East Anglia Bylines has reported for years on the seemingly intractable problem of violence against women and girls (VAWG), including more than one case where the perpetrators were serving policemen.
Following the jailing of police officer Wayne Couzens for the abduction, sexual assault, and murder of Sarah Everard in 2021, then Home Secretary, Priti Patel, announced an inquiry under Lady Elish Angiolini. This would focus on the prevention of sexually motivated crimes against women in public spaces.
An inquiry in two parts
Part One of the inquiry investigated how Couzens “was able to serve as a police officer for so long,” despite several warning signs over a period of 20 years. It concluded he should never have been a policeman and that opportunities were missed to stop him.
Published in February 2024, it made 16 recommendations, warning that there was still nothing to stop another Couzens from happening. There was unanimous acceptance of the recommendations from policing and government.
In December 2025, Part Two was published. It assessed how far “existing measures prevent sex… crimes against women in public”.
Disappointing
In Part Two, Angiolini also gives an update on Part One’s recommendations. She says, “The lack of consistent and unified action to implement all the Part One recommendations is deeply disappointing.” She found that 26% of police forces had yet to implement basic policies for investigating sexual offences.
She added 13 more recommendations:
17. Collection and sharing of data at national and local levels, including a requirement to collect crime data to inform the Safer Streets mission.
18. Increased use of Designing Out Crime Officers in the prevention of sexually motivated crimes against women in public spaces. Explore how safety advice from Designing Out Crime experts could help prevention.
19. Targeted and consistent public messaging. Home Office to fund regional public information campaigns with “the same central purpose and messaging”.
20. Empowering and engaging citizens to take action. Fund active bystander public information campaigns; consider a wider Good Samaritan law.
21. National roll-out of Project Vigilant. Aim to prevent crime by targeting predatory behaviour in the night-time economy. Officers involved in these projects are trained to identify ‘precursor predatory behaviours’ and non-contact sexual offences, in order to identify perpetrators and take preventive action. Angiolini calls for this project to be rolled out nationally.
22. Information and early intervention for men and boys to create a culture of positive masculinity. Fund school programmes for boys in positive masculinity and relationships, and countering misogynistic culture. Also review whether already-successful behaviour programmes in universities, workforces and community can be rolled out to create the ‘generational change’ that the Report calls for.
23. Police prioritisation of the prevention of sexually-motivated crimes against women in public spaces. Make them an essential part of Police Crime Plans.
24. Implementation of Operation Soteria. Increase the charge rate of rape and sexual assault cases; improve the criminal justice response.
25. A truly whole-system approach to preventing sexually motivated crimes against women in public spaces. Publish a comprehensive, multi-year, whole-system prevention strategy.
26. Improved mechanism for converting a promising policing initiative from local to national practice. Improve ways to identify, test and roll out initiatives to prevent sexual crimes.
27. Perpetrator focus and interventions: prioritise prevention.
28. Improvement of the investigation of sexually motivated crimes against women and girls in public spaces. Clear police standards for the detection of predatory perpetrators.
29. Government prioritisation of the prevention of sexually motivated crimes against women in public spaces.
The cost to society
This Report is only concerned with sexual crimes against women and girls in public spaces, not domestic violence cases.
However, when all sexual violence is considered, the cost is enormous. New estimates put the ‘lifetime economic cost’ in one year at over £400bn for England and Wales. This includes the total, long-term financial burden all crimes place on society, encompassing criminal justice expenses (police, courts, prisons, probation), healthcare for victims, specialist sexual violence support services, lost productivity (victim/offender) and broader social impacts like reduced quality of life. A crime that takes minutes can continue costing money for years.
£400bn is a massive drain on the economy. (Home Office figures show that 98% of adults prosecuted for sexual offences are men. Female taxpayers could be forgiven for not wanting to pay for this.)
The long term view
From April 2021 to September 2024, the Home Office spent £149m and other departments £979m on tackling VAWG. Costly, but far less than £400bn.
As Recommendation 29 says, prevention is key, and achievable. The recommendations will cost to implement, but if they reduce crimes, it is far cheaper than dealing with their aftermath.
Government must show commitment by recasting the main aim as prevention. But as Angiolini says, “Prevention is mentioned in almost every single VAWG strategy…however, too often prevention remains just words.”
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has now declared VAWG a “national emergency”. A new strategy will be unveiled on 18 December with changing attitudes among boys and young men apparently at its centre.
As Angiolini states: “Preventing crimes from happening in the first place is clearly the holy grail.” Let’s hope it finally becomes achievable.
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