Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to ensure that (a) Hourglass and (b) other domestic abuse charities for older victims receive adequate funding.

Tackling domestic abuse is a key priority for this Government. We want to continue building on our landmark Domestic Abuse Act to further strengthen support available for all victims of domestic abuse, including the most vulnerable in society, and tackle perpetrators of these abhorrent crimes.

We know that domestic abuse affects a wide and disparate group and that a “one size fits all” approach is not appropriate to support all victims. Whilst anyone can suffer from domestic abuse, for older victims, abuse may be more hidden and disguised, or compounded by other age-related factors such as mental or physical ill health.

We also understand the importance of specialist and ‘by and for’ services (specialist services that are designed and delivered by and for the users and communities they aim to serve) in providing the tailored support that victims and survivors of domestic abuse need. We work closely with, and fund, organisations providing this vital support, including the charity Hourglass.

In 2021/22, the Home Office provided Hourglass over £200,000 to support their work in enhancing their helpline, providing casework support, and training specialist IDVAs. For 2022/23, we have provided pro-rata funding for an extended 8 months.

In March this year we went even further and published our Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan. The plan invests over £230 million of new funding to tackle domestic abuse, with over £140 million to support victims. This includes over £47 million in ringfenced funding for victims’ services.

Our Domestic Abuse Plan commits to, where possible, offering multi-year awards to fund organisations supporting victims and survivors of domestic abuse. This means that smaller organisations, including ‘by and for’ services, can offer a stable service to victims and survivors. The VAWG National Statement of Expectations, and Commissioning Toolkit, which we published alongside the plan, will also provide support to commissioners to help them increase provision of ‘by and for’ and specialist services.

We will be running an open commercial competition in the coming months for ‘by and for’ and specialist services, including those providing services for older victims. As part of the competition, we will undertake market engagement allowing interested organisations to discuss and input into the competition prior to bidding.