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30 September 2025 ~ Reproductive Health: girls and young women – Women and Equalities Committee – Closing date for submissions

The Committee is following up its previous work on women’s reproductive health, with a focus on better meeting the needs of girls and young women. It is assessing progress in diagnoses, treatments and pain management of conditions including endometriosis, adenomyosis and heavy menstrual bleeding.

This inquiry is currently accepting evidence

The committee wants to hear your views. We welcome submissions from anyone with answers to the questions in the call for evidence. You can submit evidence until Tuesday 30 September 2025.

In December 2024, the Women and Equalities Committee published a Report on Women’s reproductive health conditions. The Committee concluded that there was a deeply concerning lack of awareness and understanding of conditions such as endometriosis, adenomyosis and heavy menstrual bleeding. It found that women’s symptoms, including severe pain, were too often “dismissed” and “normalised” and diagnosis very often took many years.

In this follow up inquiry the Committee will focus on the recent experiences of young women and girls. The Committee will examine the extent to which the education and health systems are getting better at ensuring young women and girls know what constitutes a normal menstrual cycle and when to seek help for symptoms; whether they are being listened to and taken seriously by healthcare professionals; and the extent to which they are receiving more effective and quicker diagnoses, and better treatment and pain management, in turn reducing any potential impact on fertility.

The Committee would particularly welcome written submissions from individuals and organisations advocating for girls and young women’s health and wellbeing, and education and healthcare professionals, including those involved in the planning, administration and delivery of frontline services. The Committee will also seek to hear directly from affected girls and young women themselves via visits and private discussions.

The Committee invites written submissions addressing one or more of the following terms of reference, no later than the end of September 2025. 

What recent progress, if any, has there been in the following areas and what further improvements may be required:  

  • Provision of effective education and quality information for girls and women on what constitutes a normal period, awareness of female reproductive health conditions and when and how to seek support.
  • Protocols and training to raise awareness in the healthcare sector about girls’ and women’s reproductive health and to ensure healthcare professionals listen to girls and women with empathy and provide appropriate information and advice.
  • The effectiveness of Women’s Health Hubs in improving waiting times for diagnoses and providing effective treatments.
  • Any other local examples of good practice in improving diagnoses, waiting times and treatments.
  • Knowledge, understanding and empathy in the healthcare sector in relation to the potential impacts of reproductive health conditions on women’s fertility and the provision of quality advice to ensure informed decision-making about treatments.
  • The adequacy of funding for Women’s Health Hubs and the broader Women’s Health Strategy for England.
  • Reducing girls’ and women’s pain experienced during diagnosis and treatment.
  • Adequacy of provision of free period products for girls and women who need them.
  • Work to develop and roll out new diagnostic tools.
  • Addressing racial biases and discriminatory assumptions in the diagnosis, treatment and pain management of women’s reproductive health conditions.

The committee also welcomes views on: 

  • The potential impacts of the proposed abolition of NHS England on steps being taken to improve girls’ and women’s reproductive health.
  • Potential impact of the10-year Health Plan for England on the treatment of girls’ and women’s reproductive health conditions.

To submit information online go to https://committees.parliament.uk/call-for-evidence/3730/

July 29, 2025

Guidance for practitioners supporting victims of technology-facilitated domestic abuse – National Cyber Security Centre

Practical advice to help victims of cyber-enabled domestic abuse, stalking and harassment, including control, coercion, threatening behaviour, or violence.

Working in partnership with charities, law enforcement, and independent domestic violence advisors, the NCSC offers bespoke guidance to support practitioners working with victims of technology-facilitated domestic abuse, stalking & harassment.

Technology-facilitated domestic abuse relates to the use of technology to facilitate domestic abuse offences, such as incidents of control, coercion, threatening behaviour, violence or abuse. This can range from monitoring emails, social media activity and internet history, to using smart cameras and speakers to covertly monitor victims in their own homes.

Cases of domestic abuse increasingly involve the use of technology. Charities supporting victims have reported a rise in the number of people seeking advice related to technology-facilitated domestic abuse. This trend is unsurprising, given our growing reliance on internet-connected devices—whether at work, at home, or on the go.

Our guidance has been written for frontline practitioners who are supporting victims of technology-facilitated domestic abuse. It provides clear, practical advice that can be used in everyday scenarios to protect victims. It includes a section on preventative measures that victims can take to reduce the likelihood of an abuser being able to monitor their phones, computers, smart devices and online accounts.

Request a copy of the guidance

To ensure that this guidance reaches the appropriate practitioners and that relevant learning opportunities are accessible, we work in close collaboration with colleagues from the City of London Police.

If you are a practitioner supporting victims of domestic abuse and would like access to the NCSC’s domestic cyber crime guidance, please send an email from your official work account, and please ensure you include your work signature block at the bottom of the email to: nfib.protect@cityoflondon.police.uk

LIVE Practitioner Workshops

LIVE practitioner workshops are now available across the country, offering an opportunity to explore how you, as a practitioner, can better support victims of technology-facilitated domestic abuse. These sessions are delivered nationally by the Police Cyber PROTECT network.

To express your interest in participating, please email: nfib.protect@cityoflondon.police.uk

https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/information/guidance-for-practitioners-supporting-victims-of-technology-facilitated-domestic-abuse

July 29, 2025

Online age checks must be in force as from 25 July 2025 – Ofcom

  • Tech firms must introduce age checks to prevent children from accessing porn, self-harm, suicide and eating disorder content
  • Bluesky, Discord, Grindr, Reddit and X among latest firms to commit to age-gating, while Ofcom lines up targets for enforcement
  • Sites and apps where children spend most time must make their feeds safer

Sites and apps which allow harmful content must protect children from accessing it from the end of this week, Ofcom has warned, as the deadline approaches for tech firms to comply with new rules.

The changes mean that risky sites and apps – large and small – must use highly effective ‘age gating’ methods to identify which users are children, and then prevent them from accessing pornography, as well as self-harm, suicide and eating disorder content.

Services which allow porn

Ahead of the 25 July deadline, change is already happening. Over the last month, the UK’s biggest and most popular adult service providers – including Porn Hub – plus thousands of smaller sites have committed to deploying age-checks across their services. This means it will be harder for children in the UK to access online porn than in any other OECD country.

Other online platforms have now announced they will deploy age assurance – including Bluesky, Discord, Grindr, Reddit and X.

Ofcom is ready to enforce against any company which allows pornographic content and does not comply with age-check requirements by the deadline. Today we are extending our existing age assurance enforcement programme – previously focused on studio porn services – to cover all platforms that allow users to share pornographic material, whether they are dedicated adult sites or other services that include pornography.

We will be actively checking compliance from 25 July and, should it be necessary, we expect to launch any investigations into individual services next week. These would add to 11 Ofcom investigations already in progress.

Age checks to shield children from other harms

Under our rules, sites that allow other forms of harmful content must also have highly effective age checks from 25 July.

We are launching a new age assurance enforcement programme, building on work undertaken by our ‘small but risky taskforce,’ to monitor the response from industry. This will specifically target sites dedicated to the dissemination of harmful content, including self-harm and suicide, eating disorder or extreme violence/gore.

Protecting children on the most popular sites and apps

As well as preventing children from encountering the most harmful content relating to suicide, self-harm, eating disorders and pornography, Ofcom’s Codes also demand that online services act to protect children from dangerous stunts or challenges, misogynistic, violent, hateful or abusive material, and online bullying.

Even where sites and apps do not technically allow these types of harmful material under their terms of service, Ofcom’s research shows that such content can be all too prevalent. In particular, we know that content recommended in personalised ‘for you’ feeds represents children’s main pathway to encountering these harms. Our Codes are clear, among other things, that algorithms must be tamed and configured for children so that the most harmful material is blocked.

To hold sites and apps to account, we are today launching an extensive monitoring and impact programme, primarily focused on the biggest platforms where children spend most time – including Facebook, Instagram, Roblox, Snap, TikTok and YouTube. This will include:

  • a comprehensive review of these platforms’ efforts to assess risks to children, which must be submitted to Ofcom by 7 August at the latest. We will report on our analysis of these assessments later this year;
  • scrutinising these platforms’ practical actions to keep children safe – details of which must be disclosed to Ofcom by 30 September. We will interrogate in particular: whether they have effective means of knowing who their child users are; how their content moderation tools identify types of content harmful to children; how effectively they have configured their algorithms so that the most harmful material is blocked in children’s feeds; and how they have prevented children from being contacted by adult strangers;
  • tracking children’s online experiences to judge whether safety is improving in practice – through our ongoing programme of children’s research and consulting with children through new work with the Children’s Commissioner for England; and
  • swift enforcement action if evidence suggests that platforms are failing to comply with their child safety duties.

This activity is in addition to our ongoing action to enforce our illegal harms Codes, including measures to protect children from sexual abuse and exploitation online.

Part of a longer press release at https://www.ofcom.org.uk/online-safety/protecting-children/online-age-checks-must-be-in-force-from-tomorrow

July 29, 2025

Evidence in sexual offences prosecutions – Law Commission

The Government has asked the Law Commission to examine the trial process and to consider the law, guidance and practice relating to the use of evidence in prosecutions of sexual offences.

After analysing consultation responses and feedback we received at consultation events and meetings, we published a final report with recommendations to the Government for reform on 22 July 2025.

Our recommendations for reform

In our final report, we conclude that while progress has been made, evidence shows that the criminal justice process for rape and serious sexual offences is still flawed and more can be done to ensure that sexual offences are tried justly, without traumatising complainants. We make recommendations aimed at improving the understanding of consent and sexual harm; improving the treatment of complainants; and ensuring that defendants receive a fair trial.

One issue particularly detrimental to the fair and effective trial of sexual offences is the risk that rape myths will permeate the criminal process, influencing jurors’ deliberations. Rape myths are genuine and sincere beliefs about sexual violence that are factually incorrect and derived from stereotypes. The report addresses that risk.

Our recommendations are directed at minimising the risk of unnecessary harm to complainants, and better protecting their privacy rights. Our recommendations protect the defendant’s right to a fair trial by ensuring that the defence can present evidence relevant to their case, without relying on myths and misconceptions or causing unnecessary trauma to the complainant. Our report recommends reform to the rules of evidence and procedure to improve the treatment of complainants, to ensure that the jury can evaluate the issues in the case uninfluenced by myths and misconceptions about sexual violence, and to ensure the defendant’s right to a fair trial can be effectively exercised in every case.

In the first part of our report, we consider restrictions on certain types of evidence that carry the most risk of either introducing rape myths or infringing complainants’ rights to privacy and dignity. We recommend enhanced protection and scrutiny of requests to access complainants’ personal records including their therapy records; and new rules governing the admissibility of evidence of their sexual behaviour and of them having made a claim for criminal injuries compensation.

For evidence that a complainant has made a previous allegation of sexual offending, the sexual behaviour evidence provisions should apply where the evidence falls within the definition of “sexual behaviour”, otherwise the bad character provisions should still apply.

In the second part of our report, we consider reform to features of the trial process. Complainants would gain the right to independent legal advice and representation regarding requests to access their personal records and for applications to introduce evidence of their sexual behaviour. This will ensure these applications – which engage complainants’ privacy interests – are appropriately scrutinised.

At present, the legal framework requires complainants to explain their request for measures to assist them with giving evidence. Under the recommendations, complainants would have an entitlement to standard measures while they give their evidence, and would not need to justify their request. Standard measures include giving evidence behind a screen, using a video link or pre-recording their evidence. This entitlement would also apply to the complainant requesting to exclude the public while they give their evidence. Due to the importance of transparency and open justice, the report improves the current law to ensure that when the complainant gives evidence without the public being present, representatives of news gathering or reporting organisations would be able to remain in order to report on the trial.

Our report recommends mandatory training for all legal practitioners on myths and misconceptions, to reduce the risk of advocates introducing them into the trial process.

We also recommend improvements and additions to the directions which judges give to jurors to educate them about myths and misconceptions. In addition, we conclude that parties should be able to introduce expert evidence of behavioural responses to sexual violence in particularly complex trials.

We consider calls to remove juries entirely from serious sexual offences trials, assessing concerns raised with the current position against the project’s objectives of improving the treatment of complainants, countering rape myths, and safeguarding fair trial rights. Ultimately, we recommend the retention of juries, concluding that there is not a sufficient evidence base to support removing juries in serious sexual offences prosecutions.

To effectively operationalise these recommendations, we recommend introducing specialist sexual offences courts within existing court buildings, with improved access to measures to assist complainants with giving evidence, additional training for court staff on trauma-informed practice, and prioritised case listing.

For full press release and to download reports etc., go to https://lawcom.gov.uk/project/evidence-in-sexual-offence-prosecutions/

 

July 29, 2025

Domestic Abuse Duty for Support in Safe Accommodation – Evaluation: Executive summary – Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government

Conclusions and best practice observations

The findings from the evaluation have generated these insights:

  1. MHCLG should encourage LAs to ensure they are enabling direct engagement with survivors (and indirectly with children) to inform all stages of Part 4 implementation.
  2. LAs should implement transparent commissioning processes that are accessible to all organisations including smaller specialist providers and By and For services. This can lead to a more diverse range of provision, better meeting survivors’ needs.
  3. LAs should collate, disseminate and update comprehensive information setting out the range of safe accommodation available and the support within it, so survivors have options and are able to make informed choices about the support they need.
  4. LAs should ensure that children’s interests and needs are met on an ongoing basis by increased provision of dedicated/specific support maintaining pace with demand. In relation to dedicated provision, children’s support workers should be provided for children in all safe accommodation settings. Specific support should be provided for children with additional needs, including mental health needs.
  5. Given that substantial mental health needs are less well met, duty funding could be used to provide mental health first aid training for safe accommodation staff.
  6. Services should be enabled to extend their support offer to include financial management, through collaboration with expert providers in the voluntary sector, to aid survivors in re-establishing themselves independently after safe accommodation.
  7. MHCLG should work with LAs and sector experts to consider how best to measure the impact of support in safe accommodation. This includes considering the potential for introducing standardised outcome measurement tools to develop a comparable evidence base.
  8. There is a significant knowledge gap regarding support in sanctuary schemes. A sanctuary scheme aims to make the home environment safe for survivors to remain in their own homes, where it is their choice, and the perpetrator does not live there.  MHCLG should commission further research to understand how the duty is being used to support survivors in sanctuary schemes and how the support needs of both adult and child survivors are best met in this model.
  9. As many victim-survivors move across areas for safety, LAs may want to consider co-ordinating with neighbouring authorities on their needs assessments, strategies, commissioning or monitoring and evaluating delivery and outcomes. Doing so can offer information and insight on a larger scale and may bring efficiencies in shared effort, although it may not have the granular detail of those focused on a single LA.

Read the full summary at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/domestic-abuse-duty-for-support-in-safe-accommodation-evaluation/domestic-abuse-duty-for-support-in-safe-accommodation-evaluation-executive-summary

July 29, 2025