Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department are taking to encourage male victims to report incidences of domestic abuse.

The Government remains committed to supporting all victims of domestic abuse, regardless of sex.

The commitments set out in the Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Strategy and Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan apply to all victims of these crimes, including male victims. These documents aim to transform the whole of society's response to these crimes with actions to prevent abuse, pursue perpetrators, and support victims.

We do understand that there are specific challenges that male victims of domestic abuse face. We published the refreshed Supporting Male Victims policy document in 2022, which strengthens the government's response to male victims and includes information on the myths and stereotypes that can act as a barrier to reporting for male victims.

Whilst the Government fully acknowledges the range of barriers many male victims face, we encourage all victims to report incidents to the police, so perpetrators can be brought to justice. We also recognise that it is important for all victims to have confidence in policing. To support policing, we are:

· Providing up to £3.3 million to fund the rollout of Domestic Abuse Matters training to police forces which have yet to deliver it, or do not have their own specific domestic abuse training.

· Published updated guidance on the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme (DVDS), which enables the police to disclose information to a victim or potential victim of domestic abuse about their partner's or ex partner's previous abusive or violent offending.

In the Domestic Abuse Plan, we committed to a Home Office review into closed VAWG cases that have outcome 15 of 16 (evidential difficulties prevent further actions or victim does not support police action or withdraws support) to identify opportunities for improvements in the way these are used.