Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions he has had with the Welsh Government on steps to increase charge rates for serial perpetrators of (a) domestic abuse and (b) sexual violence in (i) Newport West constituency and (ii) Wales.
Answered by Laura Farris - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)
The Home Office engages regularly with partners, including the Welsh Government and Police and Crime Commissioners, on policing priorities. This includes improving the response to domestic abuse, sexual violence, delivering the commitments in the Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy (2021) and the Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan (2022), and bringing more perpetrators to justice. Policing is a reserved matter, and the existing governance and partnership arrangements provide a significant level of integration and autonomy.
To improve conviction rates and understanding of why domestic abuse cases do not progress, the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) are developing a Domestic Abuse Joint Justice Plan (DA JJP). The DA JJP is welcomed by the Home Office and is expected to be published in March 2024.
In addition, in 2021 we published the Rape Review Action Plan and set out a series of commitments to deliver cross-system improvements in the criminal justice response to rape. One such commitment was Operation Soteria, a joint policing and CPS programme, to develop new national operating models for the investigation and prosecution of rape and support police and prosecutors across England and Wales to ensure investigations follow rigorous procedures directed at the conduct of the suspect.
Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to help tackle violence against women and girls in East Devon constituency.
Answered by Laura Farris - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)
It is difficult to determine the specific activity to tackle violence against women in the East Devon constituency as services are mostly commissioned at a national level, and not monitored by the Home Office by constituency.
To help support local service commissioners, we published a revised National Statement of Expectations in March 2022, which sets out how local areas should commission effective services. It also aims to increase understanding of the need for specialist services and the value of those designed and delivered by and for the users and communities they aim to serve.
As part of the effort to tackle these crimes across England and Wales, in 2021 we published our cross-Government Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy to help ensure that women and girls are safe everywhere - at home, online, at work and in public. This was followed by a complementary cross-Government Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan in 2022.
These documents aim to transform the whole of society’s response to these crimes with actions to prevent abuse, support victims and pursue perpetrators, as well as to strengthen the systems that underpin the response. The actions set out in both strategy documents benefit all regions across England and Wales, including East Devon.
The Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan committed to over £230 million from 2022-2025. As part of this commitment, the joint Home Office-Ministry of Justice VAWG Support and Specialist Service Fund will provide up to £8.3 million (in total) from 2023-2025 for specialist organisations to support victims often facing the greatest barriers to getting the help they need.
The Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan funding also includes the Children Affected by Domestic Abuse (CADA) Fund, which allocated £10.3 million over three years (2022-2025) to eight organisations across England and Wales to provide specialist support within the community to children who have been impacted by domestic abuse. Part of this includes c.£1.25m for the Children’s Society to provide direct support for children and young people and families, including those from rural and hard to reach communities, covering Devon, Shropshire, Rochdale and Merseyside.
In May 2023, the Home Office also launched a £300,000 ‘flexible fund’ trial in partnership with Women’s Aid Federation for England to make direct cash payments of £250 to victims and survivors of domestic abuse (£500 to those with children and those who are pregnant) to help remove barriers to leaving an abusive relationship. In November 2023, the Government commitment to support victims was renewed with a further £2m investment into the Flexible Fund until March 2025.
Through the current Round Five of the Safer Streets Fund, the Home Office has directly awarded £34 million to Police and Crime Commissioners across England and Wales to deliver interventions to tackle neighbourhood crime, anti-social behaviour and VAWG. Devon and Cornwall received £819,998.64 (2024-2025) to support projects covering Paignton, Camborne and Redruth and are delivering educational training packages such as bystander training to help address behaviour and attitudes on VAWG and using night-time economy marshalls for patrols in the town centres.
Asked by: Whitfield, Martin (Scottish Labour - South Scotland)
Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on how it supports children and families that are affected by domestic abuse.
Answered by Brown, Siobhian - Minister for Victims and Community Safety
Our Equally Safe strategy, Scotland’s strategy to prevent and eradicate violence against women and girls, acknowledges the significant impact domestic abuse and other forms of violence against women and girls (VAWG) can have on children and young people and their families lives, including impacts on their health, education, wellbeing and future life chances.
Through Equally Safe, which is co-owned by COSLA and the Scottish Government, we are working collaboratively with key partners to ensure that its principles are embedded into the work we do that supports children, young people and families who have experienced VAWG. This includes ensuring support is available through Child Protection and Adult Support and Protection systems, housing and homelessness support services and community justice support services amongst others.
We are also investing £19 million a year in specialist services and projects through the Delivering Equally Safe (DES) Fund, £18.5m for specialist advocacy support for victim/ survivors of gender based violence from the Victim Centred Approach Fund and £573,300 through the Children, Young People and Families Early Intervention Fund & Adult Learning and Empowering Communities Fund for improving children and family wellbeing.
The DES fund supports 83 projects that undertake work with children and young people who have experienced or witnessed VAWG, including funding to projects delivering the CEDAR programme, which aims to help mothers support their children in their recovery from domestic abuse. Funding is also given to support the role out of Safe and Together, an internationally recognised suite of tools and interventions designed to help professionals in children and family services become domestic abuse informed.
We will continue to ensure support for children, young people and families through our commitment to the Equally Safe strategy.
Nov. 25 2010
Source Page: Improving services for women and child victims of violence: the Department of Health action plan. 19 p.Found: Improving services for women and child victims of violence: the Department of Health action plan. 19
May. 07 2024
Source Page: Domestic abuse: justice partners group minutes - August 2023Found: Domestic abuse: justice partners group minutes - August 2023
Asked by: Dehenna Davison (Conservative - Bishop Auckland)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure consistency of support across regions for victims of domestic violence.
Answered by Laura Farris - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)
The Violence Against Women and Girls National Statement of Expectations sets out how local areas should commission effective services. It also aims to increase understanding of the need for specialist services and the value of those designed, and delivered by and for the users and communities they aim to serve (for example victims and survivors from ethnic minority backgrounds, deaf and disabled victims and survivors, and LGBT victims and survivors).
The Domestic Abuse Commissioner’s report on meeting the needs of victims across England and Wales has been useful in highlighting the importance of nationwide provision and specialist support. We have and will continue to use her findings in commissioning and funding decisions.
The Domestic Abuse Act introduced a legal duty on Tier 1 local authorities to provide support for victims of domestic abuse and their children within safe accommodation, including refuges. Department of Levelling up, Housing and Communities have allocated £127.3 million in 2023/24 to LAs to discharge this duty.
Ministry of Justice is also this year (23/24) providing £21 million of ringfenced funding to Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCS) for community-based domestic abuse and sexual violence services. This is in addition to the ‘Core’ funding MoJ provides to PCCs to allocate at their discretion, based on their assessment of local need.
In November 2023, we renewed the commitment to support victims of domestic abuse with a further £2 million investment into the Flexible Fund until March 2025, announced in the Autumn Statement. The Home Office Fund will enable direct payments to victims across England and Wales to help them flee abuse and re-establish long-term safety and independence and builds on a trial of the scheme in 2023.
Apr. 01 2008
Source Page: Tackling Violence Against Women: A cross-government narrative. 44 p.Found: Tackling Violence Against Women: A cross-government narrative. 44 p.
Correspondence Mar. 20 2024
Committee: Women and Equalities CommitteeFound: Correspondence from Chairwoman, Equality and Human Rights Commission relating to the Escalation of violence
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people charged with an offence relating to domestic violence were released under the home detention curfew in the last 12 months.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Home detention curfew (HDC) is a robust scheme which has been in operation since 1999. Offenders currently serving a sentence for a domestic abuse linked offence are extremely unlikely to be released on HDC. This government has taken steps to ensure that offenders serving sentences for offences linked to domestic abuse – including non-fatal strangulation and stalking – are presumed unsuitable for HDC, due to the seriousness of these offences and the government’s firm stance on them. This means they will only be considered for release under the scheme where there are highly specific and exceptional circumstances.
Offenders who are eligible and suitable for HDC are subject to a robust risk assessment to manage them safely in the community. This will include checks with partners from other agencies, such as the police, to ensure that the offender being released does not put anyone in the community at risk while on HDC. An offender who is a perpetrator of domestic abuse will not be released on HDC to an address where they pose a threat, or released on HDC at all if the risk is unmanageable.
Data is not collated in a central manner and therefore could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost. However, specific offence codes for domestic violence related cases – such as controlling or coercive behaviour – can be identified on an individual basis.
Correspondence Apr. 24 2024
Committee: Women and Equalities CommitteeFound: Correspondence from the Minister for Victims and Safeguarding, relating to the escalation of violence