Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with police forces on the steps they are taking to ensure that incidents of harassment do not escalate into (a) more serious incidents and (b) violent crimes.

Everyone has the right to both feel safe and be safe going about their day-to-day lives. Harassment should be treated seriously by all police forces, with every victim treated with dignity, and every investigation and prosecution conducted thoroughly and professionally.

We are investing £13.1 million in a new Centre for Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) and Public Protection this year to help drive better national coordination in the response to VAWG and strengthened specialist training for officers across the country. In addition, we will be publishing a new cross-Government VAWG Strategy later this year which will set out the wider actions we will take to tackle these and other crimes.