Statement on the Office for National Statistics (ONS) combined measure for Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG)
The Centre for Safer Society welcomes progress in building a more consistent picture of violence against women and girls through the Office for National Statistics’ new combined measure. However, we are concerned that this framework risks oversimplifying the complexity of gender-based violence and missing the realities of the most marginalised survivors.
While improvements to the Crime Survey for England and Wales, such as including coercive control and post-separation abuse, are a step forward, the metric’s narrow scope, single percentage figure, and lack of intersectional insight mean it cannot yet serve as a reliable tool for policy or accountability.
Our work across reviews, needs assessments, and survivor engagement has shown how easily entire forms of harm fall through the cracks of national data. If we are to halve VAWG within a decade, we must start with a measurement framework that reflects the full scale, severity, and structural nature of violence. We call for urgent reform of the metric, led in partnership with specialist VAWG organisations and those with lived experience.
A safer society isn’t built on numbers alone - it’s built on systems that listen, learn, and respond. We urge the government to initiate a full and in-depth consultation on the proposed measure with the specialist VAWG sector, ensuring that those closest to the harm help shape how it is counted.
The Centre for Safer Society is a mission-led organisation working to prevent violence, abuse, and harm through strategy, evaluation, research, and training. We support local areas, partnerships, and national bodies to build safer, more responsive systems, grounded in evidence, lived experience, and social justice. The government’s updated VAWG Strategy is expected in September 2025 and will set out the delivery plan for meeting the target to halve VAWG by 2034–35.
Contact: info@centreforsafersociety.co.uk.