Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have launched a pilot scheme to gather data on the needs of migrant victims of domestic violence; if so, when it will conclude; and when they expect to ratify the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence.

The Support for Migrant Victims Scheme launched in April this year and is intended to run until March 2022. The scheme was set up in order to provide protection and support for migrant victims of domestic abuse who are unable to access public funds and to enable the Government to take evidence based decisions on how best to protect these victims in the long term.

When we are satisfied that we are compliant with the Convention then we will, in line with section 1(3) of the Preventing and Combatting Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence (Ratification of Convention) Act 2017, make a statement to Parliament confirming this and set out the timetable for ratification.

This Government remains committed to ratifying the Convention as soon as possible.