Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to work with (a) Vale of Glamorgan Council and (b) other local authorities to (i) prevent homelessness and (ii) provide sustainable housing solutions for people at risk.

Answered by Rushanara Ali - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

Homelessness levels are far too high. This can have a devastating impact on those affected.

We must address this and deliver long term solutions. The Government is looking at these issues carefully and will develop a new cross government strategy, working with mayors and councils across the country to get us back on track to ending homelessness.

We are already taking the first steps to get back on track to ending homelessness. As announced at the Budget, grant funding for homelessness services is increasing next year by £233 million compared to this year (FY2024-25). This increased spending will help to prevent rises in the number of families in temporary accommodation and help to prevent rough sleeping. This brings total spend to nearly £1 billion in 2025-26.

More widely, we are taking action to tackle the root causes of homelessness, including delivering the biggest increase in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation and building 1.5 million new homes over the next parliament. We are also Abolishing Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions, preventing private renters being exploited and discriminated against, and empowering people to challenge unreasonable rent increases.

Homelessness legislation is a devolved matter in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

MHCLG is always keen to learn from other countries’ approaches. Ministers and officials engage regularly with their counterparts in the devolved administrations to discuss a range of issues, including tackling homelessness.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to improve the (a) identification, (b) investigation and (c) prosecution of stalking; and what engagement she has had with police forces in Wales on this issue.

Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

Stalking is an insidious crime that can leave victims living in fear every day, and tackling it forms a key part of our mission on to halve violence against women and girls (VAWG) over the next decade.

That is why the Home Office is:

- investing £13.1 million next financial year (25/26) to set up a new National Policing Centre for VAWG and Public Protection which will drive consistency in the police response to these crimes;

- introducing provisions for new multi-agency statutory guidance on stalking which will set a robust framework for how agencies such as the police, local authorities and health should work together, including statutory guidance for the police on when they should release identifying information about stalking perpetrators to victims;

- conducting a review of stalking legislation to determine whether the law should be changed and strengthened to take tougher action against perpetrators, and better protect victims; and

- the police and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) are updating their joint protocol on the handling of stalking offences, so police and prosecutors are better equipped to recognise and respond to stalking. The CPS will also shortly launch a revised training module on stalking to support prosecutors.

Home Office officials engage regularly with the police and Welsh Government on this issue to understand how measures to improve identification, investigation and prosecution of stalking will apply to Wales.

In addition, we have established a VAWG Strategy Advisory Board which is feeding directly into the development of the new VAWG Strategy and has representatives from Wales, including the Independent Adviser on VAWG for Wales.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to tackle spiking incidents; and what support is being made available to local authorities and hospitality venues to improve prevention and victim support.

Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

Spiking is an appalling crime that undermines the people's right to feel safe when they are simply enjoying a night out.

The Government is currently delivering a range of measures to tackle this vile practice, specifically targeted at raising awareness, identifying perpetrators, and gathering evidence. They include:

• Introducing a new criminal offence for spiking to help police better respond to this crime. This is being delivered through the Crime and Policing Bill which is currently at Committee Stage in the House of Commons.
• Funding the development and delivery of increased training on spiking to staff in the Night Time Economy at no cost to venues.
• Working with the regulator of the UK private security industry, the Security Industry Authority to deliver mandatory spiking training for their 352,000+ door supervisor licence holders by April 2028. This has already been delivered to more than 135,000 new licence applicants since Spring 2024.
• The funding of police spiking "intensification weeks" which have seen an enhanced focus on spiking and led to increased arrests, detections, and prevention activity taking place.
• Investing in research into the accuracy and efficacy of commercially available spiking testing kits, to help the police detect if someone has been spiked in real-time.

The Home Office works closely with the hospitality and third sectors, as well as law enforcement to ensure that we are delivering measures on spiking which make it more difficult to carry out in the first place, that venues and the emergency services are proving the best possible response, and that victims are listened to and feel supported.

A wide range of spiking training, resources, support and advice options are available across a number of organisations, many of whom are referenced on the Government's spiking web pages or within our training package.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to tackle violence against women and girls; and what support is being provided to local police forces and frontline services in the Vale of Glamorgan.

Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

We have already announced a series of measures designed to strengthen the police response to violence against women and girls (VAWG), protect victims and hold perpetrators to account across England and Wales. This includes:

• Embedding the first domestic abuse specialists in 999 control rooms in five police forces under Raneem's Law to advise on risk assessments, work with officers on the ground and ensure that victims are referred to appropriate support services swiftly.
• Launching new Domestic Abuse Protection Orders in select police areas which will go further than any existing order, making it a legal requirement for perpetrators to inform the police of any change in name or address; imposing electronic monitoring and ordering assessments for behaviour change programmes.
• Investing £13.1 million next financial year (25/26) into the new National Policing Centre for VAWG and Public Protection, to co-ordinate the police response to these crimes from 1 April 2025. Centralising policing expertise to tackle these crimes will drive national coordination, with the development of strengthened specialist training for officers across England and Wales ensuring they offer consistent protection for victims and relentlessly pursue the perpetrators of these vile crimes.

The Home Office also continues to fund a range of organisations providing vital frontline support to victims of VAWG.