Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to tackle violence against women and girls.

Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) is a government priority. VAWG is an unacceptable, preventable issue which blights the lives of millions.

In July 2021 we published our cross-Government Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy to help ensure that women and girls are safe everywhere - at home, online and on the streets.

The Strategy commits to a number of actions and we are already making progress. This includes:

• supporting the introduction of a new full-time National Policing Lead for Violence Against Women and Girls – with DCC Maggie Blyth now in post;
• a new national communications campaign, Enough, with a focus on targeting perpetrators and harmful misogynistic attitudes, educating young people about healthy relationships and ensuring victims can access support. This has been developed in close collaboration with the VAWG sector, academics and survivors, the campaign launched on 1 March 2022;
• working to criminalise virginity testing through the Health and Social Care Act to send a clear message that this practice is wholly unacceptable in our society; and
• appointing joint Transport Champions to help make public transport safer for women and girls.

This was followed by a complementary cross-Government Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan which we published in March 2022.

The Plan invests over £230 million into tackling this heinous crime. This includes over £140 million for supporting victims and over £81 million for tackling perpetrators. £47 million of this will be ringfenced over three years for community-based services to support victims and survivors of domestic abuse and sexual violence.

The successful implementation of these commitments will be overseen by the Violence Against Women and Girls Inter-Ministerial Group.

These measures will help further transform the response to these crimes, from prevention and raising awareness, improving support to victims and survivors, to ensuring perpetrators are brought to justice.