The Violence Against Women Working Group and its sub groups - the Sexual Violence Policy Monitoring Sub-Group and Domestic Violence Action Sub-Group - met on 2^nd April 2008.

The Sub-Groups discussed police monitoring of sexual offences; the trafficking of women and girls into large sporting events like the 2012 Olympics; national domestic violence and sexual violence service standards; forced marriage, and domestic violence Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conference (MARAC) systems.

Speakers who attended the Violence Against Women Working Group included Jan Pickles from Cardiff Women's Safety Unit / Co-ordinated Action Against Domestic Abuse; Sarah Morgan from the Government Equalities Office, and Wayne Ives from the Forced Marriage Unit. The Group raised concerns about the perceived lack of consultation on the Forced marriage Unit strategy and workplan, and as a result of this meeting, the Forced Marriage Unit invited Group members to a Roundtable Meeting in May 2008 (see below). The Group also discussed the ongoing Murder Law Review which proposes reforming part of the law on homicide, including the defences of provocation and diminished responsibility, and agreed to support the proposals submitted by Justice for Women.

The next meetings are scheduled for 16 July 2008, and the agenda will include the Group's workplan, commissioning of local services, and a discussion about faith and community cohesion.

WNC has provided feedback to on a draft `blueprint' for developing a UK Strategy on violence against women, produced by the End Violence Against Women coalition.

Under the Tackling Violence Action Plan 2008-11, the Government committed to develop a national action plan to address so-called `honour' based violence, and will be running a series of `honour' based violence roadshows across England and Wales in June and July. The aim of the `honour' based violence roadshows will be to raise awareness in local communities and to stimulate action to protect victims. Roadshows will be held in Leicester, Cambridge, Birmingham, Cardiff, Manchester, York and London.

Following the Violence Against Women Working Group meeting in April, the Forced Marriage Unit worked with WNC to hold a forced marriage roundtable meeting with NGOs, to provide information and receive feedback on the Unit's future workplan and work of the government's Honour Based Violence Steering Group.

Women's NGOs welcomed the programme of regional Forced Marriage Roadshows; the forthcoming implementation of the Forced Marriage Civil Proceedings Act 2007 including piloting this in designated court areas; the introduction of third party applications, and a statutory Code of Practice for agencies. However they raised significant concerns about the lack of an integrated approach to violence against women across government departments, and about the current funding crisis facing specialist women's services which is impacting on their capacity to support survivors. Women's NGOs also raised concerns that membership of the national Honour Based Violence Steering Group only comprised Government departments, ACPO and the CPS and excludes specialist BME and women's service providers. Since the roundtable meeting, WNC has been approached to organise a further meeting between NGOs and the Honour Based Violence Steering Group.

The National Service Standards work is still ongoing, and Women's Aid is currently incorporating feedback into a final draft of the core service standards. Members of the Sexual Violence Policy Monitoring Sub Group recommended that Liz Kelly meet with Women's Aid in order to agree the text of the core standards.

Skills for Justice is consulting on the development of National Occupational Standards for domestic violence and sexual violence, and has circulated a mapping questionnaire to sexual violence and domestic violence sectors to obtain their feedback on the skill sets that workers should have before they work with women who have experienced violence. WNC is encouraging services to respond as this may have significant implications for the sector.

Southall Black Sisters is currently taking Ealing Council to court to challenge its decision to withdraw funding from the organisation. Joyce Gould has written to Southall Black Sisters expressing support for their work.

Joyce Gould also wrote to Ed Miliband MP in March 2008, setting out concerns about funding for the women's sector, and gave Southall Black Sisters as one example of services under threat. A response has been received from Phil Hope MP, Minister for the Third Sector, which will be circulated at the meeting.

Following the Crown Prosecution Service consultation on their Violence Against Women Strategy, the final strategy is being launched at an event on June 24th. WNC has been invited to attend.

In June WNC is also contributing to a focus group consultation on an updated CPS Policy for Prosecuting Cases of Domestic Violence to take into account recent legislation and changes to CPS and Government practices and procedures. 

In May WNC attended a national Violence Against Women conference held in honour of Jalna Hanmer, and a Conference on representing BME women in gender based violence policies and service provision. Liz Kelly delivered presentations at both conferences. WNC attended and made useful links with partner agencies.

The Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill has received Royal Assent. This includes a new criminal of offence of incitement to hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation, and a new offence of possession of extreme pornographic images.

The Ministry of Justice is proposing to give greater protection to victims and witnesses in the forthcoming Law Reform, Victims and Witnesses Bill, which aims to increase public confidence in the criminal justice system and help protect vulnerable people. Proposals include

The Government consulted on proposals in 2007 and is yet to publish its response. Further consultation is planned on specific issues to be dealt with in regulations, and details on the Equality Bill will be published in the summer. WNC is trying to arrange a meeting with GEO to discuss this further. The Bill is expected to be introduced in to the next Parliamentary session. Proposals include:

DCLG has been consulting on proposals for an Empowerment White Paper which will be published this summer. The aim is to ensure everyone has a greater say in improvements to public services, local accountability and opportunities for enterprise. Proposals include:

In May WNC attended a DCLG `equalities consultation group', together with Fawcett, Womankind and other organisations representing equality strands. We were concerned to note that connections had not been made between 'empowerment' strategies between state institutions and communities of interest, and the structural inequalities that sustain gender inequality, and women's disempowerment in interpersonal relationships, especially with regards their experience of violence and abuse.

WNC, Fawcett and Womankind particularly recommended that the White Paper must recognise that violence against women is both a cause and consequence of gender inequality; that violence against women impacts on women's health, education, employment and participation in civic life; and reduces women's ability to engage in productive employment, to successfully pursue education, to participate in public life and to contribute to decision making processes. The continuation of violence against women significantly impacts on whether national and international targets for gender equality and for women's empowerment are met. Therefore, to facilitate women's empowerment locally, the White Paper must reinforce the need for local and national government to develop an integrated and strategic approach to respond to and prevent violence against women, and to ensure this is incorporated into equalities and mainstreamed into empowerment agendas.

WNC has offered to assist DCLG - and we are awaiting a response - by consulting with Commissioners, partners and working groups on publication of the White Paper and to facilitate further consultation via our website. See Briefing Paper for further information.

Joyce Gould is due to meet Maria Eagle on 24 June to discuss the Corston Report, partner concerns, and how WNC may assist in the process. A letter has also been sent from Joyce Gould to Jack Straw, welcoming the Government's response to the Corston Report, but asking for assurances on particular points of concern.

WNC has met with GEO and offered to feed in to the national mapping of women's centre services, for example by consulting with partners to ascertain the extent to which they currently deliver `women's centre' type provision or could develop such provision in future to contribute to the national network of women's centre services.

The EHRC is carrying out an inquiry to find out how human rights works in Britain, in line with powers under section 16 of the Equality Act 2006. The inquiry was launched on 21 April 2008 and will run until December 2008. The inquiry covers England and Wales, and aims to establish how public authorities, such as hospitals, schools or local and national government offices - and private and voluntary organisations that carry out public functions - treat people well and in line with legal requirements under the Human Rights Act.

WNC has asked partners for feedback by 12 June, and has also encouraged partners to respond to this Inquiry, by providing examples of their experience - positive or negative - of how the Human Rights Act is used by public authorities or can be used in the delivery of services. Responses can be submitted to the EHRC (by 21 June 2008) via their website:

WNC attended a meeting in June organised by the Women's Resource Centre, to review research and work on equalities and Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs), and particularly how women and women's services are represented on LSPs. LSPs are becoming increasingly important for local decision making, and it is therefore vital that women's services have their voices heard.

Two research studies revealed participation and representation of women and BME groups on LSPs to be inadequate: “Where are the Women in LSPs” which explores women's representation on LSPs and “Participation and Local Strategic Partnership” which looked at the participation of black and minority groups on LSPs. For example, women's organisations constitute only 1.8% of voluntary sector representatives on LSPs, despite representing around 7% of the total voluntary and community sector, and over 80% of LSPs do not monitor women's representation. www.urbanforum.org.uk

WNC met with the Head of Communications at the Government Office Regional Co-ordination Unit, to obtain an overview of their work and explore relevant national GO networks that WNC could feed into in future.

The meeting noted how the UK operates as part of the EU was very important and serves to strengthen the UK's voice on a number of issues. EU negotiations were very intensive.

The EU Presidency plays a crucial central role and has a big impact on the CSW proceedings.

The briefings given by other Government departments were important, but gave the delegation less room for manoeuvre in discussions and the time difference with London added to the difficulties.

The delegation was very reliant on input from the UK Mission in New York as they were key to helping the delegation frame ideas in the right context.

The UK Delegation would have benefited from being larger so that the many duties the delegation has during CSW could have been more easily shared out.

UK NGOS are very active at CSW and it was important to have the WNC as part of the delegation, acting as that bridge between NGOs and the delegation.