Oral Answers to Questions

Christine Jardine Excerpts

Monday 29th July 2024 Commons Chamber

[Josh Fenton-Glynn (Calder Valley) (Lab)]

2. What assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the police response to violence against women and girls.

[Christine Jardine (Edinburgh West) (LD)]

3. What steps her Department plans to take to tackle violence against women and girls.

[Alison Hume (Scarborough and Whitby) (Lab)]

5. What steps her Department plans to take to tackle violence against women and girls.

--- Later in debate ---

[Yvette Cooper]

As a West Yorkshire MP, I join my hon. Friend in paying tribute to the work done by not just the Deputy Mayor of West Yorkshire, but the mayor and the chief constable. They have been looking at ways to improve women’s safety on the streets and speed up charging for domestic abuse. Charge rates for domestic abuse have dropped by about 40% across the country over the last eight years. That has to be turned around, because we need justice on those terrible crimes.

[Christine Jardine]

I welcome the Home Secretary’s comments, particularly in the light of a National Police Chiefs’ Council report that states that one in 12 women will be victim of a violent crime by a man. While police action is necessary, does she agree that this is a whole-Government and whole-society problem? We have to look at societal change and education, including health education, and we have to look at misogyny in the round, because it is about more than just violence; it happens to women every day, in the most everyday of circumstances.

[Yvette Cooper]

I agree with the hon. Member that this has to be a broad mission; that is why the Prime Minister has talked about it being not just for Government or any individual Department. We will work on it across Government, but it must be about society as a whole. The Education Secretary has talked about tackling toxic misogyny in schools as well.