EHRC - Map of Gaps

Equality and Human Rights Commission

Our job is to promote equality and human rights, and to create a fairer Britain. We do this by providing advice and guidance, working to implement an effective legislative framework and raising awareness of your rights.

Map of Gaps

Each year, 3 million women in Britain experience rape, domestic violence, stalking or other violence

But our Map of Gaps study shows that women who need vital support services face a postcode lottery.

One in four local authority areas provide no specialised support services in their area for women who experience violence. This means a woman's access to crucial support is vastly influenced by where she lives and women living in some areas continue to suffer violence without any specialised support at all.

View the maps now and find out how your local area compares.

We are calling on local and national government to work together to make sure all women in all parts of Britain have equal access to specailised support services - helpline, rape crisis centres, refuges and domestic violence outreach projects.

Read more about the Map of Gaps

The Map of Gaps is a joint campaign between the Equality and Human Rights Commission and the End Violence Against Women coalition.

Read more about the background context to what we're calling for.  You can also read a summary of the key findings.

Latest news

Following the Map of Gaps 2 report (2009), the Commission wrote to all local authorities that were identified as having no specialised support for women. The responses of 93 local authorities were reviewed and letters and guidance were sent to all of them by 22 September 2009. Read more.

We have now brought all Map of Gaps web content into our main website in order to consolidate all content about the report and the action we're taking into one place.

Government strategy

A cross-government strategy was launched in November 2009 that sets out a coordinated approach to ending violence against women and girls.  'Together We Can End Violence against Women and Girls' includes a range of actions for the police, councils, the NHS and government departments across three areas: prevention, provision and protection.

To support this strategy the Government Equalities Office (GEO) has developed an online communications toolkit: Tackling Violence against Women and Girls: a guide to good practice communication.