Rapists, sex offenders and abusers will have “nowhere to hide” under a new government package billed as the biggest crackdown on violence against women and girls in British history, with ministers promising tougher policing on the streets and an expanded push against perpetrators operating online.
The Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, is expected to set out the measures next week as part of the Government’s long-awaited strategy on violence against women and girls (VAWG), which ministers have described as a “national emergency”. The proposals include widening Clare’s Law so police can disclose a wider range of previous offending, the creation of specialist rape investigation capability in every police force by 2029, new covert online teams to target abuse in digital spaces, and the national rollout of stronger domestic abuse protection orders.
Mahmood said the reforms would give women more “power and control” over their safety. “This Government has declared violence against women and girls a national emergency,” she said. “For too long, these crimes have been considered a fact of life. That’s not good enough. We will halve it in a decade. Rapists, sex offenders and abusers will have nowhere to hide.”
A central plank is a proposed expansion of Clare’s Law, formally known as the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme (DVDS), which allows police to tell someone whether their partner has a history of domestic abuse. Under the planned changes, ministers say the scheme will be widened to cover other convictions linked to violence against women and girls, including stalking and sexual assault, enabling police to warn victims and potential victims about an individual’s past offending.
Clare’s Law was introduced after the murder of Clare Wood, 36, who was killed by her former partner George Appleton in 2009. Wood had reported Appleton to police several times after meeting him on Facebook, but was not told about his previous history of violence against women, including a prison sentence for harassing another woman. Ministers say the broadened scheme is designed to improve early warnings and reduce repeat harm.
The Government also plans to require all police forces to employ dedicated rape and sexual offence specialist investigators by 2029, with teams tasked with improving the investigation and pursuit of rape and other serious sexual offences. The announcement comes against a backdrop of rising recorded offending: the Office for National Statistics has reported tens of thousands of rapes recorded annually in England and Wales, equating to roughly 200 recorded by police each day, with campaigners and ministers acknowledging that many more offences are never reported.
Separately, new “covert online” policing squads will be created to target perpetrators who use digital platforms to stalk, harass or abuse women and girls. Ministers said nearly £2 million will be invested in a network of officers focused on tackling online VAWG, building on existing undercover work used against child sexual exploitation and abuse. The Home Office has previously pointed to that model as having contributed to more than 1,700 arrests, though full details of the methodology and oversight for the new VAWG-focused squads have not yet been published.
The package also includes an expansion of Domestic Abuse Protection Orders (DAPOs), with wider use of conditions including curfews, electronic tags and exclusion zones. Breaches could carry penalties of up to five years in prison. DAPOs were created under the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 and have been piloted in parts of England and Wales; ministers now plan a broader rollout.
The measures are being announced after months of criticism over delays to the Government’s VAWG strategy. Keir Starmer entered Downing Street in July 2024 pledging to halve violence against women and girls within a decade, but publication of the cross-government strategy has been repeatedly pushed back.
Earlier this week, the chairs of the Home Affairs Committee, the Justice Committee and the Women and Equalities Committee wrote to ministers warning that repeated delays were creating “significant uncertainty” across the sector and risked sending a message that tackling VAWG was “not a government priority”.
The announcements also come days after a major report by Lady Elish Angiolini, who is leading an inquiry established following the murder of Sarah Everard in 2021 by serving Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens. Angiolini criticised what she called an “unacceptable level of inconsistency” across police forces and warned that data failures and inconsistent policies risk allowing offenders to “slip through the cracks”.
Campaigners welcomed parts of the package but warned that existing systems are already under strain, particularly around police capacity to process disclosures quickly and consistently. Andrea Simon, director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition (EVAW), said the current disclosure scheme was not operating efficiently everywhere.
“We know that the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme (DVDS) is not operating efficiently everywhere, with a need to improve how the police share information, particularly as awareness of this and the rate of ‘right to ask’ applications by the public grow,” she said. “Currently, forces take far too long to respond to these requests so if this is to be rolled out across VAWG crimes we need to see rapid improvements.”
Simon also raised concerns about how ministers will be held to account for delivering the promised changes. “We are also yet to see a robust framework for how the government will hold itself accountable for their cross-government strategy, and we call for more transparency on this,” she said. “Violence against women and girls will also not be halved without a significant focus on prevention, and we expect to see more investment in preventing abuse.”
Questions also remain about funding and implementation timelines. While ministers have trailed new investment for online enforcement, it is not yet clear how police forces will resource the requirement for specialist rape and sexual offence investigators by 2029. The Guardian reported that forces may be expected to meet parts of the new requirement from existing budgets, raising concerns among some police leaders and campaigners about whether specialist teams can be built and maintained without additional long-term funding.
The Government has framed the overall strategy around pursuing perpetrators more aggressively while strengthening tools designed to protect victims, including tighter restrictions on suspected and convicted abusers and improved information-sharing to prevent repeat offending. Ministers argue that the scale of offending, the growth of online abuse and the continued low charge rates in many sexual offence cases require a step change in policing and prevention.
Further detail on how the expanded disclosure regime will operate — including thresholds for disclosure, timescales for responding to applications, and safeguards around decision-making and appeals — is expected when the VAWG strategy is published next week.