Oral Answers to Questions

Monica Harding Excerpts

Monday 25th November 2024 Commons Chamber

[Laura Kyrke-Smith (Aylesbury) (Lab)]

12. What steps her Department is taking to tackle violence against women and girls.

[Monica Harding (Esher and Walton) (LD)]

18. What steps her Department is taking with police forces to tackle violence against women and girls.

[Chris Bloore (Redditch) (Lab)]

20. What support she is providing to local organisations to help tackle violence against women and girls.

--- Later in debate ---

[Jess Phillips]

A massive thank you to Aylesbury Women’s Aid for the amazing work that it is clearly doing. I am afraid that my hon. Friend and victims are exactly right in their assessment. That is why we must have a completely cross-Government approach to ensuring that no matter where a victim stands up, all services take responsibility for their role in the lives of those who are suffering.

[Monica Harding]

As the hon. Member for Stourbridge (Cat Eccles) pointed out, coercive control is a criminal offence but it is often overlooked, despite research suggesting that it is the third highest risk factor in domestic homicide. In my surgeries in Esher and Walton, victims have told me that there is not a sufficient understanding of coercive control in police interviews, particularly when other crimes are being investigated. What assessments are being made of the effectiveness of the roll-out of the domestic abuse risk assessment—DARA—toolkit, which was introduced by the College of Policing in 2022?

[Jess Phillips]

A number of different risk assessment tools are used, whether DARA or Dash—the domestic abuse, stalking, harassment and honour-based violence risk assessment—which has a more historical grounding and is used more widely. I want the hon. Lady to know that it is impossible to read any domestic homicide review in our country for the past decade and not think that risk assessments, and how well they are used and operating, is something that we should look at.