Labour pledge The action needed to halve violence against women

In his pitch to voters in March last year, Keir Starmer said he wanted to "imagine a society where violence against women is stamped out everywhere”. His government would, he promised, halve violence against women and girls in a decade. It was a bold, simple statement, widely welcomed for its ambition.

- Alexandra Topping

In his pitch to voters in March last year, Keir Starmer said he wanted to "imagine a society where violence against women is stamped out everywhere". His government would, he promised, halve violence against women and girls in a decade. It was a bold, simple statement, widely welcomed for its ambition.

That something has to change is not in doubt. The first national analysis of the scale of violence against women and girls (VAWG) released in July by the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) estimated that 2 million women were victims of male violence every year - an epidemic so serious it amounts to a "national emergency". VAWG crimes account for 20% of all police-recorded crime.

On average, a woman is killed by a man in Britain every three days. One in 12 women in England and Wales will experience stalking, harassment, sexual assault or domestic violence. The number of recorded offences has grown by 37% in the past five years.

So far, the government has given little detail about how it will measure its success. It has, however, already given some indicators of shifts in policy.

Perhaps the most significant is that VAWG will be considered central to the pledge to create "safer streets", one of the government's five central "missions". The home secretary, Yvette Cooper, has said this will mean that all departments are working together to tackle the problem. Jess Phillips, the VAWG minister, told the Guardian that support for victims and effective policing would be crucial, and pointed to already announced policies, adding: "These are the first steps towards what I hope will be real, tangible change."