Responding to the Home Affairs Committee’s ‘Tackling violence against women and girls: funding’ report, Gemma Sherrington, CEO of Refuge, said:
“Sadly, today’s devastating report from the Home Affairs Committee comes as no surprise. It confirms what frontline services have long witnessed firsthand: the Government’s pledge to tackle violence against women and girls (VAWG) is not being matched by the sustainable funding needed to make it a reality.
Refuge welcomed the Government’s commitment to halve VAWG within a decade, but without effective, strategic and transparent investment, this pledge amounts to little more than lip service to women’s safety. Time and again, VAWG has been neglected in budget announcements – with dire consequences for the vital frontline services that support survivors. Without meaningful investment in both prevention and survivor support, the Government’s ambition to halve VAWG within 10 years is simply unachievable.
The report rightly highlights tech-facilitated abuse as a rapidly growing threat to women and girls. Refuge’s dedicated tech abuse service has seen referrals surge by 205% between 2018 and 2024. To meet the Government’s pledge to halve VAWG, it must urgently invest in prevention measures and robustly enforce the Online Safety Act. Addressing online VAWG is essential if we are to protect survivors in today’s digital age and create lasting change.
As highlighted by Refuge’s oral evidence to the committee’s inquiry, fragmented and short-term funding continues to hold vital VAWG services back. We urgently need a more stable and coordinated approach. Without long-term funding commitments of at least three to five years, too many services will remain under-resourced, overstretched, and unable to meet the needs of the survivors who rely on them – especially those from marginalised backgrounds.
It is critical that the upcoming VAWG strategy includes a comprehensive, cross-government plan to tackle the systemic funding failures identified in the report. We urge the Government to create a ringfenced fund that supports the lifesaving work of specialist ‘by and for’ organisations and national providers like Refuge. Only through collaboration and sustained, long-term investment can we build a truly comprehensive support system that meets the diverse and complex needs of all survivors.”
