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Tackling violence against women and girls will be treated like terror and organised crime crackdown, Labour vows
Tackling violence against women and girls will be treated like the crackdown on terror and organised crime, safeguarding minister Jess Phillips told the Commons as she unveiled the government’s longawaited VAWG strategy.
She said that new forensic technology will be used to track down rapists and sex offenders, with police forces using “the same data driven approach to tracking offenders that we apply to terrorists and serious organised criminals”.
Promising to make “women and girls safe at last”, Ms Phillips vowed that “change is coming”.
She said it will take “all of society to step up and end the epidemic of abuse and violence that shames our country”, adding: “The challenge is great, but I have never felt more confident that we can rise to it than I do today”.
Giving a statement to the Commons, Ms Phillips pledged to make the UK “one of the hardest places for children to access harmful content and misogynistic influences online”, saying that so-called “nudification” tools, which allow users to strip clothes from those in photographs, will be banned.
The government will also work with tech companies to make it impossible for children to take, view or share nude images through “nudity detection filters”.
Other measures include new interventions in schools when pupils display “harmful” behaviour, changes to the curriculum and new training for staff.
Meanwhile, every police force in England and Wales will have a specialist rape and sexual offences team by 2029.
Ms Phillips said: “This strategy does something that none before it ever has. Until now responsibility for tackling violence against women and girls has been left to only the crime fighting departments, working so often in isolated ways.
“Providing support that is vital, but often too late to truly change the story. This strategy is different. It deploys the full power of the state across national government and local government.
“It draws on the experiences of victims and the power of the third sector to transform our approach to these crimes in our schools, our police forces, from housing to healthcare, on our streets and behind closed doors, online and offline.”
This is a breaking news story. More to follow…
