Rape Crisis England & Wales must express our reservations and concerns about the Home Office’s decision to award £53 million to the Drive Project, a form of domestic abuse perpetrator management.
While Rape Crisis England & Wales welcomes efforts to reduce the frequency and severity of domestic abuse (including coercive control) perpetrated by so-called high-risk, high-harm perpetrators, we have concerns about today’s announcement.
It is unfortunate that this decision has been made without meaningful consultation with the rest of the VAWG sector in England & Wales, and our specific concerns are that this:
● Will likely only be effective for a very small percentage of perpetrators
● Lies in stark contrast to the resources available for underfunded Rape Crisis centres, and will place additional pressure on them at a time when demand is already unmanageable
● Contradicts our previous calls for the government to focus less heavily on domestic abuse in their approach to “halving VAWG within a decade”
● Overlooks the true needs of sexual violence survivors
Ciara Bergman, CEO of Rape Crisis England & Wales, said:
"At a time when life-changing and life-saving Rape Crisis centres are suffering from severe, chronic underfunding, we're disappointed that the Home Office has instead decided to invest £53 million into its high-risk, high-harm domestic abuse perpetrator-focused Drive Project, without any corollary commitment to the rest of our sector.
While this decision will unquestionably benefit a number of survivors, the Drive Project only targets a narrow cohort of domestic abuse perpetrators already known to the police. It shouldn't be presented as an intervention that will address the prevalence of sexual violence nor ameliorate the abject failings of the criminal justice system.
We urge the government to bear in mind that we cannot effectively tackle violence against women and girls without prioritising survivor support – something our severely underfunded Rape Crisis centres do every day, despite receiving nowhere near the level of investment allocated to the Drive Project."
The Drive Project is unlikely to effectively tackle the issue
Today’s announcement of a £53m investment in the Drive Project has been presented as a credible means of achieving a reduction in sexual offending as a response to perpetrators of VAWG, including sexual violence.
We believe this to be misleading. The Drive Project’s model has been tested and evaluated only on a minority of domestic abuse perpetrators who are already known to police and other criminal justice agencies.
However, the vast majority of sexual violence and abuse takes place without ever being reported, with only around 15% of sexual violence survivors reporting offences to police, most of which have unsuccessful outcomes.
Of those that do report rape and serious sexual offences to the police, the majority withdraw from the criminal justice process. A recently published review commissioned by the London Victims’ Commissioner revealed that of 270,000 crimes reported to the police between April 2021 and March 2022, survivors withdrew from the criminal justice process in up to:
● 59% of domestic abuse cases
● 69% of adult rape cases.
● 74% of adult rape cases with a domestic abuse flag
On top of this, an evaluation of the Drive Project’s model published earlier this year indicates that Drive was not more effective than the control group on this particular measure (see Figure 2).
Particularly at a time when the criminal justice system is failing survivors of rape so abjectly, we urge the government to exercise extreme caution in its claims as to what its substantial investment in the Drive Project can reasonably achieve for those women who have already endured rape and sexual violence, and those who inevitably will in the future.
Rape Crisis centres remain in dire need of funding
The investment of £53 million in a perpetrator intervention sits in stark contrast to our severely underfunded Rape Crisis centres.
In the last 12 months alone, this lack of resources has seen three Rape Crisis centres forced to close their doors. Waiting lists remain exceptionally long, with 14,000 survivors of sexual violence currently waiting to access vital support at our remaining 36 centres, while the Treasury have stated that departmental efficiencies will be explored by the Ministry of Justice “in key policy areas such as legal aid and victims”.
On top of this, funding shortfalls have been exacerbated by the recent increase in employers’ National Insurance contributions alongside cuts to funding from the Ministry of Justice via Police and Crime Commissioners.
The Ministry of Justice’s Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Fund – the only ring-fenced government funding for such services – has also received no increase in line with inflation, and worryingly, is not guaranteed beyond March 2026.
Additionally, this dramatic expansion in response to a subset of domestic abuse perpetrators will, we believe, unintentionally add to existing pressure on Rape Crisis services, as a result of increased referrals from IDVAs (independent domestic violence advisors) working with partners and ex-partners of men subject to the intervention.
We would welcome confirmation of how much additional funding will be provided to the already overstretched services likely to receive these referrals, and to the work involved in providing an effective interface with the Drive project.
We must not overlook the needs of sexual violence survivors
Rape Crisis England & Wales has expressed concerns on multiple occasions that the current government’s approach to “halving VAWG in a decade” is too heavily focused on domestic abuse.
We believe this approach obscures and ignores the needs of sexual violence survivors, including Black and minoritised women, and those with no recourse to public funds.
A recent report from the Public Accounts Committee has also highlighted that government officials lack understanding of the true scale of VAWG. Meanwhile, the National Audit Office have expressed concern that the data underpinning the current strategy to halve VAWG in a decade is fragmented and weak.
The Home Office’s own standards for (domestic abuse) perpetrator work say that “perpetrator programmes must be a part of a holistic intervention system and not be run in isolation”, which at its heart offers specialist support for survivors.
There exists a wealth of evidence of the problems associated with fragmented and piecemeal approaches to addressing VAWG, and the importance of coordinated community responses, including an evaluation of Drive. Yet today’s announcement has not been accompanied by a commensurate investment in support for survivors.
An effective response to VAWG must prioritise specialist services
The Rape Crisis movement formed 50 years ago in response to a national rape crisis which is as entrenched as it is harmful for the thousands of survivors subjected to sexual violence and abuse each year.
In 2024 alone, 71,227 rapes were recorded by police, and 80,000 survivors came to Rape Crisis, 1 in five of whom were children. Rape is part of a broader spectrum of gendered harms experienced by women and girls across the life course, and shares similarities with domestic abuse, as well as important differences.
50 years after the start of our movement, it should be a given that specialist, independent, community-based services must be at the heart of any effective response to sexual violence, and must be fully funded to meet demand.
Only then can we ensure that rape and sexual abuse survivors, including children, access the specialist care needed, so they can be heard, believed, and supported, for as long as it takes for them to recover and rebuild their lives.