Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to (a) tackle misogyny in society, and (b) implement measures to tackle domestic and intimate partner violence.

Tackling violence against women and girls is a top priority for the Government. These crimes include rape, sexual violence, domestic abuse, stalking, ‘honour’-based abuse including female genital mutilation and forced marriage, ‘revenge port’ and ‘upskirting’. They have a profound and long-lasting impact on victims and have absolutely no place in our society.

On July 21 we published our new cross-Government Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Strategy to help ensure that women and girls are safe everywhere- at home, online and on the streets.

A key new commitment in the VAWG Strategy is a multimillion-pound national communications campaign with a focus on targeting perpetrators and harmful misogynistic attitudes, educating young people about healthy relationships and ensuring victims can access support. Work is underway to launch this campaign this year.

Our landmark Domestic Abuse Act, alongside a comprehensive action plan of non-legislative measures, will help tackle domestic abuse by ensuring that victims have the confidence to come forward and report their experience, safe in the knowledge that the justice system and other agencies will do everything they can both to protect and support them and pursue the abuser. We have already begun to implement the Act and will continue to do so across criminal justice systems and agencies later this year.

In the coming months we will also publish a strategy dedicated to tackling domestic abuse, going beyond the implementation of the Act. This Domestic Abuse Strategy complements the VAWG Strategy and will seek to transform the whole of society’s response to prevent offending, support victims, pursue perpetrators and strengthen the systems processes in place needed to deliver these goals.

The Law Commission’s review of hate crime laws was commissioned by the Government in 2018. This review examined the coverage and approach of existing hate crime legislation, including consideration of whether other protected characteristics, including sex/gender, should be included. The Law Commission published its final recommendations on 7 December.

We are grateful to the Law Commission for the detailed consideration it has given to its review. The Government will consider its proposals carefully and respond to the recommendations in due course.