Domestic Violence Against Children

Baroness Finlay of Llandaff Excerpts

Monday 19th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

My noble friend makes a very good point. She will know that the Home Office has invested £13.1 million to fund and launch a new National Centre for Violence Against Women and Girls and Public Protection to improve the response, particularly in relation to child sexual abuse. That goes to the heart of the point that both the noble Baroness and my noble friend have mentioned about co-ordination, and it is important that we try to resolve this. The strategy was published just before Christmas; it is a 10-year strategy; there is a lot of stuff in it, but the objective is one that my noble friend has pointed to and one that we share.

[Baroness Finlay of Llandaff (CB)]

My Lords, will the Government undertake to work with the AFRUCA organisation? Often, a problem for girls with skin of colour is that bruises do not show. Therefore, the people who may encounter these girls with early signs of abuse, which then escalates, do not easily have the triggers to open the conversation and allow the girls to express that they are at risk.

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

The noble Baroness makes a very good point. Again, one of the areas that the violence against women and girls strategy is looking at is how we can improve training for professionals who come into contact with people who may be involved in that type of abuse. The particular point she mentions related to people of colour is extremely important, and I will take it away.