Efforts by police to tackle violence against women and girls in the United Kingdom required urgent improvement, a human rights watchdog said.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said the government needed to do more to meet targets to improve women’s and girls’ safety. Its findings came in the same week that the UK’s most senior police officer said combating violence against women and girls would need the same level of funding as the fights against terrorism or organised crime.

Mark Rowley told the London Policing Board on Tuesday that hundreds of thousands of men in Britain were a threat to women and girls.

Also, the scale of the problem meant it had to be treated as a threat to national security.

His comments and the EHRC’s conclusions came following the first part of the Angiolini Inquiry published last week, which found that killer officer Wayne Couzens.

Couzens who raped and murdered marketing executive Sarah Everard in 2021 was a serial sexual predator who the police service should have never employed.

Amid a series of scandals, including Miss Everard’s murder and the unmasking of another officer, David Carrick, as a serial rapist, the Metropolitan Police Service has faced heavy criticism.

The criticism was for the way it dealt with certain offences.

The EHRC said its recommendations to help improve women and girls’ safety include the government “prioritising further action to address the prevalence of violence against women and girls perpetrated by the police.”

It backed a recommendation from the Domestic Abuse Commissioner to ensure the removal of warrant cards from officers who were under investigation for crimes relating to violence against women and girls and that it was statutory recognition that convictions of this nature should automatically constitute gross misconduct.

During Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, Sir Keir Starmer said victims of violence against women and girls deserve better than the “nonsense” and “games” offered by the Prime Minister.

Rishi Sunak said Miss Everard’s murder was an “absolutely shocking case,” adding that ministers “took action quickly to strengthen police vetting, strengthen the rules for rooting out officers who are not fit to serve.”

However, the Labour leader pressed Mr Sunak to introduce mandatory national standards for police vetting, arguing there is a “world of difference” between a code and binding mandatory standards.

(NAN)