Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when the Government plans to publish the National Statement of Expectations to provide a framework for the local commissioning of services relating to violence against women and girls.

The Government published our Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Strategy in March 2016, which announced increased funding of £80 million from 2016 to 2020 to protect women and girls from violence, including support for refuges and other accommodation-based services, funding to national helplines, and from 2017, the launch of the VAWG Transformation Fund.

We are committed to working across Government to deliver the commitments outlined in the Strategy. The Home Office is leading work across Government to support local commissioning of services to victims and survivors of VAWG. We will set out a clear blueprint for local action though a new National Statement of Expectations and Commissioning Toolkit, which will be available to local commissioning bodies and groups. We currently plan to publish the National Statement of Expectations before the end of this year.