“Last year around 1.4 million women suffered domestic abuse and around 350,000 were sexually assaulted. This is wholly unacceptable and we remain determined to end violence against women and girls. In November 2010, we set out our strategy to achieve this ambitious vision. Our main themes of prevention, provision of good quality services, improved partnership working, better justice outcomes and risk reduction are as relevant today as when we first set out our approach. To support the strategy, detailed action plans have been published on International Women’s Day every year from 2011 to 2014. During that time, we have:

• introduced legislation to criminalise forced marriage in England and Wales
• rolled out the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme (Clare’s Law) and Domestic Violence Protection Orders nationally
• introduced new stalking legislation
• brought in provisions to criminalise ‘revenge pornography’ and possession of depictions of rape
• created a new offence of domestic abuse to capture coercive and controlling behaviour

This progress report summarises government activity since 2010, building on the annual action plans and setting out our achievements.”