GOVERNMENT efforts to tackle violence against women and girls (VAWG) in recent years have not improved outcomes for victims, the National Audit Office (NAO) revealed today.

The spending watchdog described VAWG as a “significant and growing problem” affecting one in 12 women and criticised the Home Office for failing to lead an effective cross-government response.

A key Labour pledge when they came into government last summer was to halve VAWG within a decade.

But the NAO said that to meet this target, the Home Office “will need to lead a co-ordinated, whole-system response that addresses the causes of VAWG.”

While the previous Conservative government created a team to lead its 2021 VAWG strategy, a ministerial oversight group for the strategy “only met four times in three years,” the NAO said.

The NAO report raised questions over funding, saying that, unlike the 2021 illegal drugs strategy, no joint spending review was conducted for the VAWG strategy.

It found the Home Office underspent its allocated budget by an average of 15 per cent between 2021-22 and 2023-24.

End Violence Against Women Coalition director Andrea Simon said that an effective strategy to tackle and prevent VAWG must be a cross-government effort and “can not be done in siloes.”

She said: “It is imperative that any new VAWG strategy comes with clear investment and spending commitments that match the scale and seriousness of an epidemic of offending.

“The lack of attention to prevention is deplorable, especially as we know VAWG is significantly under-reported.”

Ms Simon warned against assessing the strategy purely on financial grounds, saying: “The harms of VAWG are so significant and far reaching that the societal importance of addressing it must be recognised.

“This government has a huge opportunity to learn from past mistakes and ensure that the next VAWG strategy is effective at addressing abuse and delivers on its mission to halve VAWG.”

Local Government Association’s (LGA) Cllr Heather Kidd said tackling VAWG requires a broader cultural shift, saying: “Local government has a key role to play in preventing violence against women and girls and responding to it.

“Long-term funding challenges continue to negatively impact on councils’ ability to provide the essential services that make women and girls feel safe, empowered, and confident about their futures.”

The Home Office said the report had looked at the previous government’s “failure to deliver systemic change” and vowed that Labour was “delivering a step-change in the government’s response.”