Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department is taking steps to support the police to help reduce the number of cases of (a) children assaulting their parents or guardians due to (i) gaming and (ii) other technology withdrawal disorders and (b) other inter-familial attacks.

Child and adolescent to parent violence and abuse (‘CAPVA’) is a hidden but increasingly recognised form of abuse.

The Home Office have been working to better understand CAPVA, including why it happens and how best to tackle it. As part of our 2021-22 Domestic Abuse Research Fund, we awarded over £1m for various research projects. Included in this were projects that specifically focused on under-researched areas like CAPVA. Over the last three years we have also invested over £41m in increasing the availability of interventions for domestic abuse perpetrators (for example behaviour change programmes) which will also improve our understanding of what works to reduce reoffending. This has included funding projects that specifically work with children and young people displaying these types of behaviours. We recently launched a similar fund worth £36m over the next two years.

More widely, in our cross-government Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan, the Home Office committed to publishing updated guidance for front line practitioners on child to parent abuse. We will seek input from those working in police, health, education and social care to help develop and hone this guidance. The Home Office will also work with stakeholders to reach an agreed definition and terminology for this type of behaviour which will help in identifying and addressing it.