Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans her Department has to improve (a) access to and (b) provision of domestic violence support services.

This Government is committed to ensuring domestic abuse organisations are able to meet the needs of victims. To that end we have awarded £27 million in additional funds to support domestic abuse services this financial year alone, comprising £25 million from the government’s £76 million in emergency funding for the most vulnerable in society, and an extra £2 million from the Home Office in April 2021 to bolster the capacity of domestic abuse organisations affected by the pandemic.

To ensure victims know where and how to access support, we have launched guidance on our gov.uk website and delivered a successful #YouAreNotAlone awareness raising campaign to signpost access to help and support services - reaching almost 25 million UK adults and securing over 130 million followers on social media

This January, we also launched a new Ask for ANI Codeword scheme to enable domestic abuse victims to seek safe and discreet support from over 2,600 participating pharmacies who will be able to provide victim focussed support, including engagement with specialist victim support services and the police as necessary.