Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Government is taking to help protect women and girls in (a) the home environment and (b) public places who are at risk of domestic violence.

The Government is committed to tackling violence against women and girls in all its forms. The landmark Domestic Abuse Act 2021 established a wide-ranging statutory definition of domestic abuse that incorporates a range of abusive behaviours beyond physical violence, and brings in important new protections including Domestic Abuse Protection Notices (DAPNs) and Domestic Abuse Protection Orders (DAPOs) to provide flexible, longer-term protection for victims from all forms of domestic abuse.

Accompanying this legislation, in July 2022 the Government published detailed statutory guidance outlining the many forms domestic abuse can take to ensure that domestic abuse is properly understood by public agencies seeking to tackle this abhorrent crime and provide adequate support to victims.

In July 2021, the cross-Government Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy was published to help ensure that women and girls are safe everywhere - at home, online and on the streets. In March 2022 we published a complementary Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan in March 2022 which seeks to transform the whole of society’s response to prevent offending, support victims, pursue perpetrators. In the Plan, Government committed to:

• Invest over £230 million into tackling domestic abuse. This includes over £140 million to support victims, much of which is multi-year funding, and £47 million of which is ringfenced for community-based support services.
• Trial and, if it is successful, consider a national rollout of the Ask for ANI codeword scheme across Jobcentre Plus offices. The scheme provides discreet emergency support in the community for victims and is already available in over half of UK pharmacies, including Boots.
• Provide up to £3.3 million to support 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.

To help protect women and girls in public places and raise awareness of VAWG, in March 2022, the Government launched the ‘Enough’ communications campaign which seeks to change public attitudes and tolerance towards crimes such as public sexual harassment and to help create an atmosphere in which women and girls can report such crimes to the police with confidence.

These measures will strengthen protections and support for women and girls at home and in public places, who are at risk of domestic violence and ensure perpetrators are brought to justice.