Report highlights critical gaps in preventing sexually motivated crimes against women

Chair Lady Elish Angiolini KC makes a clear statement: measures targeted at making spaces safer (such as through better lighting) and advising women on how to protect themselves (for instance, providing information on safe routes home) are important – but not enough.

Instead, the prevention focus must be squarely on identifying and targeting the predatory men who commit these crimes. Work to identify and intervene early when someone is showing predatory behaviour, and to investigate effectively and swiftly when an offence has taken place, needs to be combined and coordinated in a way it currently is not.

She said every opportunity must be taken to improve what we know about the patterns of behaviour of these perpetrators, and what will disrupt and change that behaviour. This is currently lacking.

Lady Elish expressed great concern that basic questions cannot be answered and outlined key gaps in knowledge about how many women nationally report being the victim of sexually motivated crimes in public spaces. For example, basic questions cannot be answered, such as ‘how many women are raped by strangers in public spaces, as opposed to known perpetrators in private spaces, in England and Wales last year?’.

There is also limited data on sexual assault and indecent exposure. Lady Elish warns that, without this data being gathered and recorded consistently across forces, it cannot be analysed to spot patterns of offending, which amounts to a critical failure.

Lady Elish therefore calls for urgent, coordinated action to shift public attitudes, disrupt harm and create a culture that enables women to feel safer in public spaces.

The report highlights a troubling lack of momentum, funding and ambition for prevention work in this area, as well as a lack of progress on previously accepted recommendations from Part 1. Despite violence against women and girls (VAWG) being described as a ‘national threat’ in 2023 (requiring police forces to coordinate their response and resources to tackle such crimes in line with other national threats), 26 per cent of police forces have yet to implement basic policies for investigating sexual offences, including indecent exposure.

Furthermore, the report recommended that those with convictions and/or cautions for sexual offences should be barred from policing. This has not yet been implemented. The Home Office has informed the Inquiry that it does intend to address this recommendation, however this will not be implemented until 2026.

Critically, the report also exposes serious gaps in data. As an example, there is no reliable national figure for how many women have reported that they have been raped by strangers as opposed to people they know, and in public spaces rather than in their homes. This lack of baseline data severely undermines efforts to measure and improve prevention, and the Inquiry recommends swift action to rectify it.

Despite this gap, the Inquiry heard about many impressive and creative campaigns, programmes and other measures aimed at preventing sexually-motivated crimes against women in public. These come from across sectors, Government departments, charities and academia. This is encouraging; but there must be decisive action by Government to coordinate and boost these patches of positive prevention activity, it said.

As a starting point, the Inquiry recommends immediate intensification and sustainable funding for two programmes aimed at preventing predators from going on to offend, and offenders from being able to go on and offend again, respectively: Project Vigilant is aimed at identifying and disrupting predatory men in the night-time economy before they offend; while Operation Soteria aims to improve the investigation and prosecution of rape through a perpetrator-focused, victim-centred approach.

Both are rapidly building the knowledge base on the men who commit these offences, including their patterns of behaviour. Multiple witnesses from across sectors identified these as effective.

But Vigilant has received only limited funding for further rollout across police forces; and while Soteria has been funded for national rollout, the budget needed to continue embedding, researching and learning from it is only guaranteed for a year.

These measures are available now, and have proven success. Funding them properly is one way for Government and policing to show it is taking the safety of women in public spaces seriously, the Inquiry said.

Chair Lady Elish Angiolini said: “My report sets out how sexually-motivated crimes against women are commonplace and pervasive on our streets, on transport systems and in other public spaces in England and Wales. This problem is recognised, and prevention activity is consistently named as the solution; and yet the Inquiry found this activity is uncoordinated, underfunded, and all too often reliant on small pots of short-term money. As one of our witnesses told us: ‘You wouldn’t run a business like this.’ Women deserve better than this.

“As a society, we need to change the narrative. These crimes are not inevitable, and should not be normalised. Work to provide women with safety advice or safer journeys, or places with better lighting and police patrols, is all important, and I saw some excellent and creative examples of these types of measures.

“But what is needed now is a shift to a relentless focus on preventing predators from offending, and on preventing perpetrators from reoffending. This shift is long overdue. I call on Government and policing to show their commitment to this – and to women’s safety – by giving full support and funding now to two policing programmes I found most aligned to this focus: Project Vigilant and Operation Soteria.

“Throughout this investigation, I have never lost sight of the victims of these abhorrent crimes. I have had the privilege of engaging with victims and their families, and with leaders who are dedicated to supporting victims. I want to take this opportunity to pay special tribute to Baroness Newlove whose work (and contributions to the Inquiry), should be honoured and remembered, always.

“This report should serve as a turning point. Following the abduction, rape and murder of Sarah Everard, almost five years ago, and countless other sexually motivated crimes committed in public against women since, the urgency for change is undeniable. The evidence is clear, the recommendations in this Report and the Part 1 Report are practical and achievable. What is needed now is courageous leadership, national coordination and sustained investment.”

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Helen Millichap, director of the National Centre for Violence Against Women and Girls and Public Protection (NCVPP), said: “We welcome this report and want to acknowledge the families, victims and survivors who have been affected and who have taken time to give such valuable contributions and insight. We must be led by what they tell us.

“Policing is determined to respond collectively to the harms caused to women and girls, and to work in partnership with all the agencies mentioned in this report. We will now consider the findings and recommendations carefully and in detail, acknowledging urgent action is required.

“Women and girls have the right to live their lives free from the fear of harm and it is our priority to keep them safe and reduce the prevalence of these crimes.

“We are told frequently by women and girls, and in this report, that they are likely to change their behaviour in order to feel safe. For too long this has been seen as inevitable. It is not, and we agree that our focus must be on the relentless pursuit of perpetrators and spotting patterns in offending. We are already working proactively to recognise, intervene, and interrupt predatory behaviour in public spaces, and are pleased the report acknowledges this work.

“We should not wait for a crime to be reported to act, and we have seen some very effective joint operations with partners that target the right places, and work together to make them safer. We want this to feel consistent across policing and we know that sometimes it doesn’t. This report rightly challenges us to create that consistency, implementing what works and the NCVPP will play a critical role in setting national standards.”

She added: “Our focus is on equipping officers and staff to recognise and respond to sexual violence in public spaces, building on the effective progress already made for rape and serious sexual offence investigations, which is highlighted by Lady Elish Angiolini.

“Vitally, we must build trust with victims and survivors, so they feel able to report. We know that too often they may not, and as a result we do not see and respond to all the harm that is eroding the safety of women and girls.

“We have already introduced new national training, working directly with those affected by these crimes, to improve responses to non-contact sexual offences. It is by listening to the voices of victims that we will create a policing culture fit to respond, and that can be trusted.

“Crucially, policing will not make the difference we need unless we are working in effective collaborations across the range of partnerships necessary to prevent harms in the first place. The report calls for a whole system response to prevent sexually motivated crimes, recognising that the roots are societal and preventable. We welcome the commitment the report seeks to create long term and sustainable resourcing.

“To anybody who is experiencing these types of crime, we urge you to report to us. We are changing, and we welcome the focus this report brings to help us change more.”

APCC joint leads for victims, Clare Moody and Matthew Scott, said: “Today’s report provides a valuable assessment of where gaps exist in efforts across policing and other sectors to keep women and girls safe.

“Lady Elish highlights how women routinely alter their behaviour to avoid the risk of harm which illustrates how normalised sexually motivated predatory crimes against women have become. It cannot be right that it is left to potential victims of crime to take precautions whilst perpetrators’ dangerous predatory behaviour goes unchecked, so we are pleased to see the report stresses the need for a far sharper focus on preventing them offending in the first place.

“Police and crime commissioners (PCCs) have long argued that VAWG is a society-wide issue and cannot be tackled solely by the police. We agree that if we are to achieve the government’s ambition of halving VAWG in a decade, it must be through cross-sector collaboration and innovation.

“We welcome the report’s recognition that funding is a serious issue and strongly agree that short-term investment is a major barrier to achieving urgent and long-term change – there must be a commitment to sustainable government funding for services that support victims and those that work with perpetrators to challenge and change their behaviour.

“However, this cannot be an excuse for the lack of action by policing nationally to some of the recommendations of Lady Elish’s first report.

“Whilst there is good work being done in areas of policing in England and Wales, and existing strategies, processes and governance structures provide a solid framework for delivering effective preventative activity, we are not seeing that translate into victims’ confidence to report crimes to the police. That is a major concern. It is clear much more needs to be done for victims to feel they will be taken seriously by the police and their complaints acted upon. This includes paying much more attention to the experience of victims in their first contact with the police.

“Tackling all forms of violence against women and girls is a priority for PCCs and Deputy Mayors. Today’s report contains recommendations for PCCs which we will consider with care and work with our local Chief Constables to address.

“We would like to put on record our thanks to all those women who have contributed to this important report and to remember again Sarah Everard whose vile abduction, rape and murder was the catalyst that led to the Angiolini Inquiry. We are absolutely committed to working with our partners across and beyond policing to do what is needed to protect women and girls so they can live their lives without fear.”

Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) national chair Tiff Lynch said: “The Angiolini Inquiry Part 2 First Report, published today exposes serious and long‑standing failures in how violence against women and girls is recorded, understood and tackled across England and Wales.

“The findings on fragmented data, inconsistent investigative standards and a lack of urgency in addressing predatory behaviour in public spaces are deeply troubling and must be a catalyst for immediate change.

“Rank and file officers see, every day, the damage done when systems fail victims, when sexual offences are not properly logged, when non‑contact offences are minimised, and when patterns of behaviour are missed because information is incomplete or spread across multiple systems.

“This is not only failing for women and girls; it is also failing for police officers who are asked to protect the public without the tools, policies and resourcing that such a national threat demands.

“There now needs to be a clear, enforceable national framework for recording all VAWG‑related incidents and offences, including so‑called ‘lower‑level’ behaviours which are often the warning signs of escalation.

“Robust, specialist investigative standards must be mandated and inspected across all forces, supported by sustained funding and training, not short‑term initiatives or unfunded expectations. Violence against women and girls is classified as a national threat; it must be treated, resourced and monitored as such.

“The PFEW is ready to work with government, policing leaders and partners to ensure frontline experience informs these reforms. Officers must have reliable systems, clear guidance and adequate staffing so that every report is taken seriously, every pattern is identified, and every victim can have confidence that their case will be investigated thoroughly and professionally.

“Our members want a system that helps them protect women and girls effectively; they have waited long enough for that system to be put in place.”