Domestic Abuse: Northern Ireland

(asked on 2nd September 2020) - View Source

Question to the Northern Ireland Office:

What discussions he has had with groups supporting victims of domestic violence in Northern Ireland during the covid-19 outbreak.


Answered by
Robin Walker Portrait
Robin Walker
This question was answered on 2nd September 2020

Sadly during this pandemic, there has been a rise in domestic abuse incidents. I’m pleased to see there has been a focus across the whole of the UK to support victims of domestic violence.

Northern Ireland’s Department of Justice and Department of Health have taken a range of steps, including introducing the Domestic Abuse and Family Proceedings Bill. An action plan for the domestic and sexual abuse strategy has also been published and the domestic violence and abuse campaign ‘see the signs’ has been relaunched.

I was pleased to see that on 3 July, the NI Justice Minister and NI Health Minister published a plan for year five of the seven year domestic and sexual abuse strategy and a progress report for 2019/20, taking forward commitments that had been made by the Executive in 2016.

Although this is a devolved area, the UK Government has made available £2 million to support domestic abuse charities to use technology to provide support in a more covert way to help victims trapped with their abuser.

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