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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Satvir Kaur)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms McVeigh.
I start by thanking the hon. Member for Chester South and Eddisbury (Aphra Brandreth), both for securing this important debate and for her tireless efforts in advocating for improved prevention of strangulation and for greater public awareness of the risks that it poses. I was also going to thank the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) for his contribution to the debate, but sadly he has left the Chamber.
Before addressing the many points that the hon. Member for Chester South and Eddisbury made, I will first say that I agree with her on why tackling this issue matters. As she said, this Government have committed to halving violence against women and girls within a decade, and improving our response to strangulation forms an important part of that mission. As she also said, that means recognising the signs early, supporting victims and training professionals to identify those signs.
We know that strangulation is a life-threatening form of violence and abuse, and non-fatal strangulation is one of the strongest indicators of future serious violence and domestic homicide. The scale of the challenge is vast. The hon. Member mentioned some of the statistics; around 44,000 strangulation offences were recorded last year alone, up by 13% from the previous year, with research suggesting that over half of young people aged between 16 and 25 have experienced strangulation or suffocation. I thought that nothing could shock me in this job any more, but that last statistic certainly did. There is also worrying evidence that strangulation is becoming normalised among young people.
Let me be clear: there is no safe way to strangle someone. As the hon. Member rightly said, we know that behind every one of those statistics is a victim—a victim living in fear, a victim dealing with trauma, a victim whose life has been put at risk. I thank the hon. Member for sharing Rose’s story, and I thank Rose herself for having the bravery to come forward and tell it. What Rose experienced is shocking and unacceptable, and clearly the failures in her case must be addressed and acted on.
We also know that victims of strangulation can experience serious physical and psychological consequences without displaying obvious signs of injury. Opportunities to identify risks can therefore be missed and victims can be left without the support they need, as the hon. Member rightly said. That is why prevention and public awareness are so important. I assure her that this Government are taking action focused on prevention, but she is right that legislation alone is not enough. There must also be changes in the education, health care and criminal justice systems to prevent and tackle strangulation.
On prevention, we are challenging the harmful attitudes and behaviours that can underpin violence against women and girls through our Enough campaign, which is raising awareness of this abuse. I am happy to send the hon. Member more information about that campaign. We are also supporting young people in and out of schools to understand healthy and respectful relationships by strengthening statutory relationship, sex and health education guidance to include specific teaching on strangulation and suffocation. That is now part of the school curriculum and will be financially supported. As the hon. Member rightly said, it is vital that we get to children early. As she knows, new offences criminalising the possession and publication of pornography depicting acts of strangulation will come into force this Friday. We are taking decisive action to challenge content that can contribute to the normalisation of dangerous and abusive behaviours.
The hon. Member mentioned health, and we are improving the identification of domestic abuse and sexual violence in healthcare settings through the NHS Steps to Safety programme, helping to ensure that victims are connected to specialist support at the earliest opportunity. She gave some really powerful examples of how cases have been missed; hopefully, the roll-out of Steps to Safety will act as a preventive measure, enabling us to get to victims as early as possible. We are also improving research, professional training, clinical guidance and public awareness through our support since its inception of the Institute for Addressing Strangulation. It has become an important centre of expertise. I will come on to its funding in a minute.
The hon. Member for Chester South and Eddisbury mentioned the importance of justice. We are bringing perpetrators to justice, even where there is no visible injury, through the stand-alone offence of strangulation and suffocation. The police can already use domestic violence protection notices and orders to provide immediate protection following violence or the threat of violence, and that includes strangulation. I am pleased to say that by the end of this year we will strengthen those protections through the roll-out of the new domestic abuse protection notices and orders, which will provide longer term and more flexible protections against all forms of domestic abuse, including strangulation.
An important part of that is multi-agency working. The hon. Member rightly identified that this is not just a matter of the police doing their part, but one of everybody really focusing on the victim and how best to support their needs. We know that there is more to do. Preventing abuse requires awareness, early intervention and a co-ordinated response across healthcare, policing, education, safeguarding and specialist support services. Hopefully, the multi-agency work that we are bedding in will make a difference.
The hon. Member asked about policing. She will be aware that we are introducing specialist teams in every single police force across the country. Hopefully, the domestic abuse protection orders that will sit alongside that will go further in encouraging victims and survivors to come forward and know they will be taken seriously. I have heard, as I am sure she has, that too often victims do not come forward because they do not think that they will be believed. Hopefully, we can turn a corner with that.
The hon. Member mentioned the important work of the Institute for Addressing Strangulation, and we agree on how invaluable its work is. The Government are proud to have supported IFAS since its inception, investing more than £2 million in strengthening the research, improving professional practice and raising awareness of this issue. Through that support, the Institute has become a recognised centre of national expertise on strangulation, helping to improve understanding of these crimes across healthcare, policing and the criminal justice system while providing training to more than 22,000 frontline professionals. On funding in particular, she will know and, hopefully, understand that I cannot comment on funding arrangements currently being considered. I can say that I support her analysis of the exceptionally good work that the institute does, and I will push for those decisions to be made as soon as possible, so that we can offer the certainty that it so desperately needs.
I thank the hon. Member for Chester South and Eddisbury again for securing this important debate. I offered her a meeting beforehand, and I am more than happy to follow up on that to talk about this further. This debate has, rightly, highlighted the progress that has been made but also the challenges that remain. We know that strangulation is a serious and potentially life-threatening form of abuse; we know that its impacts are often hidden, and we know that improving awareness, identifying risks early and strengthening support for victims can save lives. While progress has been made through the introduction of a stand-alone offence, improving professional awareness and the work of organisations such as IFAS, there is more to do.
We must continue to improve understanding of the risks associated with strangulation and challenge the attitudes that can normalise this abuse. We must continue to work across healthcare, policing, education, safeguarding and specialist support services to ensure that victims receive the support they need and deserve. Although it is action rather than words that will ultimately make the difference, debates such as this one provide an important opportunity for us to review our commitment to working together across political parties, sectors and services. Victims deserve nothing less. By doing this work, we can improve awareness, prevent harm, support victims and ensure that this dangerous form of abuse is recognised, challenged and addressed wherever it occurs.
Question put and agreed to.