A damning report has warned ministers that predators continue to "roam freely" and women are living in fear of attacks in public spaces, more than four years after the murder of Sarah Everard.
Lady Elish Angiolini, chair of the independent inquiry, issued a stark call for leaders to "get a move on" with reforms, declaring that "lives are at stake". Her report, laid in Parliament on Tuesday 2 December 2025, highlights systemic failures in protecting women and girls.
Critical Failures and Unimplemented Reforms
The second phase of the Angiolini Inquiry, launched after serving Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens kidnapped, raped and murdered Ms Everard in March 2021, slams a "scattergun approach" to prevention.
Lady Elish expressed "deep disappointment" that key recommendations from Part 1 of her inquiry, publicly accepted 18 months ago, remain unimplemented. This means men with criminal convictions or cautions for sexual offences are still not automatically barred from joining the police.
Despite violence against women and girls (VAWG) being classed as a "national threat" in 2023, the report found that 26 per cent of police forces still lack a specialist policy for investigating sexual offences, including non-contact crimes like indecent exposure.
A Society Living in Fear
"Women change their travel plans, their routines, and their lives out of fears for their safety in public, while far too many perpetrators continue to roam freely," Lady Elish stated. She emphasised that women deserve to feel and be safer.
A survey of 2,000 people commissioned by the inquiry revealed alarming statistics:
- Almost 90% of women aged 18-24 experienced an incident in a public space in the past three years.
- Three quarters felt unsafe due to the actions of a man.
- Nearly 80% did not report the incident to the police.
The 219-page report also identified a "critical failure" in data collection, with basic questions about how many women are raped in public in England and Wales each year remaining unanswered. This lack of consistent data hampers the ability to spot patterns in offending.
Funding Disparity and a Call for Action
Lady Elish criticised a significant funding gap, noting that while VAWG is a declared national threat, it does not receive resources commensurate with other priorities like counter-terrorism. Prevention measures are often under-prioritised due to difficulties in evaluating success.
"Until this disparity is addressed, violence against women and girls cannot credibly be called a 'national priority'," she argued.
The report lays out 13 recommendations for a "whole society" approach, including the nationwide rollout of two police programmes designed to stop predators. It serves as a follow-up to the inquiry's first phase, published last year, which found Couzens' predatory behaviour began two decades before the murder and that he should never have been a police officer.
Lady Elish's latest findings urge an end to delays, demanding a genuine "turning point" in the fight to make public spaces safe for all women.
