Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to (a) evaluate and (b) review the violence against women and girls strategy.
Answered by Laura Farris - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)
The ambitious cross-Government Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Strategy set out a series of measures to help ensure that women and girls are safe everywhere - at home, online, at work and in public. This was followed by a complementary Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan, published in March 2022. So far, we have completed 69% of the commitments across both strategy documents.
Delivery is overseen by a cross-Government VAWG Ministerial Steering Group (VAWG MSG). The last VAWG MSG took place on 1st May and was chaired by the Home Secretary. Part of the meeting focused on accelerating delivery of the remaining strategy commitments.
Many of our interventions are funded through grants awarded to third parties. These grants are actively monitored with recipients providing regular monitoring and end of financial year reports.
We are assessing the overall impact of measures set out in the strategies against the ambition to increase support to victims and survivors and bring more perpetrators to justice.
Our long-term ambition is to reduce the prevalence of violence against women. This is monitored via the published crime statistics, which include police recorded crime and Crime Survey for England and Wales data, as well as via other published criminal justice agency data. The latest data can be found here: Crime in England and Wales - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk).
Estimates from the 2022/23 CSEW showed that 5.1% of adults aged 16 to 59 years experienced domestic abuse in the previous year (Domestic abuse prevalence and victim characteristics - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)). This was a statistically significant decrease compared with the year ending March 2020 (6.1%), a year largely unaffected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the same period, the prevalence of sexual assault and stalking has remained stable with no statistically significant changes.
Asked by: Edward Leigh (Conservative - Gainsborough)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to support the victims of crime.
Answered by Laura Farris - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)
The Government is committed to supporting victims of crime.
The Victims and Prisoners Bill, which is currently in Report stage of the second House, introduces measures to better serve victims and the public, through improving victims’ experiences of the Criminal Justice System. The Bill places the overarching principles of the Victims’ Code into primary legislation and places a statutory duty on relevant agencies to provide services in accordance with the Victims’ Code, unless there is a good reason not to. The Bill sets up new oversight mechanisms to monitor and improve Code compliance through new mandatory data collection. There will be a series of consequences in place for bodies that do not comply with the Code, delivered by new local and national oversight mechanisms, with robust independent scrutiny by the Victims’ Commissioner.
The Government recognises the importance of services which support victims, and so the Bill also introduces a duty on Police and Crime Commissioners Local Authorities and Integrated Care Boards to collaborate when commissioning support services for victims of domestic abuse, sexual abuse, and serious violence in England. Alongside this, the government has quadrupled funding for victims’ support services in cash terms since 2009/10. This includes funding to increase the number of Independent Sexual Violence Advisers and Independent Domestic Violence Advisers to around 1,000 by 2024/25, a 24/7 Rape Support Helpline, and an improved Homicide Support Service.
In addition to supporting victims directly, the Government is committed to making sure the punishment fits the crime. The average custodial sentence has increased by around 50% since 2010 and serious offenders now spend a higher proportion of their sentence in custody.
Asked by: Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the success of sobriety tagging schemes, particularly for those convicted of serious assaults or domestic violence where alcohol was a factor.
Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
In advance of legislating for the introduction of the Alcohol Abstinence Monitoring Requirement (AAMR) for community based sentences to tackle alcohol related offending, the Government contributed to funding for two pilots to ensure robust evaluation of the effectiveness of the measure. The pilots were carried out in London and in the North East of England and findings informed the introduction of AAMR in 2020. AAMR enables courts to impose an alcohol ban of up to 120 days on adult offenders who are not alcohol dependent, compliance is monitored using an alcohol tag.
Alcohol monitoring on licence was introduced in 2021 and enables probation to include an additional licence condition banning or restricting the consumption of alcohol, where a criminogenic need related to alcohol misuse is identified as an increase to risk. Funding has been allocated for evaluation of the processes, impact and value for money. A process and interim impact evaluation are expected to be published by the end of 2025. A full reoffending analysis and value-for-money assessment are expected by the end of 2026.
Evaluations published to date can be accessed via the links below:
MOPAC’s AAMR Final Impact Evaluation Report, December 2020 - aamr_final_impact_report_100521.pdf (london.gov.uk).
Alcohol Abstinence Monitoring Requirement: A review of process and performance from Year 2, July 2018 - aamr_final_process_performance_y2_report_final.pdf (london.gov.uk).
Alcohol Abstinence Monitoring Requirement The pan London roll out: A review of process and performance from year 1, July 2017 - AAMR Interim Report (london.gov.uk).
Alcohol Abstinence Monitoring Requirement: South London Pilot Indicative Impact Report, April 2017 - Alcohol Abstinence Monitoring Requirement (london.gov.uk).
HNLY Pilot Process Evaluation Report, October 2019 - Evaluation-of-the-AAMR-tagging-pilot.pdf (northyorkshire-pfcc.gov.uk).
The AAMR pilot in the North-East focused on domestic abuse perpetrators, the process evaluation shows that 31% of wearers were convicted of a domestic violence offence. Compliance with the alcohol ban shows that the devices did not register a tamper or alcohol alert on 97.4% of the days worn. The impact evaluation (including for reoffending) is underway for this pilot and is also intended to be published.
The evaluations to date and published statistics have shown a strong uptake of alcohol monitoring by courts and probation. The number of individuals fitted with an alcohol monitoring (AM) device as at 31 March 2024 was 2,862, a 27% increase over the previous 12 months. There were 12,506 new alcohol monitoring orders imposed across England and Wales in the year ending 31 March 2024. Overall, 24,305 new alcohol monitoring orders have been imposed since their introduction against an ambition of 12,000 by 2025 and compliance with the alcohol ban has remained consistent at over 97% for the total of days monitored. Electronic Monitoring Statistics Publication, March 2024 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of sobriety tagging schemes.
Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
In advance of legislating for the introduction of the Alcohol Abstinence Monitoring Requirement (AAMR) for community based sentences to tackle alcohol related offending, the Government contributed to funding for two pilots to ensure robust evaluation of the effectiveness of the measure. The pilots were carried out in London and in the North East of England and findings informed the introduction of AAMR in 2020. AAMR enables courts to impose an alcohol ban of up to 120 days on adult offenders who are not alcohol dependent, compliance is monitored using an alcohol tag.
Alcohol monitoring on licence was introduced in 2021 and enables probation to include an additional licence condition banning or restricting the consumption of alcohol, where a criminogenic need related to alcohol misuse is identified as an increase to risk. Funding has been allocated for evaluation of the processes, impact and value for money. A process and interim impact evaluation are expected to be published by the end of 2025. A full reoffending analysis and value-for-money assessment are expected by the end of 2026.
Evaluations published to date can be accessed via the links below:
MOPAC’s AAMR Final Impact Evaluation Report, December 2020 - aamr_final_impact_report_100521.pdf (london.gov.uk).
Alcohol Abstinence Monitoring Requirement: A review of process and performance from Year 2, July 2018 - aamr_final_process_performance_y2_report_final.pdf (london.gov.uk).
Alcohol Abstinence Monitoring Requirement The pan London roll out: A review of process and performance from year 1, July 2017 - AAMR Interim Report (london.gov.uk).
Alcohol Abstinence Monitoring Requirement: South London Pilot Indicative Impact Report, April 2017 - Alcohol Abstinence Monitoring Requirement (london.gov.uk).
HNLY Pilot Process Evaluation Report, October 2019 - Evaluation-of-the-AAMR-tagging-pilot.pdf (northyorkshire-pfcc.gov.uk).
The AAMR pilot in the North-East focused on domestic abuse perpetrators, the process evaluation shows that 31% of wearers were convicted of a domestic violence offence. Compliance with the alcohol ban shows that the devices did not register a tamper or alcohol alert on 97.4% of the days worn. The impact evaluation (including for reoffending) is underway for this pilot and is also intended to be published.
The evaluations to date and published statistics have shown a strong uptake of alcohol monitoring by courts and probation. The number of individuals fitted with an alcohol monitoring (AM) device as at 31 March 2024 was 2,862, a 27% increase over the previous 12 months. There were 12,506 new alcohol monitoring orders imposed across England and Wales in the year ending 31 March 2024. Overall, 24,305 new alcohol monitoring orders have been imposed since their introduction against an ambition of 12,000 by 2025 and compliance with the alcohol ban has remained consistent at over 97% for the total of days monitored. Electronic Monitoring Statistics Publication, March 2024 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Sarah Dyke (Liberal Democrat - Somerton and Frome)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of expanding the Rape Review Action Plan to include all cases of sexual violence.
Answered by Laura Farris - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)
The 2021 Rape Review Action Plan set public ambitions to return the volumes of adult rape cases being referred by the police, charged by the CPS, and going to court back to at least 2016 levels. We have exceeded each of these ambitions ahead of schedule.
The Rape Review intentionally focussed its efforts on the system’s response to adult rape, acknowledging its unique and complex nature to investigate and prosecute, as well as for the harm it causes to victims. That being said, improvements delivered through the Action Plan will also have wider benefit for the justice system’s response to other sexual offences.
For example, we have recruited 20,000 extra police officers and are providing specialist rape and serious sexual assault training to 2,000 officers, making sure the police have the skills to investigate these crimes. We have rolled out pre-recorded cross examination for victims of sexual and modern slavery offences nationally, sparing victims from the glare of court and helping them give their best evidence. We are also quadrupling victims funding by 2024/25, up from £41 million in 2009/10, enabling us to increase the number of Independent Sexual Violence and Domestic Abuse Advisors to around 1,000 by 2024/25.
More widely, the Government’s 2021 Tackling Violence against Women and Girls strategy set out our plan for improving the system wide response to VAWG. We have delivered on the vast majority of the actions set out in the original Strategy and continue to make important strides, including the first successful prosecution for cyber flashing resulting in a custodial sentence (March 2024); bringing into force the provisions in the Online Safety Act (January 2024) including new intimate image abuse offences; and putting a new duty on employers to protect their employees from sexual harassment via the Worker Protection amendment of the Equality Act 2010.
Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an estimate of the average time taken for (a) drug dealing, (b) domestic violence, (c) GBH, (d) domestic burglary and (e) theft cases to be completed in court in each year since 2010.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
We have interpreted waiting time to refer to the time between the date of first hearing at the magistrates’ court to completion of the case at the Crown Court.
The median number of days from first listing to completion at the Crown Court for a) drug dealing, b) GBH, c) domestic burglary, d) theft cases offences has been provided in the attached table. To note, Crown Court data is only available from 2014 onwards and domestic violence offences cannot be separately identified as they are not defined as such in legislation.
While the Crown Court is still recovering from the impact of the pandemic and disruptive action from the Bar which reduced our ability to hear cases swiftly, the latest published statistics show, across all cases currently in the outstanding caseload, the median age for those cases was around 6 months.
We are committed to ensuring the delivery of swift justice for all victims and have introduced a raft of measures to achieve that aim. This includes funding around 107,000 sitting days during the most recent financial year (FY23/24), recruiting up to 1,000 judges annually across all jurisdictions and investing in the continued use of 20 Nightingale courtrooms into this financial year (FY24/25) to allow the courts to work at full capacity.
Judges do prioritise cases involving vulnerable complainants and witnesses, and seek to ensure that domestic abuse, serious sexual offences and those with vulnerable witnesses are listed at the first available opportunity.
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: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many domestic violence easements were granted in (a) 2023 and (b) 2024 to date.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many hours of (a) initial and (b) continuing professional development training on domestic abuse do work coaches at DWP Jobcentre Plus centres receive.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
All DWP new entrant Work Coaches undergo a minimum mandatory learning journey comprising of a combination of induction, onboarding, and operational fundamental learning covering vulnerable customers and complex needs. This includes a 30-minute product on domestic violence and abuse.
The Work Coach specific learning journey includes a further 90-minute facilitated product on domestic abuse. This builds on the initial introduction to this topic and is available for Work Coaches to refresh their understanding and approach as they continue in their day-to-day role.
Asked by: Andrew Western (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of claimants applying for the Domestic Violence Easement extend the initial unevidenced four week easement to (a) 13 and (b) 26 weeks.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.