Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to mark White Ribbon Day on 25 November.

We are considering our activity to mark the day. Last year, there was a programme of cross-Governmental activity around the International Day for Elimination of Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) and the 16 days of activism that followed. This included Ministers across Government conducting visits, attending events, making speeches, debating these important issues in Parliament and a series of announcement on action to tackle VAWG.

Tackling VAWG is a Government priority. We have made significant progress since we published the Tackling VAWG Strategy in July 2021 and the complementary Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan in March 2022.

In July, we launched the fifth round of the Safer Streets Fund which provides an additional £43 million in funding to projects focused on protecting women in their communities across England and Wales. We also announced the launch of a new national operating model for the investigation and prosecution of rape, which all forces and CPS Areas in England and Wales are implementing to ensure investigations of rape are suspect-focused and considerate to the needs of victims.

To improve the police response to tackling these crimes, we have supported the introduction of a new full-time National Policing Lead for VAWG, DCC Maggie Blyth, and have added VAWG to the Strategic Policing Requirement, meaning it is now set out as a national threat for forces to respond to alongside other threats such as terrorism, serious and organised crime and child sexual abuse.