Asked by: Cat Eccles (Labour - Stourbridge)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to ensure the safety of girls and young women in public places.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Ensuring the safety of women and girls in public spaces is a top priority for this Government. We have set out an unprecedented mission to halve the level of violence against women and girls (VAWG) in a decade. That means working to tackle threats to women's safety in all areas of their lives, including in public places. To underpin this ambition, we will shortly be publishing a VAWG Strategy.
Asked by: Cat Eccles (Labour - Stourbridge)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to help reduce violence against women and girls in the West Midlands.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Tackling violence against women and girls is a top priority for this Government and we have set an unprecedented mission to halve violence against women and girls in a decade.
West Midlands Police is one of the first five police forces to embed domestic abuse specialists in 999 controls rooms under Raneem's Law. ·The domestic abuse specialists are using their expertise to advise on risk assessments, work with staff to quality assure the standard of response being given, and ensure victims are referred to appropriate support services swiftly. Raneem's Law is made in memory of Raneem Oudeh and her mother Khaola Saleem, who were murdered by Raneem's ex-partner. There were 13 reports made to the police reporting concerns for Raneem's safety, but no arrest was made. On the night she was killed, she rang 999 four times. We want to ensure police control rooms are prioritising domestic abuse incidents, so that this cannot happen again.
The Home Office has invested £1.6 million this year in the West Midlands to identify what works to prevent VAWG and to increase the availability of domestic abuse perpetrator intervention programmes in order to improve victim safety and reduce the risk posed by abusers. We are providing over £500,000 to The Children's Society to deliver interventions for children affected by domestic abuse in the North West, West Midlands and the South West. These provide trauma-informed support provision to children and work with frontline agencies to raise awareness of children and young people who are affected by domestic abuse.
In May, I announced the Government was investing up to £19.9 million this year to provide vital support to victims of VAWG. This money is being invested in national VAWG helplines, supporting victims of domestic abuse, 'honour'-based abuse, revenge porn and stalking services to help prevent and improve the response to VAWG. As well as providing funding for national services across England and Wales, we are providing support for children affected by domestic abuse, support for migrant victims, work to increase the understanding and identification of VAWG, work to prevent 'honour' based abuse and improving multi-agency working and risk management.
We will go further than ever before to deliver a cross-Government transformative approach to tackling violence against women and girls, which will be underpinned by a new VAWG Strategy later this year
Asked by: Cat Eccles (Labour - Stourbridge)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of supervised consumption sites for people with drug addictions in order to assist them in rehabilitation.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
This government will continue to support preventative public health measures to support people to live longer and healthier lives and we are committed to ensuring that anyone with a drug problem can access the help and support they need.
The government has no current plans to facilitate the introduction of drug consumption rooms.