to be able to see a case through.  Of the 127 specialist domestic violence courts which have proved very successful at getting cases through trial by supporting vulnerable women, 23 will close as part of the government’s plan to reduce the number of courts.

Yet this is only part of the picture.  In almost every area of their lives women’s safety is under threat.  When street lights are turned off late at night, it’s women going home from a late shift or returning from a night out who feel the fear.  When police response times rise, shop workers, many of them women, are left alone to deal with those who abuse and attack them.  Health service cuts leave women working in the community without the safety alarms they need.  When staff are removed from stations women travellers feel more at risk.

All this has been well documented by campaigning groups, Labour’s own Commission on Women’s Safety and by Trade Unions.   So why aren’t we hearing more about it? We have to go out and make the case to women voters that while the Tories and Liberals talk about action,  the choices they have made mean women are less safe in their daily lives, more likely to experience violence and less likely to see the criminals brought to justice.

Labour has already promised a National Commissioner for Domestic and Sexual Violence.  We’re clear that we need to act to tackle the assumptions that lead to domestic and sexual violence by introducing compulsory sex and relationship education in schools.  As we develop our policies for the next election we need to make sure that women’s safety is at the heart of what we do.  That means not only having policies to tackle violence against women but making sure that all of us, councillors and MPs put women’s safety at the heart of every policy and every decision.  It’s just not good enough that more than half of our population have their lives restricted by fear and a Labour government will change that.

Helen Jones is a Shadow Home Office Minister