Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to improve the access to domestic abuse services for disabled women.

This Government recognises the importance of ensuring support is accessible to all victims of domestic abuse, including disabled victims.

As part of 'Freedom from Violence and Abuse: a cross-government strategy to build a safer society for women and girls’, work is ongoing across government to improve the support for disabled victims of domestic abuse including:

• Investing in a new specialist helpline and advocacy service for Deaf and Disabled victims of domestic abuse.
• Reforming the commissioning landscape, including through a new cross-government commissioning statement and the forthcoming Duty to Collaborate. Combined, these will improve the consistency, accessibility and effectiveness of support services for victims and work to address gaps in provision for disabled victims.
• Strengthening information on supporting disabled victims in the Domestic Abuse Statutory Guidance and Controlling and Coercive Behaviour Statutory Guidance to improve understanding of the needs and barriers for these victims and how professionals respond.