Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether his Department’s Spending Review 2020, which includes a £125 million settlement for the new duty on local authorities contained in the Domestic Abuse Bill, took into account the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on domestic abuse.

MHCLG engaged with local authorities and service providers to ensure that the new duty is funded appropriately. The £125 million new burden funding has now been paid to local authorities to provide support in safe accommodation, to include all unmet demand, for financial year 2021-22. This is on top of £10 million in emergency funding during 2020/21 and continued supply of free PPE to refuge providers.

We continue to work with the sector to monitor demand on services as a result of Covid-19.