Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment her Department has made of the link between gender-based violence and the increased risk of HIV infection in women overseas; and what steps her Department plans to take to address that issue.

Global progress in reducing new HIV infections in women and girls remains a priority for the UK. Women and girls subjected to intimate partner violence can be up to 1.5 times more likely to acquire HIV. DFID has made significant progress in scaling up efforts to address violence against women and girls and preventing sexual violence in conflict, nearly doubling our programming from 64 programmes in 2012 to 127 in 2016. We will continue this crucial work.