Reports & recommendations

Immediately, the Home Office should lead work, coordinated by the National Centre for Violence Against Women and Girls and Public Protection, to significantly increase both the collection and use of data on sexually motivated crimes against women in public spaces, in order to establish an informed understanding of these crimes and assist in building effective preventative measures. This work should:

a. Add requirements for police forces to consistently record and provide data on: (i) the nature of the relationship between the perpetrator and victim (i.e. whether they are strangers, or known to each other); and (ii) a description of the location of the offence(s) (by way of defined categories of public spaces or private premises), as part of their annual data returns. Consideration should be given to how this data can usefully inform the work of the Safer Streets mission to improve and better target prevention activity.

b. Review the capability and capacity of police analysts, working to increase the recruitment, retention and recognition of the central role these professionals play in helping to prevent sexually motivated crimes against women in public spaces.

c. Establish annual information collection, using existing surveys, to understand women's perceptions of safety and their experiences and the public's perception of sexually motivated crimes in public settings. Consideration should be given to how this data can usefully inform the work of the Safer Streets mission to improve and better target prevention activity.

d. Set clear guidelines that, where data is gathered by policing from female victims of sexually motivated crimes in public spaces, they should be offered the opportunity to share information regarding protected characteristics. This is to ensure that, where possible, an accurate picture of victimisation is provided, and the correct support is available. Guidelines should cover details of how to conduct this data collection in a way that is sensitive to the needs of victims.

By November 2026, the Government should explore how to improve the impact that the safety advice provided by police Designing Out Crime Officers could have on the prevention of sexually motivated crimes in public spaces, including by amendments to policies and changing their status within relevant planning legislation.

By March 2026, the Home Office, as the lead department for the response to violence against women and girls, should agree funding for a multi-year series of public information campaigns centred around the prevention of sexually motivated crimes against women in public spaces. These campaigns should be managed and funded centrally by the UK Government, but rolled out regionally and locally in a sustainable and consistent way. They should all have the same central purpose and messaging, and include evaluation metrics based on behaviour and attitudinal change, as well as communications reach and engagement.

This recommendation should not be seen to supersede any progress made against Recommendation 5 from the Part 1 Report (the Home Office should launch a public information campaign on indecent exposure). Instead, any activity to implement Recommendation 5 from the Part 1 Report should seek to incorporate any relevant learning from this, subsequent, recommendation as part of the response (despite the passage of time and nine-month delay in implementation; see Chapter 1 on the implementation of recommendations from the Part 1 Report for further details on this).

The public has a pivotal role to play in the prevention of sexually motivated crimes against women in public spaces. In recognition of that:

a. By April 2026, the Home Office, as the lead department for the response to violence against women and girls, should agree funding for (and later implement) a multi-year series of active bystander public information campaigns centred around the prevention of sexually motivated crimes against women in public spaces. Campaigns should be launched by no later than December 2026. These should be managed and funded centrally by the UK Government, but rolled out regionally and locally in a sustainable and consistent way. They should all have the same central purpose and messaging, and include evaluation metrics based on behaviour and attitudinal change, as well as communications reach and engagement.

b. By July 2026, the Home Office should agree which agencies should have ownership of the coordination standards and messaging around active bystander training.

c. By July 2026, the Government should consider the arguments for the introduction of a wider Good Samaritan law, as is being championed by Farah Naz, Zara Aleena's aunt and campaigner; and in particular consider the potential impact that introducing such a law could have on the prevention of sexually motivated crimes against women in public spaces.

By April 2026, the Home Office, the National Centre for Violence Against Women and Girls and Public Protection, and the National Police Chiefs' Council should roll out Project Vigilant nationally and consistently across all forces in England and Wales. This should be introduced primarily across nighttime economy spaces but should then be expanded to other suitable environments in which Project Vigilant could help prevent and interrupt perpetrators of sexually motivated crimes against women in public spaces. In addition, Police and Crime Commissioners should specifically liaise with Chief Constables on the implementation of Project Vigilant in their areas, to understand its impact on the delivery of the force's Police and Crime Plan, and its contribution to national policing capabilities aimed at tackling violence against women and girls.

By September 2026, the Home Office (as the lead department for the response to violence against women and girls), working closely with the Department for Education, the Ministry of Justice, and the Department of Health and Social Care, should increase and improve the information, support and programmes available to men and boys that create a culture of positive masculinity, to help prevent them from committing sexually motivated crimes against women in public spaces. This work should include:

a. implementing the recommendation from Creating a Safer World - The Challenge of Regulating Online Pornography (the 2025 Independent Pornography Review conducted by Baroness Bertin) that "resources and funding should be focused on school and community programmes specifically for boys and young men in order to encourage healthy discussions about positive masculinity and relationships, and to counter misogynistic culture";

b. creating a comprehensive and easy-to-access online space that provides support to intervene and prevent sexually motivated crimes against women in public spaces by providing information directly to perpetrators and their families; this could take a similar form to information available on the Enough website aimed at domestic abuse perpetrators, and should be designed in collaboration with specialist organisations who support perpetrators;

c. increasing the availability of early interventions - available via GPs, self-referral, social workers - for individuals who have not yet committed a sexual offence but have concerns about their thoughts or behaviours, as well as the availability of interventions via probation officers where the individual is already within the criminal justice system; and

d. reviewing the availability, use and effectiveness of behaviour change programmes for these men and boys (whether self-referred, GP-referred or provided as part of a condition on a criminal justice order), with actions to increase the availability of these programmes as necessary.

Immediately, Chief Constables and Police and Crime Commissioners should ensure that the prevention of sexually motivated crimes against women in public spaces is an essential part of: (i) their violence against women and girls plans; and (ii) the Police and Crime Plans. This should include:

a. circulating consistent and sustained leadership communications across the force, with Chief Constables and Police and Crime Commissioners making very clear the priority placed on these offences;

b. senior officers reviewing and taking appropriate action on metrics around these crimes, as part of standard and regular force performance management;

c. formal reviews by the senior officer team in every force to ensure that all relevant force functional areas have clear roles and responsibilities regarding the prevention of these crimes, with mechanisms in place to test officer and staff understanding; and

d. in addition to Recommendation 18 - increased use of police Designing Out Crime Officers in the prevention of sexually motivated crimes against women in public spaces - taking sustained action to train, empower and embed these roles in forces.

By March 2026, the Home Office, working with the National Police Chiefs' Council, and the National Centre for Violence Against Women and Girls and Public Protection, should agree plans for the full, consistent and sustainable implementation of Operation Soteria across all forces in England and Wales.

This should include agreement of multi-year funding, covering the period until Operation Soteria has been both fully implemented and evaluated in all forces, with any issues arising from each evaluation being addressed. In addition, Police and Crime Commissioners should specifically liaise with Chief Constables on the implementation of Operation Soteria in their areas, to understand its impact on the delivery of the force's Police and Crime Plan, and its contribution to national policing capabilities aimed at tackling violence against women and girls.

By June 2026, building on the wider violence against women and girls strategy, the Government should publish a comprehensive, multi-year and whole-system prevention strategy, which specifically targets the perpetrators of sexually motivated crimes against women in public spaces. This strategy should:

a. coordinate activity and measures aimed at: (i) preventing these crimes happening in the first place; and (ii) reducing the risk of perpetrators reoffending;

b. coordinate and direct work to encourage reporting of these crimes;

c. be based on: (i) a clear expectation of how and why the planned actions aim to contribute to prevention of crimes (informed by the research commissioned under Recommendation 17(b); and (ii) comprehensive and meaningful engagement with stakeholders, including charity and voluntary sector groups who represent victims and perpetrators;

d. adopt a public health approach, with prevention activity across primary, secondary and tertiary levels;

e. provide absolute clarity on the roles and responsibilities of essential and accountable sectors, agencies and departments to help avoid duplication in efforts and strengthen joint working - this should include: (i) following liaison with the National Police Chiefs' Council, clarity on the extent of the role of policing in primary prevention (i.e. tackling the underlying roots of violence against women and girls); and (ii) where appropriate, introducing statutory duties where this is assessed as most needed;

f. have secure multi-year funding, aligning with at least the ten-year period specified for halving violence against women and girls; and

g. include the establishment of a robust evaluation mechanism - in order to measure the success of the prevention strategy - which should be aligned with the recommendations of the Home Affairs Committee's 2025 report Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls: Funding and include a set of common metrics to allow for assessment of activity across all levels, and to measure progress.

If an assessment is made that new statutory duties or obligations are required to support the implementation of this prevention strategy and avoid duplication in efforts and strengthen joint working, steps should be taken without delay to secure the introduction of the relevant legislation.

By March 2026, the College of Policing, working with the National Police Chiefs' Council including the Office of the Police Chief Scientific Adviser, the Home Office, HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services, and the National Centre for Violence Against Women and Girls and Public Protection, should ensure that there are improved mechanisms in place to identify, test and roll out promising initiatives designed to prevent sexually motivated crimes against women in public spaces. This should include:

a. continuing to encourage local innovation, but with an improved, standard mechanism in place by which local innovations can be tested, rolled out and evaluated nationally, learning from Operation Soteria; and

b. working with the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners on an approach that encourages Police and Crime Commissioners (and their successors) and mayoral offices to liaise with Chief Constables about the implementation of rolled-out measures, the impact they can have on delivery of the forces' Police and Crime Plans, and their contribution to national policing capabilities in prevention of violence against women and girls; this work should include obtaining an understanding of the rationale behind any decision not to implement any measure, and recording those reasons.

Immediately, the Home Office, as the lead department for the response to violence against women and girls, in conjunction with the Ministry of Justice, the Department for Transport, and national and local policing organisations, should prioritise prevention activity targeting the perpetrators of sexually motivated crimes against women in public spaces. This should include the following actions:

a. Immediately, the Home Office commissioning research to draw together and analyse information on the perpetrators of sexually motivated crimes against women in public, in order to help target preventative activity. This should include analysis of:
i. information from behaviour change programmes on perpetrators' patterns of behaviour; their motivations for behaviour change; and what is most effective at preventing this behaviour; and
ii. information from academic and operational knowledge produced by Project Vigilant, Operation Soteria, the Metropolitan Police Service's Violence Against Women and Girls 100 (V100) programme and similar programmes of perpetrator-focused work.

b. By November 2026, the College of Policing and, within it, the National Centre for Violence Against Women and Girls and Public Protection, in collaboration with the National Police Chiefs' Council, should use this research to develop training and guidance on how to identify and target policing activity against potential perpetrators of sexually motivated crimes against women in public spaces. This should include an interventions toolkit for use in forces. The training and guidance should be rolled out to forces by April 2027. It should then be updated annually, based on priorities identified in the Violence Against Women and Girls Strategic Threat Risk Assessment (which the National Police Chiefs' Council should update in light of the research in Recommendation 17(a)).

c. By December 2027, HM Inspectorate of Constabulary should complete an inspection of the implementation of the new training and guidance in Recommendation 17(b), and of the efficiency and effectiveness of forces in adopting a perpetrator focus. This should include assessment of how successfully forces are balancing this focus with an appropriate and effective response to victims.

d. Immediately, and while acknowledging the fact that many sexual offences are never reported to the police, the Home Office should include, as a metric within its evaluation of the success of the Government's commitment to halve violence against women and girls in ten years, the number of perpetrators of these crimes who are prevented from further sexual offending. As a minimum, this should include: the number of perpetrators who are (i) arrested; (ii) prosecuted; and (iii) convicted of these crimes; and in addition (iv) information on reoffending rates for these categories; and (v) data on the number of individuals interrupted through Project Vigilant patrols.

By March 2026, the College of Policing and the National Centre for Violence Against Women and Girls and Public Protection, working with the National Police Chiefs' Council and the Crown Prosecution Service, should create a consistent and clear standard for police investigations in this area, explicitly addressing the detection of predatory perpetrators. The Home Secretary should give consideration to using her powers under section 53A of the Police Act 1996, which enables her to issue regulations that mandate police forces to follow particular procedures and practices.

Immediately, the Government should take action to make it clearer that preventing sexually motivated offences against women in public is an essential part of tackling violence against women and girls. This should include the following:

a. The Government should ensure that this Report, the detail of the violence against women and girls strategy, and the prevention strategy at Recommendation 25 (and the evaluation of its success, if available) are before the Secretary of State to inform her view on how to update future versions of the Strategic Policing Requirement. This is so that the Secretary of State can use this information to assess the level of importance and prominence to give to the threat of violence against women and girls (compared with the other identified national threats); and specifically to the prioritisation of the prevention of sexual offences against women in public spaces.

b. The Government should commit to and pursue a positive ambition that generally these crimes are preventable, not inevitable, with a clear focus on prevention being key to meeting the target of halving violence against women and girls over ten years.

c. The Government should ensure that there is a clear focus on identifying, responding to and preventing sexually motivated crimes against women in public spaces in the job descriptions, training and guidance for the remodelled neighbourhood policing roles.

d. The Government has, previously, provided an initial response to Creating a Safer World - The Challenge of Regulating Online Pornography, the 2025 Independent Pornography Review conducted by Baroness Bertin. This included recognising the need to act urgently to tackle the harms from illegal and harmful pornography online, and the link between attitudes and behaviours in the online and offline world. The Government also recognised that this is crucial in order to deliver the mission to halve violence against women and girls in ten years. It is deeply worrying that harmful content that would be illegal offline remains unrestrained online. Therefore, the Government should provide a full response to each of the recommendations in the Review by February 2026, to enable cross-cutting prevention activity alongside the recommendations in this Report.