Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what protections he plans to introduce in the Domestic Abuse Bill to provide for the mental health needs of victims of domestic abuse.

The Government is committed to improving the response to victims of domestic abuse through the provisions set out in our draft Domestic Abuse Bill and consultation response.

We are carefully considering the recommendations from the Joint Committee on the draft Domestic Abuse Bill about improving access to public services for victims of domestic abuse and their children and will be responding to the Committee’s report in due course.

We want to improve the provision of mental health services to ensure that they are available to anyone in need of such services, including domestic abuse victims. We have therefore committed to investing at least an additional £2.3bn per year in mental health services by 2023/24

On 17 June the Prime Minister announced a wide-ranging package of measures to strengthen the response to mental health, including training for all new teachers on how to spot the signs of mental health issues, additional funding to support local authorities to deliver local suicide prevention plans and updated professional standards for social workers across England to increase their knowledge and skills when helping those with mental health issues.