PG电子

• Funding will be awarded to more than 100 projects dedicated to making our streets safer
• Money forms part of the Safer Streets Fund, taking its total to 拢120m
• Comes as government marks one year since publication of its Tackling VAWG strategy

拢50 million of new funding will be given to communities across England and Wales to make the streets safer for all, the Home Secretary has announced today, Monday 25 July.

The money will go to police forces, local authorities, British Transport Police and eligible community groups across England and Wales to prevent violence against women and girls in public, neighbourhood crime and anti-social behaviour.

These projects will be able to roll out extra CCTV and streetlighting in their communities and expand work to change attitudes and behaviours and prevent these crimes happening in the first place.

Northamptonshire, Humberside and Nottinghamshire PCCs are just some of the organisations which have already received funding through previous rounds. The money has been spent on home security, community outreach and initiatives such as football and boxing, to divert young people from crime.

This is the fourth round of funding from the Safer Street Fund and takes the total awarded through this fund and the Safety of Women at Night Fund to 拢125 million.

Home Secretary, Priti Patel said:

It has been one year since I launched our dedicated violence against women and girls strategy and in that year I have overseen incredible work to support victims, prevent violence against women and girls, protect citizens and deliver justice.

Our essential work with specialist groups is delivering practical support and change for women and girls across our communities and the Safer Streets Fund continues to make a difference to the safety of women and girls at a community level.

This marks one year since the publication of the Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Strategy. Since publishing the strategy, the government has delivered a number of key commitments to help ensure that women and girls are safe everywhere - at home, online, at work and in public spaces.

Safer Streets Fund

The Safer Streets Fund allows forces and local authorities to invest in transformative聽crime prevention initiatives.

The latest round of the fund is the first to accept bids from eligible civil society organisations, and among the successful bidders for this round is Her Centre, a London-based charity which offers free and confidential advocacy, counselling, advice and training relating to domestic abuse, rape and sexual abuse and other issues that affect women.

Her Centre has been awarded 拢140,000 to deliver support to victims of sexual harassment, assault, rape, and stalking so that they recover confidence to live lives free of fear. Her Centre will also use the funding to work to help prevent acts of violence against women through active bystander training and engagement with young people around understanding and responding to violence against women and girls in areas particularly affected by these issues.

CEO of Her Centre, Stacy Smith said:

Her Centre want to see more focus on making men stop harassing and threatening women. We are pleased that this grant allows us to take forward work to educate the community in simple ways they can be active bystanders so that men who are abusive and violent become the target of attention, rather than saying women have to keep themselves safe. These attitudes should be the outliers and not the norm.

Round 3 of the fund had a particular focus on helping to combat violence against women and girls, and 拢25 million was allocated to 57 projects across England and Wales through this round.

The government has also invested 拢5 million through the Safety of Women at Night Fund, which supported 22 projects piloting initiatives to improve the safety of women in public spaces at night, including in the night-time economy.

Tackling street harassment

Marking one year since the publication of the VAWG Strategy, the government is also announcing the launch of a targeted consultation on whether there should be a new offence for public sexual harassment. Experts from a range of sectors, including charities, the police, law, education and transport, are invited to share their views on whether a new specific offence would help to tackle this issue.

This follows the VAWG Strategy鈥檚 Call for Evidence which saw over 180,000 responses, the majority from the public, and complements other work the government is undertaking to tackle public sexual harassment, such as new and forthcoming new guidance for prosecutors to make sure existing laws are implemented, and the 鈥楨nough鈥� behaviour change campaign.

Preventing domestic abuse and stalking

The Tackling VAWG strategy made clear that in addition to supporting victims, we must also prevent crimes being committed in the first place.

The Home Office has awarded over 拢25 million over the last two years to Police and Crime Commissioners to support increasing the availability of interventions for domestic abuse and stalking perpetrators. These interventions aim to reduce the risk posed by perpetrators and hold them to account, including through group or individual behaviour change programmes.

The Early Awareness Stalking Intervention programme, overseen by the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner and funded by the Home Office, is one of the first attempt of its kind in England and Wales to deliver rehabilitative treatment for stalkers, which aims to improve victim/survivor safety.

West Midlands Victims鈥� Commissioner, Nicky Brennan, said:

There is no excuse for abuse of any kind. Reducing incidence of crime is paramount and that鈥檚 why we are working hard on prevention and early intervention in the West Midlands, particularly in tackling violence against women and girls.

That is why we partnered with West Midlands Police, Midlands Psychology Services, Black Country Women鈥檚 Aid, The Alice Ruggles Trust and the University of Derby to pilot and evaluate the Early Awareness Stalking Intervention across the whole West Midlands, through funding from the 2021 Home Office Perpetrator Fund.

Early results are promising and we have already learnt a lot and are looking forward to a full evaluation early next year.

Supporting victims of intimate image abuse

In order to support victims of non-consensual intimate image sharing, a deeply serious and harmful issue, the Home Office increased its funding to the Revenge Porn Helpline to 拢120,000 in the 2021/2 financial year. The Helpline supports victims of non-consensual intimate image sharing by providing confidential support and advice, helping to report and remove content from the internet, offering advice and support on reporting crimes to the police and providing referrals for specialist and longer-term support for victims.

This financial year, the Home Office is increasing this funding to a further 拢150,000, to ensure the Helpline can continue to provide expert support to victims of intimate image abuse.

Revenge Porn Helpline Manager, Sophie Mortimer said:

The Tackling VAWG Strategy has given welcome focus on providing substantial help and support to people affected by violence against women and girls.

The additional funding that the Revenge Porn Helpline received during the pandemic, consolidated under the new strategy, gave us the opportunity to provide meaningful, effective help to people affected by intimate image abuse. The helpline sees a wide range of complex behaviours requiring expert practitioners to give direct support and carry out the reporting and removal of intimate images shared without consent. This is difficult and time-consuming work, but it has achieved, to date, the removal of over 260,000 individual pieces of content on behalf of nearly 15,000 people.

This support for victims of intimate image abuse comes alongside action through the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 to strengthen the law in this area to ensure those who threaten to share intimate images without consent and with an intent to cause distress are held to account and face justice for their actions.

Ratification of the Istanbul Convention

The government is also pleased to announce the ratification of the Istanbul Convention.

In the Tackling VAWG Strategy, the government committed to ratifying The Council of Europe Convention on Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence, commonly known as the Istanbul Convention. The Convention is a gold standard international charter for the protection of women and girls, and since signing it in 2012, the government has worked to significantly strengthen its legislative framework and introduce a wide range of tools to better protect victims.

Our measures to protect women and girls from violence are some of the most robust in the world, and in some respects go further than the Convention requires.

The ratification sends a strong signal that the UK continues to treat violence against women and girls with the utmost seriousness and will help us to continue the lead the way in tackling these terrible crimes.

Transforming rape investigations

Having taken a hard and honest look at how the entire criminal justice system leads with rape through the Rape Review, the Home Office is committed to funding Operation Soteria, a programme to transform the way that rape investigations are handled and progressed, with a focus on the suspect rather than the victim. After initially being taken forward in five forces, the government announced earlier this year that an additional 14 forces will be taking part in Operation Soteria.

This work will inform a new national operating model for the investigation of rape cases which will be available for all forces from June 2023. The key findings from the programme to date were published in the Rape Review Progress Update on 16 June. It is encouraging that we are seeing more victims coming forward to report crimes to the police, more referrals from the police to the CPS and an increase in the volume of suspects charged.

Behaviour change campaign

In March 2022, we launched our nationwide, multi-year 鈥楨nough鈥� communication campaign across England and Wales.聽 With a television advert, billboards, digital content and a comprehensive campaign website, the campaign aims to target and challenge the harmful behaviours that exist within wider society, educate young people about healthy relationships and consent, and ensure victims can recognise abuse and receive support.

Successful Safer Streets Fund round 4 bids

Lead bidder	Region	Total amount of funding awarded across 2022/23 and 2023/24 (拢)	Number of bids covered
Lincolnshire PCC	East Midlands	拢396,945.82	1
Charnwood Borough Council	East Midlands	拢149,200.00	1
Blaby District Council	East Midlands	拢67,000.00	1
Northamptonshire PCC	East Midlands	拢1,137,401	2
North Northamptonshire Council	East Midlands	拢261,500.00	1
West Northamptonshire Council	East Midlands	拢99,000.00	1
Derbyshire PCC	East Midlands	拢401,315.00	1
North East Derbyshire District Council	East Midlands	拢419,219.99	1
Derby City Council	East Midlands	拢749,973.46	1
Nottinghamshire PCC	East Midlands	拢3,000,000.00	4
Ipswich Borough Council	East of England	拢499,588.00	1
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough PCC	East of England	拢634,285.00	1
Norwich City Council	East of England	拢199,333.00	1
Great Yarmouth Borough Council	East of England	拢127,500.00	1
Bedfordshire PCC	East of England	拢729,932.00	1
Luton Borough Council	East of England	拢294,000.00	1
Westminster City Council	Greater London	拢289,600.00	1
Royal Borough of Kingston Upon Thames	Greater London	拢183,300.00	1
Ealing Council	Greater London	拢355,294.00	1
Lambeth & Southwark Council	Greater London	拢497,160.00	1
Faiths Forum for London	Greater London	拢93,100.00	1
Her Centre Ltd	Greater London	拢140,000	1
Durham PCC	North East	拢1,469,169	4
Northumbria PCC	North East	拢1,753,492	3
Sunderland City Council	North East	拢731,138.00	1
Cumbria PCC	North East	760,108.95	2
Cleveland PCC	North East	拢696,611.01	1
Merseyside PCC	North West	拢1,336,083.95	3
Greater Manchester Combined Authority	North West	拢453,080.00	1
Stockport Council	North West	拢436,810.00	1
Wigan Council	North West	拢745,518.00	1
Cheshire PCC	North West	拢1,500,000	2
Preston City Council	North West	拢146,568.00	1
Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council	North West	拢750,000.00	1
Chorley Council	North West	拢33,000.00	1
GreaterSport Manchester (Greater Manchester Sports Partnership)	North West	拢490,448.00	1
Essex PFCC	South East	拢1,182,795	4
Kent PCC	South East	拢1,433,091.14	4
Hampshire PCC	South East	拢1,379,196.19	2
Surrey PCC	South East	拢707,320.98	3
Sussex PCC	South East	拢1,499,556.00	2
Thames Valley PCC	South East	拢2,011,990.97	4
Dorset Council	South West	拢246,976.00	1
Bristol City Council	South West	拢748,498.50	1
North Somerset Council	South West	拢317,694.96	1
Bath and North East Somerset Council	South West	拢329,152.02	1
Gloucestershire PCC	South West	拢2,032,170.13	3
Swindon Borough Council	South West	拢742,500.00	1
Wiltshire Council	South West	拢128,960.00	1
Swindon Borough Council	South West	拢742,500.00	1
Torbay Council	South West	拢749,137.64	1
Cornwall Council	South West	拢664,802.40	1
North Devon Council	South West	拢348,632.00	1
University of Exeter	South West	拢680,250.00	1
University of Plymouth	South West	拢670,404.80	1
Dyfed PCC	Wales	拢292,761.00	1
Gwent PCC	Wales	拢746,706.00	1
North Wales PCC	Wales	拢1,568,917.35	3
South Wales PCC	Wales	拢1,497,668.35	2
Warwickshire PCC	West Midlands	拢354,010.00	1
Staffordshire PFCC	West Midlands	拢750,000.00	1
West Midlands PCC	West Midlands	拢458,545.00	1
Sandwell MBC	West Midlands	拢227,100.00	1
City of Wolverhampton Council	West Midlands	拢365,667.00	1
West Mercia PCC	West Midlands	1,774,964.75	4
North East Lincolnshire Council	Yorkshire and Humberside	拢750,000.00	1
Humberside PCC	Yorkshire and Humberside	拢91,641.60	1
West Yorkshire Combined Authority	Yorkshire and Humberside	拢1,236,091.21	2
South Yorkshire PCC	Yorkshire and Humberside	拢737,560.00	1
Sheffield City Council	Yorkshire and Humberside	拢230,000.00	1
Doncaster Council	Yorkshire and Humberside	拢750,000.00	1
North Yorkshire PCC	Yorkshire and Humberside	拢809,095.00	2
English Football League Trust	Yorkshire and Humberside	拢173,798.00	1
British Transport Police	England and Wales	拢455,750	2