and girls in ten years.
Professor John Robertson OBA
BBC Breakfast above, today, has been discussing at length, the Labour Government’s new strategy promising to halve violence against women and girls in ten years.
What is the current level?
In the year-ending June 2025, there were 72 804 cases of rape and attempted rape, 211 225 sexual offences and 797 530 cases of domestic abuse, in England and Wales.1
In Scotland in the same period, the figures were 2 897, 5 124 and 2 573.2, 3
England & Wales have roughly 11 times the population, so all things being equal you might have expected the figures to have been around 30 000, 55 000 and 30 000. In fact, they were between two and three times higher for rape and assisted rape, four times higher for sexual offences and a staggering 20 to 30 times higher for domestic abuse!
Now there will be differences in reporting which limit direct comparison, I know but they are not enough, given the scale, to do so significantly. Indeed, The Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009 actually broadened the definition of rape in Scotland (e.g., explicitly including male victims and certain acts), which increased recorded figures there post-2010.4
Should this shocking contrast have been the other way, just as with drug deaths, you can be sure ‘our‘ media would not hesitate to have Scotland as the ‘rape capital of Europe’ and so on.
Finally, Labour aims to halve violence against women in England & Wales in 10 years, so the figures, if they manage, would be around 36 000 rapes and attempted rapes, 105 000 sexual offences and 400 000 cases of domestic abuse – in each case still higher pro rata than in Scotland!
Sources:
- https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/bulletins/crimeinenglandandwales/yearendingjune2025#sexual-offences
- https://www.gov.scot/publications/recorded-crime-scotland-2024-25/pages/sexual-crimes/
- https://www.gov.scot/publications/recorded-crime-scotland-2024-25/pages/non-sexual-crimes-of-violence/
- https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-41399257
Note – some (10-15%?) sexual offences and cases of domestic abuse are against men.
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
This is one of these well-intended, but rather pointless targets. Violence against women (or anyone else) is wrong and the aim is to end it. Such an aim is, probably, unachievable, but it should be aspired to.
If the target of a 50% reduction is achieved, there will still be many people being subjected to violence.
Targets while useful as providing a sense of direction often become distractions, largely because opposition politicians and the baleful media use them to apportion blame as an end in itself. And we have the nauseating spectacle of the performative rage by campaigners.
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All woman should know proper self defense tecniques, and carry a legal attack alarm/weapon when outside. All woman should know where to go to escape a violent partner, and that should be funded by government not charities. I know it’s not as simple as women having to rely on protecting themselves, it’s a societal issue and needs to be dealt with at that level.
It’s a disgrace that England is so far behind Scotland, and the English gov are dragging out any measures to reduce and stop any such crimes.
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I suspect some jiggery pokery as apparently (according to a Youtube blog) there are currently no accurate figures for assaults on women/girls in England as the amazingly they are compiled by assaults including men and none for girls under the age of 16yo???? So if this is correct I guess there seems to ample scope to manipulate the end result.
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