Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to ensure that deaths connected to sexual violence and abuse, including suicides amongst those who have experienced prolonged abuse, are properly recorded and reflected in Government policy.

Sexual offences are among the most harmful crimes in society and can have devastating impacts on victims, their loved ones, and our communities.

Our ‘Freedom from Violence and Abuse: a cross-Government Strategy’ was published on 18 December 2025 and sets out our approach to halving violence against women and girls (VAWG) in decade. It includes several commitments to transform the response to sexual offences, such as ensuring there are specialist rape and sexual offences teams in every police force by 2029, introducing free independent legal advice for adult victims of rape, and fast-tracking rape cases.

The Home Office collects data on the number of homicides, including those with a sexual element, recorded by police forces in England and Wales. We recognise the importance of building a more comprehensive understanding of deaths that have resulted from VAWG. That is why we have committed to exploring the possibility of expanding the Domestic Homicide Project, which currently captures information from police forces on deaths which have occurred following domestic abuse, to all forms of fatal VAWG, including sexual violence and abuse.