The Home Office’s efforts to address violence against women and girls have not yet improved outcomes for victims, according to the public spending watchdog.

Described as a “significant and growing problem”, the National Audit Office (NAO) says one in 12 women can expect to experience some form of gender-based violence each year.

Around one in four women will be a victim of sexual or attempted assault in their lifetime.

Louise*, whose identity we have protected, says she suffered sexual and violent abuse at the hands of her former partner for seven years.

“He was a very jealous and controlling man,” she says.

The abuse would come in “different forms”, Louise explained. “Sometimes it was straight beatings. Other times it would be restraining and threatening with knives etc. And of course, there was the mental abuse.”

It’s been a few decades since her traumatising experience, and she says: “It’s incredibly depressing to hear things haven’t changed or moved on. I find that shocking.”

She now has three children who have more awareness about gender-based abuse and “understand things like gaslighting and coercive control”.

But she says now the culture has shifted, action needs to be implemented.

“Stop doing more research or yet another report which never gets acted on… We want action. My advice is you need to talk to victims, you need a victim-led solution,” Louise says.

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Home Office did not lead ‘effective cross-government response’

After multiple high-profile cases of women and girls who died at the hands of abusers, the previous Conservative government introduced the Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy in 2021 and the Domestic Abuse Plan in 2022, both led by the Home Office.

However, a report by the NAO says the department did not lead an “effective cross-government response”.

Caroline Harper, who led the report, says this is partly due to the fact the Home Office “struggled to get other government departments on board”.

“There hasn’t been sufficient focus on prevention,” she adds.

She says while “supporting victims is really, really important, it would be much better if they didn’t become victims in the first place”.

Ministerial oversight group ‘only met four times in three years’

The report highlights a ministerial oversight group responsible for setting out the strategy “only met four times in three years”.

The prevalence of sexual assault against women aged 16 to 59 in England and Wales was 4.3% in 2023-24, up from 3.4% in 2009-10, the NAO said.

In that same period, incidents of rape and sexual assault against women and girls recorded by police rose from 34,000 to 123,000, although the NAO said this could partly be explained by improved recording of such crimes.

Past focus ‘not on measuring outcomes’

Isabelle Younane, head of external affairs at the Women’s Aid charity, says: “We really do welcome the intention of government and the strategy of ensuring a strong focus is on prevention and cross-government working.”

However, she adds: “We have not yet seen this translate into meaningful outcomes for women and girls on the ground.”

Ms Younane says in the past the focus has been on “measuring activities and whether those activities had been completed, not on measuring outcomes”.

A Home Office spokesperson highlighted that the NAO report looked at the “previous government’s work” and its “failure to deliver systemic change to deal with these devastating crimes”.

“We are delivering a step-change in the government’s response, as we work to deliver our unprecedented manifesto commitment to halve violence against women and girls in a decade,” they added.

* Not her actual name.

Net Zero Secretary Ed Miliband will find the government’s support for a third Heathrow runway “uncomfortable” but he won’t cause any “disruption”, Harriet Harman has said.

The Labour peer told Sky News political editor Beth Rigby on the Electoral Dysfunction podcast Mr Miliband is a “green conscience” in the cabinet “but we’ve been here before”.

Baroness Harman was a cabinet minister alongside Mr Miliband in Gordon Brown’s government when they approved an expansion in 2009, saying it was needed for economic reasons.

Mr Miliband had threatened to resign as energy and climate secretary over the plans but, in the end, he did not do so.

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Ahead of Chancellor Rachel Reeves announcing the government’s support of a third runway on Wednesday, Mr Miliband had said he would not resign if they backed an expansion.

“Ed Miliband really is the sort of green conscience in cabinet,” she said.

“But we’ve been here. Ed Miliband has been in this situation before.

“Obviously it’s no secret to anybody that Ed Miliband was against it at that time.

“But he stuck with collective responsibility when it came to a free vote on Heathrow.

“Later, when we were in opposition, Ed Miliband, you know, voted against it. But he’s very collaborative and he will remain part of the team.”

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She added Mr Miliband “actually brought Keir Starmer into politics” and supported him for the leadership.

He will find the support for a third runway “uncomfortable”, Baroness Harman said.

“But he will be saying ‘if you’re going to do Heathrow, we better flipping well actually improve a lot of the other green things we’re doing and bring them forward’,” she added.

“So, I think he will stay in government, play a very important role for the green agenda, and I don’t think there will be a disruption.”

The furore surrounding Michael Matheson’s near £11,000 iPad data roaming bill was “completely blown out of all proportion”, according to the shamed MSP.

The SNP politician stepped down as Scotland’s health secretary last year after questions were raised over the eye-watering invoice.

The Falkirk West MSP had initially billed taxpayers before U-turning, claiming the device had only been used for parliamentary work during a family holiday to Morocco.

It later emerged his teenage sons had been using the work iPad as a hotspot to stream football while on the trip.

Mr Matheson was later suspended from the Scottish parliament and docked wages for breaching the MSP code of conduct.

Mr Matheson, who was first elected as an MSP in 1999, was questioned about his ministerial career during an interview with the Institute for Government (IFG) think tank as part of its Ministers Reflect series.

During the talk, held in October last year but published on Friday, he said his opponents had sought to take “political advantage” of the situation.

Mr Matheson said: “I think the thing that you need to realise is that when you become a minister, if you do make a mistake, you can end up in the eye of a political storm.

“The thing that acted as a big catalyst for me was that, as soon as the general election was called, everything was put on steroids.

“It became a massive issue because folk saw a political advantage they could get from it. It just got completely blown out of all proportion, in my view.”

Mr Matheson was the net zero, energy and transport secretary in Nicola Sturgeon’s government at the time of the family holiday around Christmas in 2022.

Ahead of the trip he failed to replace an outdated SIM card, which led to increased data use costs.

Mr Matheson, who was later appointed health secretary in March 2023 under then first minister Humza Yousaf, told Holyrood he was unaware that his sons had used the iPad as a hotspot when he initially submitted the bill.

He claimed he was told the truth by his wife after the story sparked a public outcry.

Following his wife’s admission, Mr Matheson initially failed to publicly mention his sons’ involvement.

Instead, he continued to insist the iPad was only used for parliamentary work and blamed the outdated SIM card for the excessive bill.

When questioned by journalists days after he knew the truth, he continued to deny the iPad was used for personal use until he made a statement to Holyrood.

Mr Matheson quit as health secretary ahead of the conclusion of a probe by the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body (SPCB), which ruled he had breached the MSP code of conduct.

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When asked if there were any lessons to be learned for other ministers, he told the IFG: “If I look back, the lesson I would say is recognising how unforgiving the political space is that you’re operating in.

“In the end, it was my desire to try and avoid the press knowing about what my son had done.

“It was completely unforgiving, despite the fact that when you offer it up, then they say you’re using it as a cover. Actually, no, I’m not, but I’m telling you that’s what’s happened.

“So, I think what I would say to ministers is that it is quite unforgiving at times when something like that happens, despite what your background is and how long you’ve been in government and how you’ve always tried to avoid getting the government into any difficult positions.”

He added: “When you’re a backbencher, if you do make an error, it’s not the same.

“But when you’re a minister and you’re a senior minister, you’re going to get chased down and you quite literally get chased down.”

Mr Matheson said a number of people reached out in support during the scandal.

He also said the scrutiny had a “significant impact” on his family, which included taking his teenage sons out of school and his wife becoming “unwell with stress”.

He added: “It’s in the public record that our house got broken into.”

When questioned about Mr Matheson’s latest comments, First Minister John Swinney said: “The parliament’s worked its way through all of these issues and it’s come to its conclusions and those conclusions stand.

“We just have to consider that as the conclusion that parliament has arrived at.”

The Scottish Conservatives criticised Mr Matheson’s remarks.

MSP Rachael Hamilton, the party’s deputy leader, said: “Taxpayers will be outraged that Michael Matheson is trying to downplay the scandal that ultimately forced him to resign in disgrace.

“The public were rightly furious that the then SNP health secretary thought it acceptable to ask them to foot the bill for his [iPad] expenses.

“He then repeatedly lied to them and parliament and refused to say sorry for what he had done.

“No wonder Scots are so disillusioned with senior SNP figures at Holyrood when they continue to hold voters in such contempt.”