Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to tackle the rise in cases of domestic violence in London.

Tackling domestic abuse is a key priority for this Government.

The Office for National Statistics has ascribed national increases in police recorded violent crime to improvements in police recording.

The Government is providing £10 million to fund specialist domestic and sexual violence services and national helplines up to April 2016, including part-funding to 23 Independent Domestic Violence Advocates and eight Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Coordinators in London. New guidance for the police has been published by the College of Policing, new training has been piloted and for the first time police are collating domestic violence data against a national standard.

The Government recognises that local areas are best placed to meet local need.