A Safer City for All Women and Girls

Whether it’s wolf-whistling, sexual harassment, online stalking, coercive control, domestic abuse, or sexual exploitation, the root causes of VAWG lie in harmful attitudes among men and boys, and in the societal and cultural norms and systems that enable them.

Our work to tackle these is already paying off. The Mayor’s multi award-winning ‘Have a Word’ and ‘Say Maaate to a Mate’ campaigns have been proven to empower people to call out misogynistic behaviour; and 80 per cent of young men who saw the ‘Have a Word’ campaign said they would now call out misogynistic behaviour if they saw it 8.  His ‘FGM Stops Here’ campaign also continues to support and amplify community movement against this appalling crime 9.

The Mayor’s long-standing public health approach to tackling violence involves intervening at key points in a young person’s life – to help them build trusted relationships; to nurture positive attitudes; and to protect them from harm. We have therefore prioritised tackling misogyny in schools – delivering healthy relationships sessions for 26,500 10 young people – as well as mentoring, youth workers and specialised support.

One young man who had received training through the VRU’s RE:SET programme said: “I would like more workshops like this to encourage men to make the right decisions – to think about, who are your role models? Are they hurting or helping you?”

The Mayor has also developed educational toolkits to support teachers in primary and secondary school settings. A headteacher at a North London Primary school, where every teacher has taken part in the training, said: “Broaching issues like misogyny and sexism with young children can be really challenging and is something that we need to be prepared to deal with … We now have expertly crafted, tried-and-tested tools and activities to safely and confidently teach this important subject matter.”

Over the next three years, the Mayor will take the following actions:

• Collaborate on campaigns and interventions that challenge misogyny and harmful practices; promote healthy relationships; and showcase positive role models

Alongside continued activity to counter misogyny online and across London, this work includes the Mayor’s recently launched campaign to tackle the negative influences of the manosphere. The new campaign targets young men and boys to role-model positive attitudes and promote positive opportunities and behaviours. We will also support and amplify initiatives from partners including TfL – in particular, their ‘act like a friend’ campaign – as well as community groups, employers and other stakeholders.

• Invest in educational programmes to promote respect and equality; and work with the government to embed long-term prevention programmes for all children and young people, including in all educational settings

Through MOPAC, the VRU and TfL, this work will include supporting children affected by VAWG – including sexual violence, domestic abuse and child sexual abuse and exploitation. It will involve promoting positive home dynamics with families and parents (sharing learning from the VRU’s parenting programmes); and helping parents understand online harms, so they can confidently discuss healthy relationships and consent.

• Invest in programmes and support communities to counter harmful practices and ideologies

This includes the Mayor’s work with partners including tech firms, regulators, and every part of society to tackle the manosphere. We will also continue to deliver ground-breaking programmes through the Mayor’s Shared Endeavour Fund 11, to directly counter all forms of hate and extremism including extreme misogyny. 

To challenge and prevent practices such as forced marriage, female genital mutilation, breast ironing and dowry abuse, we will build on learning from the Harmful Practices Community Education Pilot. We will strengthen community allyship, and community-led solutions, in partnership with the MPS, health services, specialist VAWG sector agencies and other key stakeholders.

Across the UK, 86 per cent of women and girls aged 18-24 have experienced harassment in public spaces 12.  Londoners feel less safe in town centres, pubs and clubs, parks and open spaces, and on public transport, than they do in other environments such as at home or at work 13.  In retail and hospitality – sectors employing large numbers of women 14 – female staff face disproportionate risks 15.  

Women and girls are disproportionately impacted by sexual offending and harassment as they travel, whether on public transport, walking, cycling or using taxis, private hire vehicles or pedicabs. The MOPAC Public Attitude Survey has consistently found women feel less safe than men when walking alone in their local area after dark. 

Since 2016, the Mayor has prioritised work with the police, local authorities and businesses to make public spaces safer for women and girls at all times of day and night. He has worked to put the voices of women and girls at the heart of safer public space design - aligning with London’s commitments under the UN Safe Cities and Safe Public Spaces initiative.

Through his Women’s Night Safety Charter (WNSC) 16, the Mayor provides over 3,500 venues (including shops, restaurants, nightclubs and football clubs) with training and resources to make women safer in and around their premises.

In 2024, MOPAC and TfL piloted Women’s Safety Audits in multiple locations across five London boroughs. The audits involved training women and girls to become community researchers, and to undertake audits in their local areas. They used a variety of methods, including interviews and group discussions, to understand safety issues and provide insights to be integrated into future urban design and policy decisions. Women and girls who participated were overwhelmingly positive about being involved and found the process empowering. One participant told us: “Being in a room full of strong independent people … to come together and share openly our experiences … just made me realise that the problem is never me.” 

TfL has also used the WNSC and Women’s Safety Audits to successfully influence planning applications for proposed commercial sites. 

The Mayor has also appointed Mayor’s Design Advocates (MDAs) 17 as independent experts to champion quality and inclusion across Mayoral projects and decision making. Gender inclusion expertise has been strengthened within the new cohort of 53 MDAs, covering a range of specialisms including gender inclusive practice, inclusive design, participatory approaches, and public realm design. They have been actively involved across a variety of projects, helping to shape environments that deliver the best possible outcomes for women and girls.

Over the next three years, the Mayor will take the following actions:

• Work with public, private and voluntary sector partners to make public spaces safer, and feel safer, by design – especially at night

This work includes a £15.6m programme of new investment to give women and girls a voice in transforming public spaces across London to make them safer-by-design. It will build on the success of the Women’s Safety Audits pilot and provide grant funding for local authorities to make changes such as improved CCTV, layered lighting, and re-designing parks, paths and other public areas to ensure clear sight lines, remove blind spots, hiding places or obstructions.

Alongside this, we will prioritise women and girls in growth and spatial planning across the GLA – using the Mayor’s Design Advocates 18, TfL, the Mayoral Development Corporations 19, the MPS, local authorities, health services and other partners, to influence plans, places, systems and infrastructure. This includes designing active travel routes, transport hubs and bus stops that are safe and welcoming.  

We will continue to cascade this approach with developers, landowners and other stakeholders for local plans, masterplans and neighbourhood strategies – and we will work to provide safe and secure housing, and tackle homelessness 20. 

• Work with the MPS and other partners to identify VAWG hotspots and take preventative action, such as increased patrols or targeted public realm improvements

This work will include supporting policing initiatives such as Project Vigilant 21, which deploys a mix of plain-clothes and uniformed officers in VAWG hotspots (predominantly in night-time economy areas) to disrupt, intervene and challenge predatory behaviour. We will also continue to work with London’s 32 local authorities, the City of London, police, businesses, London’s Business Improvement Districts and other partners to promote the use of Public Space Protection Orders.

Subject to Parliamentary approval and future consultation, the Mayor would like to use his proposed role in strategic licensing powers to ensure more premises are equipped to deal with safeguarding and vulnerability issues. He will work with the Safer Business Network 22 to continue the expansion of the WNSC. 

TfL, in partnership with the MPS and BTP, will continue to strengthen its activity to tackle VAWG through a holistic end violence against women and girls programme covering policing, planning, communications and engagement, staff training, innovation and improvements to infrastructure.

• Work with partners across London to ensure workplaces are safe for women and girls 

We support the government’s approach to ensuring all employers do everything they can for victims and survivors of all forms of VAWG in the workplace.  Across the GLA family, we will continue to embed the Workers Protection Act (amendment) and support the implementation of the strengthened duty under the Employment Rights Act 2025, which require employers to take steps to prevent and protect staff from sexual harassment and respond to domestic abuse. We will also strengthen partnerships between businesses, police and trade unions to stamp out violence against shop and frontline workers.

• Work with partners to protect and support children and young people to navigate public spaces safely 

This will include our VRU working with schools to develop culturally sensitive guidance for pupils; and continued support for the work that TfL, the MPS and the British Transport Police (BTP) do to aid safer travel for young people. 

The Mayor has also commissioned independent research into what young people across London do, and where there is for them to go – particularly at night. We will consider the findings and recommendations of this research; and work with partners to encourage opportunities for positive socialising across London. This will reduce their risk of social isolation, and becoming vulnerable to negative online influences. 

Online, harmful and misleading content and ideas are too easily amplified. Nearly two-thirds of young men in the UK regularly engage with so-called “masculinity influencers” 23; extreme material is distorting young people’s understanding of sexual pleasure, consent and harm 24, and we know men in particular are spending more time online where they are exposed to regressive and often harmful practices 25.  

At the same time, advances in technology have created new tools such as AI; deepfake and nudification apps; tracking functions; wearable devices; and remote-access utilities. These can all be exploited as instruments of control and abuse 26.  

To tackle tech-enabled VAWG, the Mayor’s Shared Endeavour Fund has provided 2,500 young Londoners with safe spaces to explore online dangers, including extremism and harmful masculine content. His VRU has provided ground-breaking specialist training for young people on emerging trends and online harms training for parents and trusted adults, for example via the Social Switch Project (led by Catch 22). One parent described their experience: “Insightful and highly relevant … the training enhanced my understanding of various online harms like cyberbullying, grooming, radicalisation, and exploitation … I found the real-life case studies, digital safeguarding checklists, and resources for parents and carers especially useful.”

Over the next three years, the Mayor will take the following actions:

• Continue to convene tech companies and VAWG-sector partners to share understanding of, and collaborate on, how to eliminate online and tech-enabled harms to women and girls

We will develop new and stronger relationships with online, tech and gaming companies as vital partners – alongside specialists in the VAWG sector, women, girls, families and communities – to explore positive opportunities to help design out VAWG in tech. This will build on the success of the landmark international Tech Abuse Conference 27 hosted by the Mayor at City Hall in May 2026 and led by the Gender and Tech Research Lab at UCL 28, international leaders in research to tackle technology-enabled abuse. This includes continuing to engage international partners alongside leading academics to share expertise and work together to tackle this emerging issue.

• Work with government to tackle new and emerging threats

MOPAC will work with government, Counter Terrorism Policing and the National Crime Agency towards legislation on tech-enabled VAWG that is future-proofed and victim-focused – for example, to strengthen laws around intimate images (including deepfake abuse) to target platforms as well as individuals.

We will also work with the Home Office to meet its commitment to review the counter-extremism strategy, and consider classifying extreme misogyny as a form of extremism; and for this to be reflected in any new policy.

• Convene national and international counterparts and partners to take collective responsibility for change

This work will include the Mayor working with his international peers, so they can use their collective influence to advocate for action from governments across the globe. The aim is for governments to respond to the threat of tech-enabled VAWG; and create a safer online, AI and digital world for future generations.

• Support ground-breaking research and training on emerging trends for our police, parents and communities

The VRU will build on the findings of their recently published in-depth analysis of violent and misogynistic content online, how it fuels violence against women and girls and opportunities to intervene and prevent it 29. Supported by a £5m investment, they will deliver a targeted intervention programme through training for communities, parents and carers, and specialist frontline practitioners who work with young people. The VRU will also develop an emotional support and mentoring offer for girls and young women who are at risk of or are experiencing tech-enabled and online VAWG, building on the learnings of its successful mentoring programme for girls and young women aged 9-25 30.    

This work will also include supporting the MPS to develop and evolve resourcing and tactics – such as their digital elements training, which has been taken up by 14 other UK forces – to tackle online and tech-enabled VAWG and the unique policing challenges these crimes present.

Last year, the Mayor – with the City Hub and Network for Gender Equity (CHANGE) – hosted London’s first ever international summit to tackle the global VAWG epidemic. It brought together leaders and advocates from several cities – including Amsterdam, Barcelona, Bogota, Freetown, Louisville, Nairobi, Quezon City, Paris, Renca and Stockholm – at City Hall, where they committed to an international declaration to tackle VAWG.

This declaration – based on parts of the Mayor’s 2022 Tackling VAWG Strategy 31– included:
“This is not a challenge that is unique to any single city, nor a task we can take on alone, but a mission we must pursue together with stakeholders inside our jurisdiction and partners around the world. Through this declaration, CHANGE cities commit to working together to tackle the root causes of gender-based violence. This involves exchanging on and improving public services, policies, the built environment, institutional responses, governance, and attitudinal behaviour change.”

Over the next three years, the Mayor will take the following actions:

• Galvanise partners across London and beyond to prevent VAWG

MOPAC and the VRU will convene partners (across policing; transport; local authorities; the City of London; health services; housing; and the public, voluntary and private sectors) to embed a cross-sector, long-term VAWG Prevention Plan. This will be based on the Mayor’s published VAWG Prevention Principles. We will also continue to work with health partners to build on the set of principles for the NHS to tackle VAWG; these were launched at City Hall’s September 2023 summit.

As part of this work, we will continue to implement the Serious Violence Duty 32, led by the VRU on behalf of London’s 32 boroughs (and the City of London). We will also continue to coordinate the Young Futures Prevention Panels pilot across London; this identifies, at an earlier stage, children and young people at risk of involvement in violence.

Through MOPAC and the VRU, we will work with partners to embed: 

• a more holistic, solution-focused response to violence and abuse within families
• the use of the Adult Child to Parent Abuse (ACPA) family needs and risks tool 33, which acknowledges the additional complexity that parents face when experiencing abuse from their adult or adolescent children.

Our vital work also includes supporting the financial independence of women at risk of VAWG. This involves trialling and testing different approaches to improving confidence and skills – such as employment training and education opportunities – to help them overcome the economic barriers that prevent some women and girls from seeking safety 34.

By taking this approach over the next three years, the Mayor’s priority aims are to:

• deliver effective publicity campaigns to change male attitudes, and increase public awareness, about VAWG; and help people feel equipped to intervene
• support young people to develop healthy attitudes and relationships through MOPAC and the Mayor’s VRU
• help women and girls to feel safer across London as measured by the Public Attitude Survey.

We want more victims and survivors to report VAWG to the police – but there can be multiple barriers to reporting. Concerns around the appalling, misogynistic and abusive behaviour of too many police officers should not be one of them.

The Mayor is clear that this behaviour must be stopped. Perpetrators of VAWG, and those that hold and share misogynistic views – as well as colleagues that enable and fail to challenge these abhorrent behaviours – do not belong in the MPS.

All victims and survivors in all our communities, including victims of grooming gangs or those working for the MPS, should feel confident to report. And they should feel confident that, when they do report, they will be cared for by officers who uphold the highest standards.

Other barriers can include the fear of losing custody of children in the family courts, or of losing a home. It is therefore essential that victims and survivors feel they can rely on officers to treat them sensitively; and to take their case forward effectively, without adding to their trauma.

Overall, in the 12 months to July 2026, the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) more than tripled the number of rape investigations it solved - a 268 per cent increase, or 1,188 more cases – compared to the 12 months to July 2022. However, ongoing challenges across the wider criminal justice system mean victims and survivors can still wait years before their cases are resolved; and many withdraw their complaint to protect their wellbeing 35.  

The Mayor has invested £12m into the MPS Leadership Academy. Meanwhile the London Rape Reviews, which were led by London’s Independent Victims’ Commissioner, led to a national change in how rape is investigated and prosecuted through Operation Soteria.

The MPS was one of the pathfinders for Operation Soteria – a “once-in-a-generation” opportunity to truly transform the police response to rape and serious sexual assault investigation. Since the MPS began its journey in 2022, the number of people arrested and charged with rape offences has more than tripled 36.  

Thousands of officers are working hard every day to change the MPS from within. Yet abuses such as those uncovered at Charing Cross police station last year highlight that there is still work to do.

Over the next three years, the Mayor will take the following actions:

• Continue to support the MPS on its path to becoming more trauma-informed, anti-racist, anti-homophobic and anti-sexist

We will support the delivery, and work with the MPS Commissioner to act on the findings, of the independent Fairfield Review that we have commissioned to examine culture, leadership, standards, and public confidence in the MPS. The Review is currently underway, working to assess progress made against the recommendations of Baroness Casey in her 2023 report 37.

The Mayor will also continue to use his oversight function to support the delivery of the MPS’s New Met for London plans; its VAWG Action Plan; it’s upcoming Inclusion and Victims’ Strategies and its Children’s Strategy, which ensures children under 18 are treated, from the beginning, as children in all their dealings with the police.

• Advocate for safe reporting and protection for all victims and survivors of VAWG, including children and other vulnerable victims including those who work within the MPS

This will include using MOPAC’s oversight mechanism to ensure an appropriate and supportive MPS response to all victims of child sexual abuse and child sexual exploitation – including group-based child sexual exploitation and grooming gangs – regardless of when the alleged abuse took place.

We will work to improve data collection, whilst lobbying for improved legislation and a strengthened National Referral Mechanism to better support adult and child victims, and survivors, of human trafficking and modern slavery – including human trafficking, slavery, servitude and forced labour.

We will use MOPAC’s oversight mechanism to support migrant victims and survivors to safely report. The Mayor will also continue to call on the government to introduce a ‘firewall’ between policing and immigration enforcement. In addition, he will support the delivery of recommendations made by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS), in response to the super-complaint from Liberty and Southall Black Sisters 38.

Similarly, we will use MOPAC’s oversight mechanism to promote safe reporting of VAWG for women involved in prostitution, without them becoming criminalised, while supporting the MPS to target buyers of sex.

• Support the MPS to build capability, consistency and culturally informed anti-racist approaches in response to VAWG

This will include working with the MPS to ensure appropriate cultural sensitivity and anti-racist training and development is delivered to all staff – including those in the special constabulary, frontline supervisors, Police Community Support Officers, and leaders.

It will also include using the latest technological advancements – for example, a new resource to photograph and visualise bruising on victims of violence, particularly on darker skin, which is being rolled out across London.

• Support the MPS to embed the views and care of victims and survivors of VAWG in their work

This will include working with the MPS to ensure victims and survivors of VAWG continue to be supported by the Victim Focus Desk (VFD). Since 2023, the Mayor has invested £3m a year in the phone-based VFD. This is to improve the experience of victims who have already reported their crime to the police; and who require information and updates on their case, and assistance in accessing support services.

The work also includes embedding the views of victims and survivors into updated MPS practices, through the new Met Engage tool 39; My Met Service feedback 40; and ‘walk and talk’ sessions 41. We will also establish a VAWG-specific Victims’ Voice Forum across the MPS, the City of London Police and the BTP.

Through the Mayor’s oversight function, we will support more consistent, trauma-informed communication to vulnerable individuals around how their data and relevant past histories will be handled.

MOPAC will work with the MPS, National Centre for VAWG and Public Protection (NCVPP), the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), the College of Policing and others to assess the impact of the rape and serious sexual violence operation model from Soteria. It will apply this learning to the response to domestic abuse through Operation Bright Light 42.

A more streamlined, coordinated and transparent system, that better serves victims and survivors, is only possible through improved multi-agency working.

To truly eradicate VAWG, we must look more broadly to make VAWG everyone’s business. This means working collaboratively across all of London’s authorities, agencies, councils and bodies – including businesses, employers and communities and all those around them – to create better support for victims.

Over the next three years, the Mayor will take the following actions:

• Convene system leaders, through the MOPAC Partnership Boards and other partnership forums, to drive improvements across the MPS and the wider criminal justice system

This will include encouraging partners to take forward the recommendations from our reports on managing high-harm domestic abuse, and on understanding and responding to ACPA abuse 54.

MOPAC will also lead the implementation of the upcoming Duty to Collaborate 55 for London. This includes developing a joint strategic needs assessment for victims; and a co-commissioning strategy, including for victims and survivors of domestic abuse and sexual violence.

• Bring charities, businesses and other partners together to explore innovative ways to provide additional support for victims and survivors

This will include working with businesses and charities to pilot the provision of additional and much-needed respite accommodation for victims and survivors and their children.

By taking this approach over the next three years, the Mayor’s priority aims are to:

• improve the experience of victims and survivors throughout the criminal justice system as measured by police and other partner data
• reduce the number of victims who choose to discontinue legal proceedings before they reach trial – an issue known as victim attrition. We will measure this using police data.

The Mayor is clear we must take every opportunity to identify VAWG perpetrators and intervene, no matter who they are, as we know they often go on to commit multiple VAWG offences 56.  

Since its launch in 2021, the ground-breaking Culturally Integrated Family Approach is working across 13 boroughs to address intimate partner and familial abuse in minoritised ethnic and marginalised groups 57. The latest evaluation shows it is addressing a critical gap in services by embedding an intersectional approach that shapes families; influences wider systems and social norms; and enhances victim and survivors’ feelings of safety and empowerment 58.

MOPAC has also pioneered system-change work – for example, through London’s Safe and Together programme 59, which since 2021-22 has equipped police and social care professionals to identify domestic abuse as early as possible. One practitioner told us:

“Without Safe & Together … this could have escalated to the child being removed from his mother’s care. The model allowed us to re-evaluate the situation through a lens of perpetrator accountability and survivor strengths … We were able to reflect that the mother’s parenting was more than good enough. Despite the abuse she was enduring, she was doing an excellent job of keeping her child’s development on track … This approach allowed us to focus our safeguarding efforts where they were most needed – on the perpetrator … The mother received specialist domestic abuse support, the child has not witnessed violence for 13 months and now enjoys safe, supervised contact …The family is thriving, with strong ties to extended family and no ongoing child protection involvement.”

Over the next three years, the Mayor will take the following actions:

• Work with partners across London to empower practitioners to recognise abusive behaviour and identify high risk individuals with greater accuracy

In line with our child-first approach, we will work with London Councils, and directors of children’s services across London, to empower practitioners to recognise abusive behaviour from parent perpetrators and support children to remain with their non-abusive parent – and advocate for this approach to become integral to children’s social care in London. This will be easier to navigate with the recent announcement of the upcoming change in the law on parental contact. This will include working with the same partners to ensure the most effective response to identifying child sexual exploitation, including group-based offending, across London.

We will also support the Stalking Threat Assessment Centre (S-TAC) 60 and MPS VAWG 100 programme 61 to identify and prioritise high-harm perpetrators.

To assess and respond to risk more effectively, we will support practitioner training, consistent guidance and improved data sharing, as part of better multi-agency working. For example, we must improve how we collectively assess and understand the risk of harm in relation to domestic abuse 62. This includes supporting the MPS to strengthen its response to counter allegations in domestic abuse cases.

Other identified risk factors include non-fatal strangulation in domestic homicide and suspected victim suicides following domestic abuse. In 2024, for the second year in a row, there were more suspected suicides following domestic abuse than there were homicides involving current or previous partners 63.  

We will build on our work to better understand VAWG perpetrators,  and bring together experts in harmful practices to improve our collective response. This will include working with agencies across the city to remove the systemic barriers that prevent perpetrators of harmful practices from being identified and held to account.

• Support and improve the multi-agency management of VAWG perpetrators

This includes continuing to support London’s Drive programme 64. Since its pilot in 2018, the programme has worked with over 2,600 perpetrators; supported over 1,250 victims and survivors of domestic abuse across London – including more than 2,000 children; and been shown to substantially reduce abusive behaviour 65.  We have extended the programme across every London borough, and the government has now committed to roll it out across England and Wales.

We will also continue to work with the government to develop and deliver more multi-agency intervention programmes across London – so we can reach and reform more VAWG perpetrators; help reduce offending; and stop all forms of VAWG.

It also includes supporting the vital work of Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) 66 and Domestic Abuse Perpetrator Panels 67 across London to deliver targeted, effective, multi-agency provision and systems change. This will include ensuring that MAPPA is used more effectively and consistently to safeguard victims at high risk from domestic abuse and other forms of VAWG.

We will also work with the London Office of Technology and Innovation, and London Councils, to explore the development of a London-wide multi-agency data sharing protocol. This means we can better identify, and manage the behaviour of, VAWG perpetrators; and protect victims and survivors.

MOPAC will also closely follow the IOPC investigation into failings in the multi-agency management of Simon Levy, convicted for the murder of two women and for a number of other serious offences. The Mayor, London’s Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime and London’s Victims’ Commissioner will continue to work with the MPS, the government and partner agencies to ensure that all steps are being taken to understand, learn from and act on lessons learned to ensure this never happens again.

• Continue to pioneer innovative approaches to managing, disrupting and restricting VAWG perpetrators in the community

This includes GPS tagging and advocating for it to be available for all VAWG perpetrators – for as long as is needed to manage their risk – as a part of introducing the new Sentencing Act.

It will also include victim proximity monitoring; stronger and more impactful restrictions to prevent tech-enabled abuse and exploring the use of SmartWater 68 and voluntary interventions for those suspected, but not convicted, of sexual offences.

• Work with partners to develop and invest in new specialist interventions that help cope with the issues created by capacity challenges across the criminal justice system

This will include considering the recommendations from the Leveson review 69 and the Sentencing Act 2026 70.  

It will also include continuing to trial, and learn from, our recently launched domestic abuse diversion pilot for first-time offenders. This prioritises the safety of victims and survivors; the intention is to roll it out across London 71.

We will lobby for specialist and effective VAWG interventions to meet demand throughout the criminal justice system, including in prisons and for those on probation. Programmes across London should provide tailored and combined responses that consider offender needs – such as trauma, mental health, neurodiversity, substance misuse, and relationship/attitudinal factors. All programmes should be underpinned by appropriate support for victims and their children.

For the MPS to effectively respond to VAWG, it must first be staffed with officers that uphold its values; believe in its reform; and commit to ensuring London’s streets are safe for women and girls, and a hostile place for VAWG perpetrators.

Since the MPS launched its Professional Standards Domestic Abuse and Sexual Offences unit in 2022, over 110 unsuitable officers and staff have been removed 72.  Long-overdue reforms to police vetting mean any officer who fails background checks is now automatically dismissed. The Mayor and the MPS Commissioner will continue to drive forward this work. This will include action on recommendations from the ongoing Dame Angiolini Inquiry 73.

Since coming to office in 2016, the Mayor has doubled City Hall funding for the MPS. His Police and Crime Plan prioritises neighbourhood policing; and TfL is directing additional funds to the police to enhance activity to tackle VAWG on the transport network and improve women and girls’ confidence to travel.

The MPS has worked hard to embed Operation Soteria across its rape and sexual violence investigations. The Mayor and the MPS Commissioner are determined to continue this work in response to all VAWG 74.

A concerted effort is needed to tackle and drive down the highest-volume VAWG offences: domestic abuse (which makes up around a third of violence against the person recorded by the MPS), sexual violence and stalking.

This will include supporting the MPS to further build on and develop the data-driven VAWG 100 approach, to continuously prioritise and charge the highest-harm offenders. This model has, since July 2023, led to more visible local policing; and specific intelligence-led, data-driven action against 64 per cent of those identified as the most dangerous VAWG offenders in London. This has resulted in 263 arrests and 208 convictions 75.  

The Mayor has demanded full transparency and asked the MPS to leave no stone unturned when investigating the utterly abhorrent individuals or gangs who exploit children for sex. In 2023, he asked HMICFRS to investigate child protection at the MPS, including the effectiveness of their response to child sexual exploitation.  This led to the MPS delivering significant improvements to how child sexual exploitation is being tackled in London. They have also embedded a new ‘Child First’ approach to safeguarding – including an enhanced approach to dealing with vulnerable missing children – to ensure child sexual exploitation is treated with the seriousness it deserves.  The Mayor’s investment in the police has also helped to train over 11,000 frontline officers to identify all forms of child exploitation, leading to a sustained increase in the identification and recording of child exploitation investigations.

Over the next three years, the Mayor will take the following actions:

• Work with the MPS to apply a more targeted approach to prioritise reducing offending – including repeat and serial – amongst domestic abuse, sexual violence and stalking perpetrators

This will include supporting the MPS to further build on and develop the data-driven VAWG 100 model; and encouraging partners and others to play their part in identifying and responding to a much wider group of VAWG suspects, as part of their business-as-usual work 76.  

It includes continued investment in S-TAC; overseeing the rollout of our commissioned Stalking Awareness E-Learning Package 77 for the MPS; and monitoring its impact on frontline practice via S-TAC. There is a particular focus on case classification, positive case outcomes and Stalking Protection Order numbers.

It also includes supporting the Commissioner’s continued work to root out police-perpetrated abuse and ensure all MPS officers are fit to serve.

• Support the MPS to protect and strengthen visible neighbourhood policing

This will include championing the rollout of the new Met Engage 78 tool, which provides crime-prevention advice; updates on ongoing incidents and investigations; and information about successful outcomes and operations.

We will continue to track the confidence that women and girls across London have in the MPS; we will do this through MOPAC’s Evidence and Insight Unit. The MPS will continue to use other location data to identify high-risk areas. This data will help inform multi-agency partnership-working across local authorities, policing, transport, businesses and more. Outcomes include, for example, an increased police presence at certain times and locations; targeted public realm improvements; and other evidence-based interventions.

• Continue to support and hold the MPS to account to ensure it does everything possible to tackle child sexual exploitation and grooming gangs

The Mayor is committed to remaining vigilant to emerging and changing threats around child exploitation, and we will continue to support and hold the MPS to account to ensure it does everything possible to tackle child sexual exploitation in London, including grooming gangs.

It includes supporting the MPS in their commitment to reassess historic cases of child sexual abuse, exploitation and grooming gangs under Operation Beaconport – the national policing operation to review closed cases of group-based child sexual exploitation between 2010 and 2025 that were not prosecuted by the police or CPS.  

Through the Mayor’s oversight, it includes holding the MPS to a continued ‘child first’ approach to safeguarding– including an improved response to dealing with vulnerable missing children – to ensure child sexual exploitation is treated with the seriousness it deserves.  

It also includes ensuring the MPS continue to train frontline officers to identify all forms of child exploitation, so that child exploitation investigations are appropriately managed and properly recorded.

• Support the MPS to improve its approach to VAWG offender management

This will include working with the MPS – through the Mayor’s oversight function – to implement the offender management recommendations, as set out in the HMICFRS PEEL Inspection 2023-25 79; and any recommendations arising from the upcoming assessment of progress made following the Casey Review.

We will work with the MPS to improve its response to all VAWG across all of London’s communities – including the LGBTQI+ and Black and minoritised communities. This includes strengthening the tools at its disposal to intervene positively across London’s diverse communities.

We will support the MPS commitment to prioritise civil and criminal protective orders for VAWG offenders, to proactively target perpetrators – including those suspected of being high-risk. We will work in partnership with the MPS to ensure these orders are better used; effective; and robustly enforced. This includes Stalking Protection Orders and the pilot of Domestic Abuse Protection Orders.

We will continue to support the MPS to apply the successes of Operation Soteria to perpetrators across other forms of VAWG. We will also continue to support the MPS, the BTP and the City of London Police as they implement the new Sex-based Harassment in Public Act 2023 80 legislation and guidance.

We will continue to support the local and national inquiries into group-based child sexual exploitation as they develop. And we will work with the Government and the MPS to ensure the effective and transparent delivery of the London element of Operation Beaconport.  

The Mayor is clear that we must work together towards a world in which the perpetrator is expected to change and stop their behaviour – rather than the victim. A world where professionals in the criminal justice system feel confident and able to hold perpetrators to account, regardless of any political or cultural sensitivities; and where a comprehensive range of tools, sanctions and interventions are used to protect women and girls.

A recent evaluation of the Mayor’s pioneering GPS tagging pilot for domestic abuse offenders, compared tag wearers in the two years before the tag was fitted, with the same tag wearers two years after the tag started. Those released from prison and fitted with the Mayor’s GPS tags were 45 per cent less likely to be charged with an offence in the 12 months after being fitted with a tag compared to the 12 months before being tagged. This reduction increased to 63 per cent for violent offences 81.  Feedback from probation officers involved in the pilot highlighted the great value of the tags in risk management, and in providing reassurance to professionals and victims.

Over the next three years, the Mayor will take the following actions:

• Convene partners to explore better collaboration to improve outcomes across the criminal justice system

This will include exploring how data sharing between the MPS, the CPS and the family courts system could be improved to ensure safe decision-making in cases involving perpetrators of VAWG.

Through the London Criminal Justice Board and MOPAC, we will support the implementation of the Leveson recommendations to prioritise high-harm cases, reduce Crown Court backlogs and use more diversionary and early-intervention programmes for lower-risk cases.

• Make the case for national changes and reform to improve outcomes in key areas

We will lobby for further investment for tackling perpetrators across the criminal justice system, to increase capacity for those convicted and sentenced; and those who are not convicted, but still pose a significant risk to women and girls.

This will include supporting the expansion of GPS tagging for those released from prison and testing proximity monitoring in London, to ensure effective monitoring is in place for as long as necessary to manage the risk they pose to women and girls. We will also call for a central approach to developing national guidance with the NPCC regarding tech-enabled abuse and online harms. 

An improved criminal justice system, that ensures perpetrators are held to account at every stage of the criminal justice journey – from the initial allegation to the final criminal justice outcome – is only possible through improved multi-agency working to take every opportunity to reduce the risk of further VAWG offending.

Over the next three years, the Mayor will take the following actions:

• Advocate for a more consistent and coordinated multi-agency approach to tackle VAWG

This will include promoting ongoing practitioner training and upskilling throughout the system, to promote effective enforcement; swift justice; improved information sharing; and a proactive response to VAWG and the harmful attitudes that enable it.

MOPAC will work with partners to coordinate and deliver the Domestic Abuse Joint Justice Plan  between the CPS and the MPS to improve timeliness and quality of investigations, leading to more prosecutions and convictions. This will also include work to drive changes and speed up justice – including advocating for the establishment of specialist domestic abuse courts.

By taking this approach over the next three years, the Mayor is working towards the following priority aims:

• Increase reporting of VAWG offences, as measured by Police Recorded Crime.
• Strengthen identification, successful intervention and management of VAWG perpetrators. We will measure this through commissioned services data and reductions in reoffending, where possible.
• Reduce sexual offence reoffending, as measured by MoJ data.
• Increase positive outcomes for rape and other sexual offences, domestic abuse, and stalking and harassment. We will measure this using Police Recorded Crime data.
• Reduce the length of time it takes to reach a conviction in rape offences. We will measure this using: 
  - Home Office police recorded outcomes data for average days taken for police to charge an offender
  - CPS quarterly data on average days from police referral to charge
  - Criminal Court Statistics, on average days from arrival to case completion at the Crown Court.