Asked by: Baroness Owen of Alderley Edge (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how they are measuring their ambition to halve violence against women and girls in a decade; and whether this measure will include online digital violence such as image-based sexual abuse.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government’s mission to halve Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) within a decade will be underpinned by the upcoming VAWG Strategy. Our headline measure will be the prevalence of VAWG as reported through the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW). This will be measured by a new combined measure which will provide one figure for those who have experienced domestic abuse, and/or sexual assault and/or stalking in the previous 12 months.
Our target to halve VAWG within a decade will be set against this headline prevalence measure. We will also use a suite of other sub-metrics that provide a more comprehensive picture of VAWG in society and measure the effectiveness of our interventions.
The strategy will be published shortly.
Asked by: Baroness Owen of Alderley Edge (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the answer by Baroness Merron on 12 March (HL Deb col 700), what consideration they have given to reviewing the priorities of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority and its role with digital clinics.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Digital clinics do not currently fall within the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act and therefore are out outside of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority’s (HFEA) remit at present.
The HFEA published Modernising Fertility Law in November 2023, which made a number of recommendations for legislative change, including around its regulatory powers.
Ministers have met with the HFEA Chair and discussed the emerging regulatory challenges. The Government is considering the HFEA’s priorities for changing the law and will decide how to take this forward at the earliest opportunity.