Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the new specific offence of strangulation and suffocation in the Domestic Abuse Act 2021, whether victims of those crimes in a domestic abuse setting will be able to access sexual assault referral centres.

Sexual Assault Referral Centres (SARCs) are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week to all victims and survivors of sexual violence and abuse irrespective of age, gender or when the assault or abuse occurred.  NHS England and NHS Improvement will review service provision to determine whether forensic and medical interventions for non-fatal strangulation should form part of the core offer for SARCs.