Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what discussions she has had with Cabinet colleagues on steps to help tackle image-based abuse.

The Government was elected with a landmark mission to halve violence against women and girls (VAWG) in the next decade as part of the Safer Streets mission. This will require a cross-government approach, and Minister Phillips at the Home Office and I co-chair the VAWG Ministerial Group which regularly brings together Ministers from relevant Departments to ensure we are using all government levers available to achieve our mission. The Government’s VAWG strategy will be published this year with contributions from across Whitehall, including on joint steps to tackle image-based abuse.

Tackling intimate image abuse requires a combined effort from colleagues across government, namely, Home Office, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, the Ministry of Justice, as well as Ofcom. As a first step, we have confirmed that we will legislate this parliament to make it a criminal offence to create sexually explicit deepfake images. This is alongside introducing new offences for the taking of intimate images without consent and the installation of equipment with intent to enable the taking of intimate images without consent.