Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment she has made of the prevalence of economic abuse of older people.

Economic abuse is recognised as a form of abusive behaviour under the Domestic Abuse Act 2021. This Government is committed to halving violence against women and girls, including domestic abuse, in a decade. Though the Department does not hold prevalence data for economic abuse specifically, I have had several meetings with the specialist domestic abuse sector and the Domestic Abuse Commissioner, and am due to speak to Ministerial colleagues specifically on this issue.

In addition, the Department for Health and Social Care oversees The Care Act 2014, which makes it clear that local authorities have a statutory duty to investigate safeguarding concerns. Since April 2023, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) have had a duty to assess local authorities’ delivery of their duties under Part 1 of the Care Act 2024.