On 25 September 2025, the Domestic Abuse Commissioner for England and Wales, Dame Nicole Jacobs, issued a sharp warning that the government’s limited progress on domestic abuse policy is failing child victims.
Following the government’s formal response to the commissioner’s April report, “Victims in their own right?”, the commissioner’s office has considered that of the report’s 66 recommendations, the government has acted on or pointed to existing work for only ten recommendations. While welcoming limited progress on Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSE) guidance, and increased funding for perpetrator programmes, the Commissioner warned that these incremental measures fall far short of the systemic reforms and sustained investment needed to protect child victims and prevent future harm.
Dame Nicole Jacobs further expressed “increasing concern” at the absence of urgency in delivering the long-delayed Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) strategy and in securing the funding needed to meet the government’s own target of halving VAWG within a decade.
Read the commissioner’s comment on the government’s response here.
Original reporting by Family Law Week