Violence against Women and Girls Strategy

Debate between Tracy Gilbert and Jess Phillips

Thursday 18th December 2025 Commons Chamber

[Jess Phillips]

We have not done anywhere near enough to engage with young men and boys about their feelings on this issue, and to devise a system that is best for them. Other than saying, “six-seven”, what do I know about what it is like to be a teenage boy? Not even my children are teenagers any more. We will test a number of models, and that will have to be done in concert with young people.

[Tracy Gilbert (Edinburgh North and Leith) (Lab)]

May I welcome the strategy, and thank my hon. Friend and the ministerial team for their tireless work in tackling violence against women and girls? To meet the Government’s target of cutting violence in half, we must end the demand for commercial sexual exploitation, whether it be in pornography or prostitution. What steps will be taken, across Government Departments, through the strategy to eradicate that demand?

[Jess Phillips]

My hon. Friend will be pleased with the Government action that the strategy proposes with regard to some of the commercial sexual exploitation that occurs within pornography—she rightly points that out—based on Baroness Bertin’s review. Much more broadly, we must properly integrate adult sexual exploitation —including the terrible commercial sexual exploitation—into what we consider to be violence against women and girls, and have robust measures to deal with that. That is a fundamental part of changing this.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Tracy Gilbert and Jess Phillips

Monday 24th February 2025 Commons Chamber

[Tracy Gilbert (Edinburgh North and Leith) (Lab)]

T5. It is illegal to post a prostitution advert in a phone box, yet the very same advert can be freely posted online by a pimping website. Such websites are making it as easy to order a woman to exploit as it is to order a takeaway. Does the Minister agree that we must urgently update our anti-pimping laws to make it a criminal offence to enable or to profit from the prostitution of another person online or offline?

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

I thank my hon. Friend for raising this important point. The Government are clear that online platforms are a significant enabler of sexual exploitation, and must be responsible and held accountable for the content of their sites, including taking proactive steps to prevent their sites being used by criminals. We are implementing the Online Safety Act 2023, which sets out priority offences, including sexual exploitation and human trafficking.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Tracy Gilbert and Jess Phillips

Monday 13th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Tracy Gilbert (Edinburgh North and Leith) (Lab)]

Can I place on the record my thanks to the Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department, my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham Yardley (Jess Phillips), who I know will ensure that this Government do more to tackle violence against women and girls than any other Government? In doing so, will the Government amend the strategy to consider prostitution and other forms of commercial sexual exploitation as violence against women and girls?

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

I thank my hon. Friend for her kind comments about me. The violence against women and girls strategy that the Government will launch later this year will absolutely root adult sexual exploitation, which so often actually stems from childhood sexual exploitation, into the Government’s violence against women and girls strategy—for the first time ever.