Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to increase the capacity of (a) national domestic abuse helplines and (b) online access to specialist domestic abuse support during the covid-19 outbreak.

£76 million of funding was announced to support survivors of?domestic abuse, sexual violence and modern slavery?as well as ensure that vulnerable children and young people continue to get the help they need.

As part of this funding the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government announced on 5 June that it had allocated £8.15m of its £10m fund to 147 providers of safe accommodation services, and that the remainder of the fund was to be reopened. On 26 June the Ministry of Justice announced it had allocated £22m of its £25m fund to 548 local and regional domestic abuse and sexual violence charities. On 22 May the Home Office launched an additional £2m fund for non-local domestic abuse charities. Nearly £800,000 has now been allocated to 13 charities. The remainder of the fund was reopened for applications and closed on 20^th July. Bids are currently being assessed.

In April the Home Secretary announced £2 million in funding to bolster domestic abuse helplines and online services. £1.2 million of this has been allocated to the following providers Galop, Hestia, Hourglass, Operation Encompass, Refuge, Respect, South West Grid for Learning, Surviving Economic Abuse, Suzy Lamplugh Trust, Women’s Aid, Karma Nirvana, Sign Health and the Employers Initiative on Domestic Abuse.