One in eight women experience abuse each year, according to 2025 data from the Metropolitan Police Service, which also exposes where violence against women and girls is most concentrated.
A recent Office for National Statistics study, ‘Domestic abuse in England and Wales overview: November 2025’, shows the level of offences of domestic abuse across England and Wales.
An estimated 3.8 million people experienced domestic abuse in the year ending March 2025, with 58% (2.2 million) of the total being women.
The largest proportion of reported cases were related to domestic abuse, equating to about 15.4% of national police recorded offences.
Refuge CEO, Gemma Sherrington, said: “Home should be a safe place, but at Refuge we know it can be the most dangerous place for women experiencing domestic abuse.
“There are a myriad of ways in which perpetrators weaponise the home environment every day: from controlling the purse strings, to misusing smart home devices such as the heating or locks, to physical abuse.
“The Government has pledged to halve violence against women and girls by 2034, but without investing the full funding needed for services that save women’s lives, their VAWG strategy comes up short.”
In December 2025, the Labour Government announced a plan to tackle and help protect children from misogyny and abuse, developing a pledge to support education against disinformation, fake news and conspiracy theories on social media.
The government aims for all secondary schools in England to offer strong education on healthy and respectful relationships, with every child having access by the end of this Parliament.
This is in response to the discovery that one in eight women have experienced domestic abuse, sexual assault or stalking in the past year.
The strategy places violence against women and girls at the centre of education for young people, improving teaching around healthy relationships and strengthening support for victims.
It also emphasises early intervention and coordinated action across services to better protect women and girls.
When looking at data specifically from London, the MPS Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) dataset shows which areas experience the highest levels of reported offences and the most prolific types of VAWG across the capital.
Concentrating on data from 2025, areas such as Croydon, Tower Hamlets and Lambeth are among the areas with the highest levels of offences, including domestic abuse, sexual offences and harassment.
Although the dataset only reflects reported crimes and may not capture the full scale of abuse, it remains a crucial tool for understanding the extent of violence against women and girls and for informing responses, policy decisions and support services across London.
To try and tackle the high levels of VAWG, the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, announced a £6 million fund to aid survivors of domestic abuse, aiming to provide an increase in services across London.
The main aim of the fund is to provide aid for grassroots organisations that offer counselling, legal advice and safe accommodation, giving victims a pathway to rebuild their lives in a safe setting.
This fund is seen as an investment supporting wider efforts to tackle violence against women and girls (VAWG), which has aided 23,500 survivors since 2021.
Despite this progress, demand remains high, with tens of thousands of domestic abuse offences recorded in London each year.
The Mayor emphasised that support services are a “lifeline” for victims, particularly as the cost-of-living crisis continues to create barriers to leaving abusive situations.
The funding aims to expand access to help and ensure more survivors can reach safety and long-term recovery.
Cllr Claire Holland, Leader of Lambeth Council, said: “We are proud of Lambeth’s leading work to support women and girls who are victims and survivors of domestic abuse and to work with the Mayor of London on our shared ambitions to keep women and girls safe.
“Lambeth Council’s strategy for tackling Violence Against Women and Girls has been in place since 2021 and sets out how the council works with its partners to support victims and survivors and hold perpetrators to account.
“Lambeth council funds 52 refuge bed spaces, the highest in any London borough, and twice as many as the London average. There is also specialist community-based support through our free, confidential and independent service, the Gaia Centre.”
The Metropolitan Police’s VAWG Action Plan, which was instated in 2023, focuses on key priorities around police response to victims, increasing the number of the most harmful offenders brought to justice and preventing violence before it occurs.
When looking at the key ‘commitments’ the Metropolitan Police aim to uphold, there is a real effort in training how officers actively listen and work with victims, by increasing scrutiny and working alongside community groups, particularly those less likely to trust policing.
It also highlights the importance of training from inside the force, by investing in more resources and specialist training, so that officers are more readily equipped to deal with VAWG cases.
In the last few years there has been high levels of sexism and misconduct within the force, which was highlighted by the investigation of the sexual assault and murder of Sarah Everard by Wayne Couzens, on the 3rd of March 2021.
The MPS believe that the identification of high risk locations will improve safety in public spaces.
Since the Metropolitan Police Service released the VAWG action plan, the service has highlighted progress in delivering these commitments, including increased investment in specialist teams and over 500 additional officers working in public protection roles.
The Met has also introduced a data-led approach to identify the most dangerous offenders, leading to significant numbers of arrests, charges and convictions.
Alongside this, there has been a focus on improving training for frontline officers to ensure better responses to domestic abuse and sexual offences, as well as strengthening engagement with victims through advisory groups and scrutiny panels.
Nour Norris OBE, a campaigner for Raneem’s Law, which was made to improve how police respond to domestic abuse by putting domestic abuse specialists into police control rooms, spoke following the murder of her sister Raneem Oudeh and mother Khaola Saleem by Raneem’s ex partner Janbaz Tarin in 2018.
Mrs Norris said: “What gives this strategy its strength is not any single measure, but the fact that it finally brings these reforms together in one coherent approach.
“Protection, early intervention, accountability, and intelligence-led policing must operate as one system if we are serious about saving lives.
“My hope is that these commitments, delivered with urgency and consistency, will create the change that so many families have been fighting for and ensure that no woman or girl endures what Raneem and my sister endured.”
There is a long way to go to improve levels of violence against women in London, especially within local communities at a grassroots level.
With initiatives at national, city-wide and borough levels working alongside schools, groups and charities, and efforts to change perceptions of the Metropolitan Police Service and how VAWG is handled, these could be important steps towards making London a safer city both in public spaces and at home.
Source:Photo by John Cameron on Unsplash
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