Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what support is being made available for victims and survivors of domestic abuse, including children (a) nationally and (b) in Leicestershire.

The Domestic Abuse Act 2021 introduces a range of measures to help protect victims of domestic abuse and their children, including prohibiting abusers from cross-examining their victims in the family and civil courts, giving victims enhanced access to special measures in the courtroom, and introducing powerful new Domestic Abuse Protection Notices and Orders. The Act recognises that domestic abuse can impact on a child who sees or hears or experiences the effects of the abuse and it treats such children as victims of domestic abuse in their own right.

In 2021/22, the Ministry of Justice provided £150.5m for victim and witness support services, including those which support victims of domestic abuse. Of this, the Leicestershire Police and Crime Commissioner received c£2m to commission local victim support services.

We are increasing funding for victim and witness support services to £185m by 2024/25. This additional funding will enable us to significantly expand victim support services including increasing the number of Independent Sexual and Domestic Violence Advisers funded by the MoJ to over 1,000. On 25 March, the Ministry of Justice announced that it will be committing £147 million of this budget per annum on a multi-year basis, for the next three years (2022/23 to 2024/25 inclusive). This will allow victim support services, and those commissioning them, to invest in building capacity and strengthen the resilience of services, which will in turn provide consistency to victims receiving support. It will help to ensure that high quality support is available to victims when needed.