Oral Answers to Questions

Liz Jarvis Excerpts

Wednesday 5th February 2025 Commons Chamber

[Anneliese Dodds]

It is vital that service providers have clear guidance about the Equality Act. The EHRC has already published non-statutory guidance on the legislation for separate and single-sex service providers, and the new Government have also acted to underline that single-sex refuges, for example, are fully legally compliant, as I emphasised when I visited such a refuge in September.

[Liz Jarvis (Eastleigh) (LD)]

6. What discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for the Home Department on tackling violence against women and girls.

[Sarah Edwards (Tamworth) (Lab)]

13. 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)]

I am not sure that Mr Speaker would allow me to go into quite that level of detail on the amount of discussions I have with the Home Secretary on this issue. It would take hours, because this happens every single day. This weekend, the Government announced that we will be spending £13.1 million to create a national policing centre for violence against women and girls and public protection, and that is due to launch in April.

[Liz Jarvis]

According to the National Audit Office’s report published on Friday, the epidemic of violence against women and girls is getting worse, and current prevention activities have largely

“focused on reducing reoffending rather than avoiding initial offences.”

In Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, which includes my Eastleigh constituency, 39,221 domestic abuse incidents and crimes were recorded from April 2023 to March 2024. Following recent tragic events, what measures is the Minister taking to encourage prevention and foster the cultural change necessary to keep women and girls safe?

[Jess Phillips]

I thank the hon. Lady, and I am sure the entire House agrees with the tone with which she speaks about domestic abuse in her area. The National Audit Office wrote what, frankly, can only be considered to be a damning indictment of the previous Government’s violence against women and girls strategy. We will do everything we can to ensure prevention, both through education and with those who perpetrate, which will be a fundamental part of our strategy. Unlike previous strategies, we will actually do it.

Oral Answers to Questions

Liz Jarvis Excerpts

Thursday 23rd January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Gregor Poynton (Livingston) (Lab)]

11. What recent progress he has made on establishing the infected blood compensation scheme.

[Liz Jarvis (Eastleigh) (LD)]

21. What steps he is taking to monitor compensation payments for people impacted by infected blood.

[The Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office (Nick Thomas-Symonds)]

The Infected Blood Compensation Authority has made the first compensation offers to 11 people, with a total value of more than £13 million. The Government have also paid over £1 billion in interim compensation, and in the Budget we announced £11.8 billion of funding for the scheme. Yesterday, I visited the Infected Blood Compensation Authority office in Newcastle, and I was reassured to see the progress that is being made swiftly and compassionately.

--- Later in debate ---

[Nick Thomas-Symonds]

The whole House will be moved by the story of my hon. Friend’s constituent. It is a story from this appalling scandal that many of us across the House will be hearing from our constituents. I am pleased that first payments have been made to people who have waited far too long for compensation. Those payments were made by the end of 2024, as I committed to the House to do. I also commit specifically to my hon. Friend to working closely with the devolved Administrations to ensure that victims across the United Kingdom can achieve justice.

[Liz Jarvis]

The victims of the infected blood scandal, including those from my constituency who attended Treloar college in Hampshire, have been fighting for justice for decades. They have raised deep concerns about the slow progress of compensation payments; the Infected Blood Compensation Authority projects that by the end of March just 250 people will have been offered compensation. Will the Government accelerate the roll-out of the compensation scheme to ensure that victims see justice within their lifetimes?

[Nick Thomas-Symonds]

I am restless for progress on the speed of payments, and I will do everything in my gift as a Minister to lay the regulations before this House speedily. IBCA is obviously operationally independent and—I was having this discussion yesterday in Newcastle—the test and learn approach that it uses, which starts with a representative sample of cases, will allow it to ramp up delivery. When I was in Newcastle yesterday I saw a group of public servants working efficiently in a compassionate way to deliver.