Gill Furniss
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Violence against Women and Girls
Gill Furniss Excerpts(1 day, 20 hours ago)
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Gill Furniss (Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough) (Lab)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairpersonship, Sir Mark. I thank the hon. Member for Poplar and Limehouse (Apsana Begum) for securing this debate during the 16 days of activism against gender-based violence.
Due to the nature of domestic violence, the data available to us will never fully record the extent of the abuse, but we know that there was a minimum of 2.2 million victims last year. To me, that number is clear evidence that the issue is endemic. I am sick and tired of seeing women and girls facing the same threats of violence and abuse every day. It is often framed as a women’s issue—something that we need to be aware of in case our actions are somehow responsible for men’s behaviour. And I say men, because the reality is that the vast majority of violence against women is clearly committed by men.
I was proud to stand on a manifesto that committed to halving violence against women and girls within a decade, and I am pleased that Ministers are treating it as a cross-departmental problem and have established a ministerial board on tackling violence against women and girls. Combating the epidemic will require specialist local services and charities but, as every Member knows, our councils face extreme budgetary pressures thanks to austerity. When faced with such a grim economic future, the vast majority of councils’ spending goes towards fulfilling the provision of their statutory legal obligations.
I wanted to speak about a charity called Vida Sheffield, which is very close to my heart and had been running for nearly 30 years. Sadly, Vida Sheffield recently announced its closure. It had been relying on an emergency grant from the National Lottery these last few months, and had applied for funding from the Home Office and the suicide prevention grant fund to continue its work. Vida estimated that it saved other services about £50,000 a month through its complex mental health service. I fear that the burden of the surviving mental health and therapy services in Sheffield will only increase with the loss of Vida.
The barriers are only more pronounced for those women from minoritised communities. I have total regard for the Minister, and I know how tenacious and committed she is. I am sure she will listen to us all and come back with good responses.