Ministers ‘oblivious’ to UK’s scale of violence against women and girls, say MPs
Ministers appear to be “oblivious” to the true scale of harm caused by violence against women and girls and must do more to “reverse the worrying rise in misogyny”, MPs have said.Parliament’s cross-party public accounts committee heard evidence that women’s refuges were being forced to turn down 65% of requests for support amid soaring cases, while other dedicated services operating in communities were able to help only about half of those who requested it.Highlighting figures that showed at least one in 12 women each year were affected by violence and one in five recorded crimes related to violence against women and girls, the committee said the Home Office’s way of monitoring prevalence did not include all types of crime.The MPs also say it is a “particular concern” that in spite of evidence that the age range of those most likely to become a victim or perpetrator of sexual violence is between 11 and 20, the Home Office does not include under-16s in its information gathering.Launching the government’s promise to halve incidents of violence against women and girls within a decade last year, the home secretary, Yvette Cooper, said: “Our mission is for the whole of government, agencies, organisations and communities to work together.
”But commenting on the findings, committee member Anna Dixon said: “While it was welcome to hear of recent efforts to better coordinate action across departments, officials’ evidence caused alarm bells to ring.“On some types of harm, government appears to be oblivious to the true scale and there remains scant evidence or learning from what is working locally.“It is vital that the Home Office seizes this opportunity to lead and coordinate strong action across departments to ensure victims and survivors have access to the services and support they need and deserve, and that as a society we reverse the worrying rise in misogyny.”The committee also said the government’s approach lacked an emphasis on prevention measures that it said were necessary to achieve long-term change.In addition, the MPs called for clarity on how work with boys would be undertaken to “prevent harmful attitudes perpetuating”, and how the safety of young people online would be improved.
The committee added: “The Department for Education needs to step up and take a more proactive approach given the proliferation of misogynistic attitudes across social media platforms, and their influence on young men and boys, highlighted by the [committee] as a key area in need of attention,“The increase in the number of cases reported to the Revenge Porn Helpline from 521 to 22,000 in just nine years serves to highlight the evolving nature of [violence against women and girls],“The [committee] fears this is symptomatic of a wider issue across a range of departments who appear to have limited understanding of the scale of the challenges they face in addressing this issue,”In a series of recommendations, the MPs called on the Home Office to outline how all departments would be held to account for their contributions to tackling the issue,The minister for safeguarding and violence against women and girls, Jess Phillips, said: “As part of our ambitious pledge to halve violence against women and girls in a decade, we have already put domestic abuse specialists in 999 control rooms in the first five forces, introduced new domestic abuse protection orders in select areas, and set out a clear process for police to release information about online stalkers.
“Our new violence against women and girls strategy, coming this summer, will take a cross-government approach with prevention at its heart – to better protect victims, support their journey to justice and hold perpetrators to account.”
Virgin Money mortgage holders cry foul over owner Nationwide’s better deals
Some Virgin Money customers are crying “foul” over the fact that Nationwide borrowers are being offered better-value mortgage deals, even though they are now part of the same group.Nationwide bought Virgin Money last autumn, but the brands remain separate and some Virgin mortgage-holders claim that when it comes to moving on to a new deal, they are being treated as second-class citizens.This week, a Virgin customer aiming to get a new mortgage deal from the lender would in some cases have to pay almost £1,000 more than an equivalent Nationwide customer to get the same interest rate, even though they are both part of the same financial “family”.However, according to one mortgage broker, it is standard practice that a borrower is not able to hop from one brand to another where both are part of the same group.For the UK as a whole and across all lenders, about 1
Top winemaker ‘may have to leave its Spanish vineyards due to climate crisis’
A leading European winemaker has warned it may have to abandon its ancestral lands in Catalonia in 30 years’ time because climate change could make traditional growing areas too dry and hot.Familia Torres is already installing irrigation at its vineyards in Spain and California and is planting vines on land at higher altitudes as it tries to adapt to more extreme conditions.“Irrigation is the future. We do not rely on the weather,” said its 83-year-old president, Miguel Torres. “I don’t know how long we can stay here making good wines, maybe 20 or 30 years, I don’t know
Could a ‘digital diet’ help me fix my bad phone habits?
Smartphone Nation by Dr Kaitlyn Regehr vows to help us take control. But can her methods beat the algorithms?Can you count the number of times you’ve looked at your phone today? Or how often you’ve opened it to do one thing to find yourself doing something else entirely?If you’re anything like me, you’ll have little idea – merely an inkling – that it’s more times than you’d hope. Smartphone algorithms are designed to capture our attention and hold it, but a new book written by an academic who studies them promises to help people take back control.I spent a week putting some of her suggestions to the test.A first step towards breaking any addiction is acknowledging you have one and understanding its nature
Scattered Spider hackers in UK are ‘facilitating’ cyber-attacks, says Google
UK-based members of the Scattered Spider hacking community are actively “facilitating” cyber-attacks, according to Google, as disruption to British retailers spreads to the US.A group of hackers labelled “Scattered Spider” have been linked with attacks on UK retailers Marks & Spencer, the Co-op and Harrods, with Google cybersecurity experts warning this week that unnamed retailers across the Atlantic are being targeted as well.Charles Carmakal, the chief technology officer at Google’s Mandiant cybersecurity unit, said that the threat had moved to the US in a pattern typical of Scattered Spider assailants.“They tend to focus on a particular industry sector and geography for a few weeks and then they move on to something else,” he said. “And right now they’re focused on retail organisations
Twenty years later: how 2005 Ashes marked end of cricket as we knew it
England’s titanic tussle with Australia enthralled a nation but then the Test game vanished from UK free-to-air TVHow are you planning to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the 2005 men’s Ashes? Is it finally time to get that Kevin Pietersen skunk cut? Gather your friends for a drunken knees-up around Trafalgar Square?Realistically, a quiet afternoon on YouTube will do, with Simon Jones’s reverse-swinger to Michael Clarke on repeat, off-stump gone like a popped cork. That rabbit hole should end up taking you to Pietersen’s 2014 appearance on the Graham Norton Show in which he discusses his strained relationship with Andrew Strauss while perched next to Taylor Swift. Yes, that actually happened.Or you could dig into the culture, media and sport committee report published in February 2006 titled “Ashes to Ashes – the death knell for live Test match cricket on free-to-air TV?” You know you want to.It’s not a thriller but worth your time if you’re curious to know how a sport has its breakout moment – the series attracted a peak audience on Channel 4 in excess of 8 million – before going into hiding
Skid marks, swear jars and an early night: welcome to sport’s nanny state | Simon Burnton
A 14-year-old has been taking the Indian Premier League by storm. A 17-year-old may win this year’s Ballon d’Or. Last month another 17-year-old became the youngest winner of a Formula Two race. In darts the last world champion was 17, a 14-year-old just became the youngest winner of a World Darts Federation event and this week the promoter Barry Hearn described watching a prodigy who “had a 106 average and checked out 140 and 154”. He was only 10
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