Oral Answers to Questions

David Williams Excerpts

Wednesday 29th April 2026 Commons Chamber

[Cat Smith (Lancaster and Wyre) (Lab)]

6. What steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help tackle violence against women and girls.

[David Williams (Stoke-on-Trent North) (Lab)]

10. What steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help tackle violence against women and girls.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice (Alex Davies-Jones)]

Our cross-Government violence against women and girls strategy, published on 18 December, sets out our strategic direction and concrete actions to prevent violence and abuse, pursue perpetrators and support victims, delivering our unprecedented commitment to halve the levels of violence against women and girls within a decade.

[Alex Davies-Jones]

I thank my hon. Friend for supporting her constituents so diligently, and for raising this matter with me today. The Government are committed to ensuring that victims of domestic abuse can access the support that they need to get safe accommodation to rebuild their lives. Under part 4 of the Domestic Abuse Act 2021, local authorities in England are required to assess the need for safe accommodation and commission specialist support for victims and their children. To support that delivery, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government will provide nearly £500 million over the next three years for accommodation for domestic abuse victims who are homeless and eligible for that accommodation. Offenders released from prison are subject to licence requirement conditions, and my hon. Friend’s constituent should be receiving support from her victim liaison officer.

[David Williams]

There have been a number of deeply disturbing cases of women being targeted and attacked on the basis of their perceived religion, including two horrific cases in the midlands. What steps are being taken across Government to tackle this form of targeted violence against women and girls and ensure that our communities are properly protected?

[Alex Davies-Jones]

I thank my hon. Friend for making that fundamentally important point in the Chamber. I, too, am horrified at the horrific racially motivated sexual attacks that seem to be increasing at the moment. This Government are committed to tackling all forms of hate crime. Violence and abuse directed at women and girls because of their race is totally unacceptable and heinous. Where attacks are racially motivated, police can pursue them as racially aggravated offences, which attract tougher and higher sentences. These offences often include assault, harassment and criminal damage, and I am proudly working with some brilliant organisations, such as Southall Black Sisters, Karma Nirvana and Hibiscus, as part of our strategy to halve the level of violence against women and girls.