Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the Spending Review 2025 on funding allocated to national Violence Against Women and Girls (a) helplines and (b) charities supporting victims in 2025-26.

Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

In May 2025, the Home Office announced a £19.9m investment in the 2025/2026 financial year to provide vital support to victims of VAWG as well as other projects across the country that help prevent these crimes.

This includes over £6 million for national helplines supporting victims of domestic abuse, 'honour'-based abuse, revenge porn and stalking. This is in addition to £2.5m on prevention and early intervention to help stop VAWG happening in the first place, to identify what works to prevent VAWG and improve multi-agency working.

The upcoming VAWG Strategy will be published later this year and will set out the strategic direction and concrete actions to deliver on the Government’s VAWG ambition.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether the budget for victim and witness support services will be lower in 2025-26 than 2024-25.

Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

The Ministry of Justice remains committed to supporting victims and witnesses of crime. For the 2025–26 financial year, the Department has protected funding levels for ringfenced sexual violence and domestic abuse support, maintaining them at the same level as in 2024–25.

There has been a small reduction to the core budget allocated to Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs), who are responsible for commissioning local victim support services based on assessed need. This decision was taken in the context of a challenging fiscal environment left behind by the previous Government.

The Department continues to work closely with PCCs and sector partners to support the delivery of high-quality services.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of the Spending Review 2025 on the safeguarding of victims of (a) sexual and (b) domestic abuse.

Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

The Government recognises the scale of violence against women and girls and is treating it as a national emergency. A new cross-government strategy to tackle this will be published this summer.

Action has already been taken by piloting Domestic Abuse Protection Orders; introducing new offences for sexually explicit deepfakes, intimate image abuse and spiking and providing free transcripts of sentencing remarks to victims of sexual offences in the Crown Court.

We will also establish specialist rape and sexual offences teams in every police force and introduce free independent legal advice for victims of adult rape.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that NHS nursing associates are (a) recognised for their work, (b) protected from role misuse and (c) supported within their defined scope of practice.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Employers across the National Health Service are best placed to identify, recognise, and reward staff for excellence in the delivery of healthcare. In October 2023, NHS England published their Staff Recognition Framework. This provides ideas and guidance for organisations to inform their own strategies and approaches to recognising the work of staff. The Staff Recognition Framework is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/staff-recognition-framework/

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) is the independent regulator of nurses and midwives in the United Kingdom, and nursing associates in England. The NMC has published standards of proficiency for nursing associates, which set out the knowledge and skills that nursing associates need to meet in order to be considered by the NMC as capable of safe and effective nursing associate practice. Further information on the standards of proficiency is available at the following link:

https://www.nmc.org.uk/standards/standards-for-nursing-associates/standards-of-proficiency-for-nursing-associates/

In addition, the NMC’s Code sets out the professional standards that all NMC registrants must uphold in order to be registered to practise in the United Kingdom.

Nursing associates can expand their knowledge and skills with the right training and governance. This must be coupled with appropriate local governance arrangements to ensure healthcare professionals only carry out tasks that they have received the necessary training to perform.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she has taken to ensure that the (a) quality and (b) accessibility of support services to victims of (i) sexual and (ii) domestic abuse are not adversely impacted by the Spending Review 2025.

Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The Home Office has increased victims’ funding from 24/25 to 25/26, including providing support for specialist services. In May 2025, the Home Office announced an additional £19.9m investment in the 2025/2026 financial year to provide vital support to victims of VAWG as well as other projects across the country that help prevent these crimes.

This includes over £6 million for national helplines supporting victims of domestic abuse, 'honour'-based abuse, revenge porn and stalking. This is in addition to £2.5m on prevention and early intervention to help stop VAWG happening in the first place, to identify what works to prevent VAWG and improve multi-agency working.

The upcoming VAWG Strategy will be published later this year and will set out the strategic direction and concrete actions to deliver on the Government’s VAWG ambition.

Found: meeting Members present: Andy Slaughter (Chair); Josh Babarinde; Pam Cox; Linsey Farnsworth; Sir Ashley Fox

Found: Hamilton Sir Gavin Williamson David Mundell Aphra Brandreth Jack Rankin Dr Al Pinkerton Sir Ashley Fox