Asked by: Philip Hollobone (Conservative - Kettering)
Question to the Attorney General:
If he will hold discussions with the CPS on improving prosecution rates for assault of emergency workers in (a) Kettering, (b) North Northamptonshire and (c) England.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
I agree that we should do everything we can to protect our emergency workers. I hope that the Honourable Member will be pleased to know that between 2019 and 2020 the numbers of prosecutions for these offences increased by 27.2% in the East Midlands CPS Area and by 25.1% overall across England and Wales.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve support in the justice system for the victims of violence against women and girls.
Answered by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar
Protecting women and girls from violence and abuse, and supporting victims, are key priorities for this Government. These crimes are extremely serious and have a huge impact both for those subjected to such violence and more broadly on our economy, health services, and the criminal justice system.
In 2021-22, we will provide just under £151m for victim and witness support services. This includes an extra £51m to increase support for rape and domestic abuse victims, building on the emergency funding already provided to help domestic abuse and sexual violence services meet Covid-driven demand. This compares to a total budget of £48.5m in 2010-2011.
This funding includes £27m for 700 Independent Sexual Violence and Domestic Abuse Advisers and £20.7m for local sexual violence and domestic abuse services.
We continue to work closely with the Home Office on the development of the Government’s forthcoming Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy. The new Strategy will focus on prevention, drive forward improvements in the effort to target perpetrators, respond to the changing nature of crimes against women and girls and, most importantly, will continue to put victims at the heart of our approach.
In addition, the forthcoming Victims’ Bill, which we will consult on later this year, will ensure that all victims are supported, and their rights are recognised, at every stage of the criminal justice system and beyond
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of people convicted of assaulting an emergency worker have been given an immediate custodial sentence of longer than six months since that offence was introduced.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Ministry of Justice has published information on convictions and sentencing outcomes up to December 2020, available in the Outcomes by Offence data tool:
In the ‘Offence’ filter, select ‘8.22 Assault of an emergency worker’. Number of defendants convicted will populate Row 24, and those sentenced to immediate custody will populate Row 35. The number of defendants who received sentence lengths greater than 6 months will populate Rows 60 to 77.
Asked by: Peter Kyle (Labour - Hove)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he has plans to amend the equality impact assessment for assaults on emergency workers in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill to include information on the impact on disabled people.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The government has already published a full equalities assessment on its proposals to increase the maximum penalty of assaulting an emergency worker. I am aware of the ongoing nature of the Public Sector Equality Duty and our obligation to consider the equalities impacts of the proposals as they develop and are implemented in light of any new evidence. However there are no plans to update this assessment at this stage. As explained in the assessment, statistical data in relation to offenders who are disabled are not centrally recorded.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of adequacy of steps taken against Ethiopian and Eritrean soldiers in response to crimes of sexual violence committed in the conflict in Tigray; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by James Duddridge
The UK is appalled by reports of atrocities including widespread rape and other forms of sexual violence perpetrated by different armed groups in Tigray. This is unacceptable. Both the Governments of Ethiopia and Eritrea have committed to hold perpetrators of human rights violations to account, but we have yet to see any indication of how they propose to do this. The UK will support the UN Office for the High Commissioner for Human Rights to ensure that their joint investigations into atrocities in Tigray with the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission are independent, transparent and impartial and that those responsible for these human rights violations and abuses are held to account.
We are working to promote justice for survivors of sexual violence, to provide support to survivors and children born of conflict related sexual violence and to prevent sexual violence from occurring. Preparations are underway to deploy expertise from the UK Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative Team of Experts to the region. British Embassy staff conducted a mission to assess the protection of civilians and humanitarian access in Shire, Tigray, on 4-7 April. It included the assessment of the current Gender-Based Violence response, specific emergency services provided in camps and the gaps that need to be filled. They interviewed staff and volunteers supporting survivors of sexual violence to identify essential activities required to address the immediate needs of the survivors as well as the accountability needs to ensure well-informed and effective assistance.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 7 September 2020 to Question 78583 on Emergency Services: Crimes of Violence, when he plans to write to the hon. Member for Shipley to supply that information.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Obtaining the necessary information to fully answer the question asked on 22 July 2020, involves accessing the Police National Computer (PNC). This system can only be accessed via a fixed location in our offices. Access to the PNC has been severely restricted since March 2020 due to the national restrictions and the need to minimise non-essential travel.
Work to clear the backlog of parliamentary questions, alongside data uploads and other priority work using the PNC, has commenced but there is continued reduced capacity to do this due to the need to adhere to social distancing guidelines. I will write to the Hon Member with the requested information as soon as possible.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to prevent the use of rape as a weapon of war in Tigray.
Answered by James Duddridge
The UK is appalled by reports of gender-based violence that includes widespread rape in the Tigray region. The G7, under the UK Presidency, issued a statement on 2 April condemning human rights violations and abuses and sexual and gender based violence. The UK also condemned in the strongest terms the reported killings of civilians and acts of sexual violence via a joint statement on Ethiopia with 41 other countries at the 46th Session of the Human Rights Council. We support the UN's call for a "zero tolerance" policy for such crimes and we continue to call for independent, international investigations into allegations of human right abuses.
British Embassy staff conducted a specific protection mission in Shire in Tigray on 4-7 April. It included the assessment of the current Gender-Based Violence response, specific emergency services provided in camps and the remaining gaps. They interviewed staff and volunteers supporting survivors of sexual violence to identify essential activities required to address the immediate needs of the survivors as well as the accountability needs.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to ensure all funding and commissioning processes that relate to Violence Against Women and Girls recognise and value specialist support provision as required under the Istanbul Convention.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
Addressing gender-based violence and abuse, and improving support and outcomes for victims and survivors, is a top priority for the Government. These crimes have a terrible, profound and lasting effect on society.
The Government published our progress towards ratification of the Istanbul Convention in October 2020. We recognise the important role support services play in ensuring that all survivors of these crimes can access the support they need to help them cope and recover from their experiences.
As part of this commitment, the Ministry of Justice (who is only one of many funding sources for specialist support provision) provides funding to 91 rape support services across England and Wales to provide free, independent, specialist support to female and male victims of sexual violence, including victims of child sexual abuse.
In 2020-21 rape support services received £12m (an uplift of 50% per funded centre from 2019/20) in recognition of the extra demand placed upon them and to reduce waiting lists.
In 2021-22, we will provide just under £151m for victim and witness support services. This includes an extra £51m to increase support for rape and domestic abuse victims, building on the emergency funding from this financial year to help domestic abuse and sexual violence services meet Covid-driven demand. This compares to a total budget of £48.5m in 2010-2011.
Police and Crime Commissioners will receive £68m from this fund this year to commission support services based on local need, including support for victims of VAWG based crimes.
In recognition of increased demand, the Rape and Sexual Abuse Fund has been extended for a further year, extending the funding provided to these services to four years (2019-2023) to provide the sector with the stability they need and we will continue to work closely with them to monitor demand.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking with the Attorney General to speed up justice for vulnerable people who are victims of (a) domestic violence, (b) rape and (c) sexual assault.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The pandemic has significantly impacted many vulnerable victims of crimes. Hard-working judiciary, staff and professionals have worked tirelessly to continue to deliver justice for victims, but despite this, victims and other court users are having to wait too long for their cases to be heard.
Throughout the pandemic, the courts have continued to prioritise cases of the utmost seriousness, where the safety of the public and individuals is a concern. This includes the judiciary prioritising hearings involving vulnerable victims and witnesses and urgent applications for matters such as domestic violence. We were among the first of comparable international jurisdictions to re-start jury trials, and cases are now being disposed of at around pre-pandemic levels in the Crown Court, and the outstanding caseload has reduced in the magistrates’ court from its COVID peak last summer. We have spent over £250m on measures to tackle the impact of COVID, opened 56 Nightingale courtrooms so far, and are using more remote hearings, with over 20,000 hearings each week.
But we know that there is more to do to support vulnerable victims. In 2021-22, we will provide just under £151m for victim and witness support services. This includes an extra £51m to increase support for rape and domestic abuse victims, building on the emergency funding from 2020-2021 to help domestic abuse and sexual violence services meet Covid-driven demand. £27 million will go to creating more than 700 new posts for Independent Sexual Violence and Domestic Abuse Advisers. Research shows if a victim is supported, they are around 50% more likely to stay in engaged in the criminal justice system.
We are also looking at longer term measures we can take to improve the justice process for vulnerable victims. The government’s end-to-end review of rape, which is due to publish this Spring, is working with partners across the Criminal Justice System to improve the way rape cases are dealt with throughout the system.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of people given a custodial sentence for assaulting an emergency worker have been released before the half way point of their sentence on home detention curfew since the introduction of that offence.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
HDC is a robust scheme which allows prisoners to work towards rehabilitation in the community, while remaining subject to strict conditions. If they breach these, they face being returned to custody.
The latest available data shows that, by 31 December 2019, 1,610 people had been sentenced to immediate custody for a main offence of assaulting an emergency worker contrary to section 1 of the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018 since it came into force in November 2018. By 31 March 2020, 98 people sentenced to immediate custody for such an offence had been released on HDC. We are not able to give the proportion of those sent to prison who have been released on HDC as it is possible that some of those sentenced by 31 December 2019 will have been released on HDC since 31 March 2020.