Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent steps he has taken to ensure that domestic abuse victims can access safe refuges.

We know that refuges provide critical safe accommodation for victims and their children. To ensure these services remain open, operating and able to support more victims, between June and September 2020 we provided £10 million direct to safe accommodation charities as emergency Covid-19 funding. We have since extended the flexibility to spend the funds to cover the Winter period.

We have also provided guidance for organisations to operate safely, made free PPE available to refuges and, made it clear that victims and their children, under the current national restrictions, can leave home to escape domestic abuse and access safety.

We are pressing ahead with a new legal duty on local authorities to provide support for victims of domestic abuse and their children within safe accommodation in the Domestic Abuse Bill.