Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what account her Department will take of women (a) with mental health needs, (b) who are homeless, (c) who are living in poverty and (d) who have other complex needs in its Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy.

The Government will shortly publish an updated Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) strategy which will set out how we will support all victims of VAWG, including those with mental health needs, those who are homeless or living in poverty and those who have other complex needs, by doing more to prevent these crimes from happening, intervening earlier, and continuing to improve the protection for victims and to bring offenders to justice.

The Government has already committed £40m for domestic abuse services including refuges between 2016 and 2020, provided a £2m grant to Women’s Aid and SafeLives to support a new domestic abuse early intervention project, protected funding of over £6.4m to 86 female Rape Support Centres for 2016/17, and committed to a further year of funding to support the local provision of 144 Independent Domestic Violence Advisers (IDVAs) and 87 Independent Sexual Violence Advisers for 2016/17.