Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how does procurement within the Home Office’s current funding opportunity, entitled 'Violence against women and girls advocacy support fund', align with the Government's commitment to specialist by-and-for services.

We understand the importance of specialist and ‘by and for’ services in providing the tailored support that victims and survivors of VAWG need to survive and thrive.

As part of the ‘Freedom from Violence and Abuse: a cross-government strategy to build a safer society for women and girls', the Home Office committed to deliver specialist VAWG Helplines across England and Wales alongside 1-1 advocacy support for victims of VAWG who are least likely to be able to access support locally. The competitions to deliver this £24 million investment closed on 31 July 2026. As the competitions are still ongoing, we are unable to comment on the details beyond what has already been published.

The Strategy committed to reforming the commissioning landscape to improve the provision of specialist and ‘by and for’ services for victims. As part of this, we will publish a new cross-government commissioning statement on VAWG. This statement will provide clear definitions of ‘by-and-for’ and specialist services, helping commissioners allocate funding more effectively and clarify the responsibilities and best practice for local commissioners in commissioning ‘by and for’ and specialist services.