Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of state for the Home Department, with reference to the Cabinet Office report on Implementing the Sustainable Development Goals published on 14 December 2017, what steps her Department is taking to implement the element of Sustainable Development Goal 5 on violence against women and girls.

The Government is committed to tackling violence against women and girls (VAWG), which supports the wider work to address gender inequality and support female empowerment. In March 2016 we published an updated Ending VAWG Strategy, and we have made much progress since the original Call to End Violence against Women and Girls in 2010.

The Government has committed increased funding of £100million to 2020 to continue to provide a bedrock of critical services for VAWG, and to support a transformation in local service delivery to enable local areas to build coherent pathways of support for victims at every stage. In addition, the Queen’s speech committed to publishing a draft domestic abuse bill to protect and support victims, recognise the life-long impact domestic abuse has on children and make sure agencies effectively respond to domestic abuse.