Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department plans to take to help increase conviction rates for violence against women in rural areas.

We have set out an unprecedented mission to halve the level of violence against women and girls (VAWG) in a decade. That means working across Government to tackle threats to women's safety in all areas of their lives and across the country, including in rural areas. We will set out concrete measures to halving VAWG in a new cross-Government VAWG strategy, which we are aiming to publish before summer recess. We are working closely with the Ministry of Justice and other partners as part of improving the criminal justice response to VAWG.

Our new National Policing Centre for Violence Against Women and Girls and Public Protection, in which we are investing £13.1 million, will seek to drive national coordination and improvement in forces response to VAWG crimes. This includes delivering our manifesto commitment for strengthened specialist training for officers across all areas of the country to ensure that they offer consistent protection for victims and relentlessly pursue perpetrators.