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.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many women's centres there are in the UK and how they are funded.

Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

Women’s centres provide information, advice and support to women in the community, including those that have an offending history. Women’s centres are run by the voluntary sector and receive funding from a range of sources, such as local authorities, health services, charities, trusts, and central government. There is no agreed figure for the number of women’s centres in the UK.

The Government recognises the vital support that women’s centres provide to vulnerable women in or at risk of contact with the justice system. In 2025/26, the Ministry of Justice is investing £7.2 million in community support, including women’s centres, focused on steering women away from the justice system and custody.

HMPPS also provides funding for women’s Commissioned Rehabilitative Services contracts with women’s community sector organisations, delivering specialist support to women on probation.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Hanson of Flint on 21 October 2024 (HL1289), what steps they have taken to work closely with the College of Policing and National Police Chiefs' Council to strengthen the training for officers on violence against women and girls; where is progress up to; and how they are monitoring this with specific regard to intimate image abuse.

Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)

As set out in the written answer of 21 October, the College of Policing set the curriculum for policing which includes educational outcomes on image-based abuse. At present, forces choose how to deliver this training, often by commissioning local experts and support services.

However, to ensure that every force has the right specialist capability to investigate Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) crimes, including Intimate Image Abuse, we have invested £13.1 million into the new National Centre for VAWG and Public Protection, which launched in April 2025. This included a £2 million uplift to support improvements in police training – this work is now under way, beginning with an extensive review of the current approach.

The Home Office will be working closely with the College and the National Police Chiefs’ Council to ensure the training covers all forms of VAWG, including intimate image abuse. In addition, innovative, data-driven and evidence-based police practices is being prioritised through ringfenced funding for academic input into the development of training and guidance.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government when the provisions in section 138 of the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 will come into effect.

Answered by Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede - Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

This Government remains committed to delivering on its commitment to criminalise the non-consensual creation of purported intimate images.

As with several other measures in the Act, the provisions in section 138 will come into effect when commenced by regulations in due course.