Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government when they will ratify the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence.

The UK signed the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (Istanbul Convention) in 2012, signalling our strong commitment to tackling violence against women and girls. This Government remains committed to ratifying the Convention as soon as possible and this commitment was reiterated in the new Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Strategy, published in July.

The Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence (Ratification of Convention) Act 2017 requires Ministers to publish annual reports on their progress towards being able to ratify the Convention. The fifth such report was published on 1 November and can be found on gov.uk. Once the Government is satisfied that the UK is compliant with the Convention then Ministers will, in line with section 1(3) of the 2017 Act, make a statement to Parliament confirming this and setting out the timetable for ratification.