Last night, the Prime Minister chaired the Criminal Justice Taskforce setting out the immediate steps the Government are taking to provide further reassurance for women and girls – taking action to ensure they feel safe on our streets.
The horrific case of Sarah Everard has unleashed a wave of feeling about women not feeling safe at night. We must do everything we can to ensure our streets are safe.
Alongside bringing in landmark legislation to toughen up sentences and putting more police on the streets, the Government are taking immediate steps to ensure women have the protections they need to feel safe again. These new measures include doubling the investment in our Safer Streets fund to £45m in order to provide better lighting and the greater use of CCTV in parks – protecting women and making sure they feel safe walking through our towns and cities.
The Government are also committed to work with police forces and Police and Crime Commissioners to ensure these target areas of potential concern for women and girls and are now more focussed on preventing sexual violence. This could include targeting parks and alleyways, and routes from bars, restaurants and nightclubs as we see a return to the night-time economy, in line with the lifting of coronavirus restrictions.
To further support this, and help women feel safer in the night-time economy as we build back from the pandemic, the Government will also roll-out pilots of ‘Project Vigilant’ across the country. This is an internationally award winning-approach taken by Thames Valley Police where both uniformed and plain clothes officers identify predatory and suspicious offenders in the night time economy. This can involve officers attending areas around clubs and bars undercover to better ensure women are safe in these locations, and increased patrols as people leave at closing time.
Safeguarding Minister Victoria Atkins will continue to lead on this work, alongside the Home Secretary and Women and Equalities Minister Liz Truss. The Policing Minister Kit Malthouse will also hold a summit in the coming weeks with police and industry representatives from the night-time economy on preparations to protect women as pandemic restrictions lift.
Further steps agreed in the meeting include plans to consult on the Government’s intended Victims Law this Summer and £11million in funding to provide for more Independent Sexual Violence Advisors (ISVAs) to support victims through the criminal justice process.
Ultimately, we must drive out violence against women and girls and make every part of the criminal justice system work to better protect and defend them.
