Oral Answers to Questions

Jess Phillips Excerpts

Wednesday 7th May 2025 Commons Chamber

[Alison Taylor (Paisley and Renfrewshire North) (Lab)]

10. What steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help tackle violence against women and girls.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Jess Phillips)]

The Government have set out an unprecedented mission to halve violence against women and girls within a decade, and we have already set out a number of transformative measures to overhaul the policing response to these terrible crimes. This includes announcing a £13 million investment in the new national centre for violence against women and girls and public protection, and we will publish the new violence against women and girls strategy before the summer recess.

[Jo Platt]

Recent figures show that sexual offences recorded by Greater Manchester police have quadrupled since 2010, with the Wigan borough seeing the most domestic abuse call-outs. Although the domestic abuse protection order trial in Wigan is welcome, more must be done to ensure that women and girls are safe. Does the Minister agree that broader societal action is needed, and can she outline how the Government will work across Departments, public services and local authorities to address this crisis?

[Jess Phillips]

I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend. The Victims Minister and I chair the violence against women and girls cross-government board, which meets very regularly. It has led to our violence against women and girls strategy, which sits within that. It is an expert group that helps us on policy. It includes local government, the voluntary sector, the police and other members of civil society. She is absolutely right to say that this policy will involve everybody.

[Jen Craft]

In November, a report by the child safeguarding practice review panel found that a focus on child sexual abuse in the home has been lost in the past 20 years. Its key finding were: that there were systematic failings across the board in identifying and responding to signs of child sexual abuse; that there is an over-reliance on the criminal justice system; and, crucially, that children’s voices are not being heard. How will the Minister ensure that a focus on in-home child sexual abuse is built into the Government’s violence against women and girls strategy, and that it will have children’s voices at its heart?

[Jess Phillips]

We are working with Cabinet Office colleagues and others across Government on the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse. It is vital to ensure that any strategy includes therapeutic and other support for child victims, so that they can take action, and we can ensure justice.

[Alison Taylor]

Will the Minister please give consideration to women’s safety in and around railway stations? Will she focus on unmanned railway stations? I have many in my constituency.

[Jess Phillips]

Women travelling alone at night should not feel afraid, yet many do. We are committed to the safer streets mission, and to halving violence against women and girls in the next decade. We will continue to work closely with the rail industry, including the British Transport Police, to do that. Work being done includes a review of the secure station scheme, which ensures that train operators meet a set of standards for security at stations; and we are taking measures that support personal safety.

[Rebecca Smith (South West Devon) (Con)]

My constituent Keith Levell was sexually abused at school, and was referred to as a number, not a name, during the investigations. He has been holding out for the redress scheme for victims of child sexual abuse, and for a written apology for the life-changing experiences to which he was subjected. On behalf of Keith and many others in his situation, why have the Government reportedly scrapped the Conservative plans for a redress scheme in England and Wales?

[Jess Phillips]

I pay tribute to the hon. Lady’s constituent, and to the many others who came forward during the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse, but what I would like to tell him is that when I came to office, there was absolutely no plan on this issue, other than a sentence to say that something would be done around the redress scheme. I have updated the House fully on the IICSA recommendations, and can tell the hon. Lady that the plan is still in train.

[Kirsty Blackman (Aberdeen North) (SNP)]

Will the Minister meet me to discuss the issues faced by women with no recourse to public funds who are fleeing domestic violence? As they may not be eligible for support with housing, they may struggle to find refuge places. I would appreciate a meeting to discuss this issue.

[Jess Phillips]

I will absolutely meet the hon. Lady to discuss those issues. The migrant victims of domestic abuse concession applies to all migrant victims, regardless of the type of visa that they are on, and it should be providing that support, but I am more than happy to meet her.

[Carla Lockhart (Upper Bann) (DUP)]

The Minister is doing sterling work on this issue. She will know that my passion is for Northern Ireland to be utterly in step with the rest of the UK when it comes to protecting women and girls against violence. Does she agree that Northern Ireland, its authorities, organisations and employers should implement the recent Supreme Court ruling, and will she join me in calling on the Irish Football Association to be in step with the English and Scottish Football Associations when it comes to the protection of women, on and off the pitch?

[Jess Phillips]

I thank the hon. Lady, and absolutely pay tribute to her work on this issue, which I have seen directly in Northern Ireland. What I would say, as I am sure anyone would at this Dispatch Box, is that I would always encourage everybody to follow the laws in our country in step.

[Mr Speaker]

I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.

[Christine Jardine (Edinburgh West) (LD)]

Three years after Baroness Kennedy’s groundbreaking review on tackling misogyny in law, late on Friday, the SNP said that it would scrap its planned Bill to tackle widespread misogyny and hatred against women. Plans to tackle misogynistic harassment, the stirring up of hatred, and sending threatening or abusive communications to women, and an aggravated offence of misogyny—all scrapped in favour of a watered-down amendment to the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021. Women across the United Kingdom need action, and reassurance that politicians will root out the attitudes that lead to hatred against women in public life. If the SNP will not do it, will this Government act to give women the support that they need?

[Jess Phillips]

The hon. Lady makes an impassioned point. It will be a fundamental part of the violence against women and girls strategy to get to the exact reason why we have ended up with an epidemic of violence against women and girls in all the nations of the United Kingdom, and to root it out. For too long, we have sought to put ever-bigger plasters on the problem, rather than finding the reason for it and preventing it from happening.

[Juliet Campbell (Broxtowe) (Lab)]

3. What steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to promote equality as part of the Government mission entitled “break down barriers to opportunity.”

--- Later in debate ---

[Bob Blackman (Harrow East) (Con)]

4. What steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help protect girls from sex-based violence by grooming gangs.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Jess Phillips)]

The Government are taking unprecedented action to improve the response to these heinous crimes, so that we get more perpetrators behind bars and get justice for victims and survivors. We are increasing investment in the taskforce, and every police force has been asked to review cases that were closed with no further action taken. Arrests are increasing. We are expanding victims’ rights to review. Crucially, we are introducing the new, long-overdue mandatory reporting duties, and the new statutory aggravating factor for grooming offences.

[Bob Blackman]

In previous Parliaments, the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee held inquiries on Rochdale, Rotherham and other towns where sex grooming was taking place. We now know that this is a nationwide problem. We heard from Baroness Casey—then Dame Louise Casey—that there was a problem with Pakistani men and their culture, and that the victims were predominantly white girls in council care. We have evidence that council staff, councillors, social workers and possibly the police have been complicit, or have at least turned a blind eye to the issue, so local inquiries will not be good enough. Will the Minister call for a national, judge-led inquiry, in which witnesses are required to give evidence under oath, so that those who turned a blind eye can be brought to justice?

[Jess Phillips]

To answer the hon. Gentleman’s final point, to be clear, national statutory inquiries do not send anyone to prison. He rightly mentioned Baroness Casey and her work in Rotherham, and others’ work in Rochdale. The reason why we know about some of the terrible behaviours is because of the brilliant local inquiries undertaken in those towns. Louise Casey is undertaking a national audit that will report shortly.

[Mims Davies (East Grinstead and Uckfield) (Con)]

Despite what the Prime Minister said, speaking out for rape victims is not jumping on a far-right bandwagon. Yesterday, it was reported that No. 10’s interim spokesperson said it was “obviously disappointing” to see people “weaponising” rape gangs for “political point scoring”. How does that square with the harrowing personal testimony from Jade, Chantelle, Scarlett, Erin and Steph in Anna Hall’s Channel 4 documentary aired last week, where concerning questions continued to arise about councils, police, schools, social workers and children’s homes? It was reported that in up to 50 communities, vulnerable girls who were under age—exploited children—were unbelievably labelled as promiscuous or child prostitutes.

[Jess Phillips]

The hon. Lady points out the terrible things that have gone on historically, and that continue to be a concern across our country. That is exactly why the Government are investing in the taskforce, which is working across the country with police forces to ensure that people can be arrested and girls can be kept safe. Arrests have gone up. Absolutely everybody thinks this issue is terrible. I remind the hon. Lady that she gladly served as Women and Equalities Minister under a Prime Minister who said that looking into these historical cases was

“spaffing money up the wall.”

[Mims Davies]

As a child, Jade got a criminal record during her abuse and exploitation, and now she cannot attend her children’s school trips. Chantelle rightly said,

“We are not the problem. The men are the problem.”

Although there are plenty of good women on the Front Bench, I have to ask: are this Government simply more interested in protecting their own than staying true to their manifesto pledge? That pledge says,

“We will use every…tool to target perpetrators”.

Yet Labour is turning its back on that once again; you can hear it. The Leader of the House called this “dog whistle” politics on national radio. Why will the Minister and her Front-Bench colleagues not commit to delivering a proper, national, statutory public inquiry, and finally put victims first?

[Jess Phillips]

I will absolutely protect my own in this. My own are the women in our country, who, for the last 14 years, have seen no efforts made. People say terrible things, and the Leader of the House was right to apologise. I wonder how many of those on the Opposition Front Bench asked the former Prime Minister to apologise for saying that looking into the lives of the girls we are talking about, through a statutory inquiry that had already happened, was spaffing money up the wall. Where was the outrage?

[Sonia Kumar (Dudley) (Lab)]

5. What discussions she has had with Cabinet colleagues on access to venture capital for women.