BLOG | As part of the 16 days of action to Eliminate Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG), Liverpool’s Cabinet Member for Safer Stronger Communities, Cllr Laura Robertson-Collins, outlines some of the work Liverpool City Council is doing to tackle the issue...
Research carried out by Merseyside’s Police and Crime Commissioner shows that a staggering 71% of women still live in fear of a sexual assault and that 69% of women say they would not report an incident to the police.
They are truly appalling statistics which should shame us all.
Until we have public confidence that action will be taken, we will never know the true scale of the issue.
It’s why we’re supporting the Merseyside Police and the PCC’s #TakingAction campaign to end Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG), which is focused on ensuring women and girls are given the support and action if they are victims of VAWG.
As part of our own commitment to tackling the issue, we have been rolling out a number of initiatives.
They include a text message service (specifically requested by young people) which can be used to report concerns, educational training for up to 70 schools on sexual harassment and misogyny and an increased police presence on the city’s transport network through the Safer Streets Merseyside projects. Internally, we run a campaign for our staff to raise awareness of VAWG, and the signs to look out for.
We know that three-quarters of victims of domestic abuse are female and in 2022/23 almost 12,000 crimes were reported to police in Liverpool – and that levels are 25% higher than they were before the pandemic.
In response, we recently launched a three-year Domestic Abuse strategy which aims to cut incidents by ensuring residents know how to access services, helping increase prevention and the severity of incidents, as well as providing increased support for survivors, and improving the challenge made to perpetrators.
But we cannot do this alone, and we are fortunate that the recently-elected government shares our concerns – with a pledge to halve offences nationally over the next decade. We are looking forward to supporting their efforts to tackle the issue.
Make no mistake, it will be a long and difficult road – but by calling out and raising awareness of VAWG, and encouraging victims to report incidents, we can all play a part in reducing the number of women affected.
