Oral Answers to Questions

Charlie Maynard Excerpts

Tuesday 17th March 2026 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lammy]

These issues are devolved to Northern Ireland, but we are in touch and communicate best practice, as the hon. Member would expect.

[Charlie Maynard (Witney) (LD)]

2. What steps his Department is taking through the criminal justice system to help tackle violence against women and girls.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice (Alex Davies-Jones)]

Our violence against women and girls strategy, which the Government published before Christmas, sets out exactly how we will achieve our mission to halve the number of these terrible crimes. The Ministry of Justice is investing more than half a billion pounds in victim support services over the next three years, alongside rolling out free independent legal advisers for all adult victims of rape.

[Charlie Maynard]

I welcome the new legal adviser service as a first step towards levelling the horribly unequal access to legal services available to victims as compared with suspects. However, only £3 million has been provided a year for the next two years to fund that service. Given the record highs of more than 12,500 sexual offence cases awaiting trial in the Crown courts, including Oxfordshire’s Crown court that serves my Witney constituency, does the Minister believe that funding to be anywhere near enough?

[Alex Davies-Jones]

The funding of £6 million over two years will enable us to introduce independent legal advisers for all adult rape victims, and that is alongside the support package we are introducing in our courts system. We are expanding on Operation Soteria to ensure that rape victims get the support they need. The investment in support services is only one part of a much bigger package to ensure that victims are put back at the heart of the justice system.