Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, which criterion the Government does not meet in order to ratify Istanbul Convention.

The Government signed the Istanbul Convention to signal the UK’s strong commitment to tackling violence against women and girls (VAWG). We reaffirmed our commitment to this with the refreshed VAWG strategy which we published on 6th March.

We introduced domestic violence protection orders from 2014 and female genital mutilation protection orders, sexual harm prevention orders and sexual risk orders in 2015.

We have published a range of guidance and support for frontline professionals, including:
• Statutory guidance on the offence of controlling or coercive behaviour in an intimate or family relationship:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/statutory-guidance-framework-controlling-or-coercive-behaviour-in-an-intimate-or-family-relationship
• Multi-agency statutory guidance for the conduct of domestic homicide reviews:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/revised-statutory-guidance-for-the-conduct-of-domestic-homicide-reviews
• Multi-agency statutory guidance on female genital mutilation (FGM):
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/multi-agency-statutory-guidance-on-female-genital-mutilation
• A resource pack on FGM:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/female-genital-mutilation-resource-pack
• Multi-agency practice guidelines on handling cases of forced marriage:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/322307/HMG_MULTI_AGENCY_PRACTICE_GUIDELINES_v1_180614_FINAL.pdf ; and
• Guidance on the role of Independent Sexual Violence Advisers:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-role-of-the-independent-sexual-violence-adviser-isva
We are currently running nine day-long events across England and Wales to train around 1,400 professionals in the correct use of forced marriage protection orders and FGM protection orders.

The areas of the Convention with which England and Wales are compliant were set out in the report published on 30 October 2018, in line with the requirements of the Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence (Ratification of Convention) Act 2017. As the criminal law and the majority of the areas covered by the Convention are devolved to Scotland and Northern Ireland, the Devolved Administrations are considering what legislative or other changes are necessary for compliance with the Convention in their territories.