Asked by: Baroness Gohir (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the answer by Lord Khan of Burnley on 13 March (HL Deb col 821), how they will allocate the remaining £350,000 of the £1 million committed to programmes to combat hatred against Muslims, following the allocation of £650,000 to the British Muslim Trust; and what plans they have to allocate these remaining funds to Muslim communities.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
As per the Combatting Hate Against Muslims fund: prospectus - GOV.UK, the allocated funding for the Combatting Hate Against Muslims fund was £650,000 for financial year 2025/26.
The government will announce other measures to support community cohesion, including for Muslim communities, in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Gohir (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made for the years 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 of the proportion of anti-social behaviour recorded by police which is (1) associated with racism, (2) associated with religious hatred, and (3) associated with religious hatred towards Muslims.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office collects and publishes information about the number of anti-social behaviour incidents recorded by the police in England and Wales on a quarterly basis. However, information about whether these incidents were associated with racism or religious hate is not separately identifiable.
Asked by: Baroness Gohir (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how much funding was allocated to the Protective Security for Mosques Scheme in (1) 2022–23, (2) 2023–24, (3) 2024–25, and (4) 2025–26; how much funding was utilised in each of those years; and how any unspent funds were used or reallocated.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Protective Security for Mosques Scheme was introduced in 2024/25. Funding allocated for protective security at mosques and Muslim faith schools under the scheme in 2024/25 was £29,400,000, of which the full allocation was issued.
Asked by: Baroness Gohir (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether Black, Asian and minority ethnic women are over-represented in female domestic homicides between 2022 to 2025.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
We are committed to developing the evidence base to improve our understanding of the triggers and causes of deaths related to domestic abuse, including for women from minority ethnic groups. This includes funding research by the National Police Chiefs’ Council’s Domestic Homicide Project, which captures information on domestic abuse related deaths from all 43 polices forces across England and Wales and provides information on the ethnicity of both victims and perpetrators. The most recent report was published in March 2025: https://www.vkpp.org.uk/vkpp-work/domestic-homicide-project/.
Domestic Homicide Reviews (DHRs) also allow for in-depth learning from these deaths. The Domestic Homicide Review Library holds all published DHRs to allow for more analysis of patterns and trends of domestic homicides and all deaths related to domestic abuse going forward.
Later this year, we will publish a new cross-government strategy on halving Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy in a decade, which will set out the steps we are taking to prevent domestic abuse related deaths.
Asked by: Baroness Gohir (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether Black women are over-represented in female domestic homicides from 2022 to 2025.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
We are committed to developing the evidence base to improve our understanding of the triggers and causes of deaths related to domestic abuse, including for women from minority ethnic groups. This includes funding research by the National Police Chiefs’ Council’s Domestic Homicide Project, which captures information on domestic abuse related deaths from all 43 polices forces across England and Wales and provides information on the ethnicity of both victims and perpetrators. The most recent report was published in March 2025: https://www.vkpp.org.uk/vkpp-work/domestic-homicide-project/.
Domestic Homicide Reviews (DHRs) also allow for in-depth learning from these deaths. The Domestic Homicide Review Library holds all published DHRs to allow for more analysis of patterns and trends of domestic homicides and all deaths related to domestic abuse going forward.
Later this year, we will publish a new cross-government strategy on halving Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy in a decade, which will set out the steps we are taking to prevent domestic abuse related deaths.
Asked by: Baroness Gohir (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether Asian women are over-represented in female domestic homicides from 2022 to 2025
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
We are committed to developing the evidence base to improve our understanding of the triggers and causes of deaths related to domestic abuse, including for women from minority ethnic groups. This includes funding research by the National Police Chiefs’ Council’s Domestic Homicide Project, which captures information on domestic abuse related deaths from all 43 polices forces across England and Wales and provides information on the ethnicity of both victims and perpetrators. The most recent report was published in March 2025: https://www.vkpp.org.uk/vkpp-work/domestic-homicide-project/.
Domestic Homicide Reviews (DHRs) also allow for in-depth learning from these deaths. The Domestic Homicide Review Library holds all published DHRs to allow for more analysis of patterns and trends of domestic homicides and all deaths related to domestic abuse going forward.
Later this year, we will publish a new cross-government strategy on halving Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy in a decade, which will set out the steps we are taking to prevent domestic abuse related deaths.
Asked by: Baroness Gohir (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many calls the ACAS helpline received in each year between 2016 and 2024; of those, how many and what percentage of calls were about religion and belief; and how many and what percentage of calls were received from those who identified as Muslim.
Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Between the years 2016 and 2024, the Acas helpline received the following numbers of calls. Acas’ data on calls is not broken down into different religions and beliefs.
Year | Number of calls | Calls related to religion and beliefs | Percentage of helpline calls on religion and beliefs. |
2016 | 960,400 | 1,262 | 0.13% |
2017 | 776,400 | 977 | 0.13% |
2018 | 710,000 | 843 | 0.12% |
2019 | 784,000 | 1,084 | 0.14% |
2020 | 750,100 | 805 | 0.11% |
2021 | 662,200 | 1,002 | 0.15% |
2022 | 640,200 | 1,009 | 0.16% |
2023 | 621,500 | 1,121 | 0.18% |
2024 | 569,300 | 1,179 | 0.21% |
Asked by: Baroness Gohir (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Hanson of Flint on 9 December 2024 (HL2824), what assessment they have made of the prevalence of transnational marriage abandonment cases for 2024 and 2025.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
Since 31 January 2024 those who find themselves a victim of domestic abuse in the form of transnational marriage abandonment (TMA) can apply for entry clearance (Indefinite Leave to Enter (ILE)) under Appendix Victim of Domestic Abuse to the Immigration Rules.
Data on the number of applications under the TMA route is published each quarter on gov.uk under the category ‘Settlement VDA LTE’: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/682b151450dbd3ce8372abb4/visas-status-and-immigration-data-q1-2025.ods.
The data shows there were 9 cases in 2024 Q1, 17 in Q2, 34 in Q3, 23 in Q4. For 2025 the data shows there were 12 cases in Q1.
Prior to this, cases of TMA were not distinguishable in published statistics. We will continue to monitor the prevalence of TMA cases over time.
Asked by: Baroness Gohir (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what was the total funding they allocated to Faith Matters for the Tell MAMA project for the 2025–26 financial year; what was the duration in months for which the funding was granted; and what specific activities will be supported by this funding.
Answered by Lord Khan of Burnley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government is committed to providing a comprehensive service to monitor anti-Muslim hatred and providing support for victims, and on 2 April announced the Combatting Hate Against Muslims Fund. We are seeking grant applications to support organisations to provide a comprehensive service to monitor anti-Muslim hatred and support victims. We welcome applications from Tell MAMA as well as alternative providers.
The government has also made available £500,000 for funding Tell MAMA in 2025/26, to support their work for Q1 and Q2 of 2025/26. This is subject to their signing of a Grant Funding Agreement for 2025/26 which will detail the specific activities the funding will support.
Asked by: Baroness Gohir (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Collins of Highbury on 2 December 2024 (HL2826), what steps they will take to increase the number of cases related to religion and belief handled by the Equality Advisory and Support Service.
Answered by Lord Collins of Highbury - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Equality Advisory & Support Service (EASS) is a government-commissioned helpline that provides free advice and support to individuals in England, Scotland, and Wales on issues relating to equality and human rights.
The service provides advice in relation to all the protected characteristics covered in the Equality Act 2010. EASS has a dedicated Stakeholder Engagement Manager who undertakes engagement with organisations that represent the interests of those with protected characteristics that have contacted the service and with organisations that wish to establish links with the service in the future.