Asked by: Tony Vaughan (Labour - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to support organisations that help victims of (a) gender based violence and (b) domestic abuse.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Tackling Violence Agains Women and Girls (VAWG), including domestic abuse is a top priority for this Government. We will deliver a cross-Government transformative approach, utilising every tool available to target perpetrators and address the root causes of abuse and violence.
The Home Office has provided £2.025m for the national VAWG Helplines this financial year (24/25), which offer specialist support to victims of domestic abuse and sexual violence, victims of revenge porn, stalking and ‘honour’ based abuse.
On 28th November 2024, the government announced a funding increase of £30 million, meaning a total investment of £160 million in the Domestic Abuse Safe Accommodation Grant in 2025-26.
We have been able to secure decisions on the majority of grants for the next financial year 2025-26. We have sought to protect frontline services and give them certainty, so they can plan for the next financial year ahead of the full budget-decision making process concluding.
Asked by: Tony Vaughan (Labour - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent steps she has taken toward reaching the Government's target of halving violence against women and girls by the end of the decade.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Tackling VAWG is a top priority for this Government. We will deliver a cross-Government transformative approach, utilising every tool available to target perpetrators and address the root causes of abuse and violence. This will be underpinned by a new strategy to be published later this year.
Recent measures have included developing a new package of six measures to tackle stalking and a step-change in approach to the way that policing looks at VAWG crimes, through a new National Policing Centre for VAWG and Public Protection. We are investing £13.1 million pounds next financial year (25/26) to stand up this new Centre from April 2025 and throughout its first year. This funding includes an uplift of nearly £2 million to enable policing to better target these crimes.
Asked by: Tony Vaughan (Labour - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has had discussions with the Secretary of State for Education on the use of education in schools to prevent violence against women and girls.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Prevention and education are fundamental to our mission to halve violence against women and girls in a decade, and that includes supporting our education system to teach children about respectful and healthy relationships and consent.
As part of the Safer Streets Mission, I regularly engage with colleagues across Government including those at the Department for Education.
Asked by: Tony Vaughan (Labour - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of (a) commencing the move-on period for newly-recognised refugees only after access to their e-visa has been confirmed and (b) extending the move-on period to 56 days.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office has recently introduced a time limited pilot giving newly recognised refugees 56 days’ notice to move on from asylum accommodation, in order to support local authorities as we seek to clear the asylum backlog and transition to eVisas.