Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Baroness Featherstone and Alun Cairns

Monday 27th June 2011 Commons Chamber

[Alun Cairns (Vale of Glamorgan) (Con)]

17. What steps her Department is taking to protect women from domestic and sexual violence.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Lynne Featherstone)]

In March this year we published a detailed action plan on tackling violence against women and girls. We have already delivered in several areas, including a commitment to provide more than £28 million of Home Office funding over four years for local specialist services to support victims of domestic and sexual violence.

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[Lynne Featherstone]

Preventing sexual and domestic violence from happening in the first place is a key priority of our action plan to end violence against women and girls. We are committed to developing education and awareness-raising campaigns on rape and sexual assault. As my hon. Friend said, we work with the Department for Education to encourage teaching about sexual consent in schools.

[Alun Cairns]

What discussions has the Minister had with the Department of Justice about victims of domestic violence who do not report offences to the police, particularly in the light of potential legal aid changes?

[Lynne Featherstone]

There have been no specific discussions with the Secretary of State for Justice on this issue. However, the Ministry of Justice is a member of the inter-ministerial group on violence against women and girls, which is chaired by the Home Secretary. Discussions on the support provided for all victims of violence against women and girls is discussed at its meetings.

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[Lynne Featherstone]

There are no loopholes in the Bill. The barring scheme will continue to cover all those in day-to-day, unsupervised contact with children, and those working in supervised positions will still be eligible for Criminal Records Bureau checks.

[Alun Cairns (Vale of Glamorgan) (Con)]

T1. If she will make a statement on her departmental responsibilities.