Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what plans her Department has for cross-government working to encourage safety by design of smart and connected technology to help protect victims and survivors of technology-facilitated abuse.

Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) in all its forms, including online, is a priority for this Government. That is why, in December, we published the cross-government VAWG Strategy.

Within the Strategy, we commit to working across departments to explore what more we can do to encourage safety‑by‑design in smart and connected technologies. This work aims to better protect victims and survivors, and to prevent perpetrators from misusing these technologies to facilitate abuse.