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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how much funding from the public purse has been allocated by Government Departments to domestic violence refuges in each of the last seven years.

Since 2014 the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government have invested £33.5 million in services to support victims of domestic abuse, including refuges, through three funding streams available to local authorities:

• The £10 million fund to local authorities (2014-2016) helped 148 local authorities strengthen refuge provision for victims and offer support to women from outside their own area.

• The £3.5 million Domestic Abuse Fund (2015-2016) supported 46 local authorities and their partners to deliver 710 new bed spaces for 3,798 victims of domestic abuse.

• The £20 million fund for domestic abuse services (2016-2018) funded 80 projects covering 258 local authorities in England creating more than 2,200 bed spaces and giving support to over 19,000 victims. We offered these 80 projects an additional £1.1 million in top up funding, and 77 projects received the additional funding on 22 March.

The remaining £20 million of the £40 million the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government secured at the 2015 Spending Review for domestic abuse services, including refuges, will be made available as early as possible from April. This will include launching a new fund, which will be open to all local areas across England to bid for a share.

In addition to this, on Monday 26 March Government announced the successful applicants to the latest round of Tampon Tax Funding. Of £15 million total, just over £ 3.6 million has been allocated to projects addressing domestic abuse.

In the previous round of funding, announced on 31 March 2017, around £7.5 million was allocated to projects addressing violence against women and girls.

Government has provided £100 million in dedicated funding to tackle violence against women and girls. This includes providing a secure future to rape support centres, national helplines, and the £ 17 million VAWG Service Transformation Fund

On 8 March the Government announced how £12 million of this funding will be used including:

• £2 million to support domestic abuse work with female offenders and vulnerable women with complex needs;

• £8 million fund to support children who witness domestic abuse; and

• £2 million to extend a healthcare pathfinder pilot across further hospital trusts to help direct domestic abuse victims to the full range of services they need.