Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of whether current refuge provision for BAMER women who are victims of abuse is sufficient to meet the specific needs of those women.

Domestic abuse is a devastating crime and we are determined to ensure that victims, regardless of their circumstances, should receive the support they need when they need it.

Local areas are best placed to understand local needs and the Government has devolved power and responsibility for meeting those needs accordingly. We expect local areas to do the right thing and provide services that are responsive to the needs of victims of domestic abuse. Local areas should assess their need for domestic abuse services and make decisions on the provision of refuges and support to fit the identified needs for all domestic abuse victims, including those from BME groups, both from within and outside their local area.

To help meet this challenge, the Government’s Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy, published on 8 March 2016, commits us to providing funding of £40 million to support victims of domestic abuse, including specific provision for victims from BME backgrounds. The prospectus for our 2016-18 £20 million fund was clear that bids should set out how their proposals meet the needs of those victims from diverse groups, as well as protecting assets of national significance such as the very specialist refuges which provide culturally specific and sensitive services. Alongside the £20 million fund, we published our new ‘Priorities for Domestic Abuse Services’, developed with partners from the domestic abuse sector, which sets out for the first time what local areas need to do to ensure an effective response to meeting the needs of all domestic abuse victims.