Asked by: Elsie Blundell (Labour - Heywood and Middleton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to protect women and girls from violent offenders who have been released.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
This Government was elected with a landmark mission: to halve violence against women and girls within a decade. The ‘Freedom from violence and abuse: a cross-government strategy’ sets out stronger perpetrator management, including the commitment to nationally rollout Domestic Abuse Protection Orders across all police forces in England and Wales, which is critical in meeting this government ambition.
The Probation Service robustly manages offenders released from custody with a range of tools in the community and can respond to any breaches of licence with recall to prison where appropriate. The Sentencing Bill strengthens this by giving new powers to Probation to prohibit offenders from driving, attending public events and entering pubs, clubs and bars. It also introduces restriction zones, which will limit the movements of serious sexual and violent offenders to a specific geographical area, where appropriate, giving victims the peace of mind they deserve.
Further, regarding Electronic Monitoring (EM), the Domestic Abuse Perpetrators on Licence (DAPOL) pilot operates across eight probation regions, allowing Probation Practitioners to impose electronically monitored licence conditions on eligible prison leavers at the point of release from custody where necessary and proportionate. Conditions may include curfews, exclusion zones, required attendance at specified appointments, and GPS trail monitoring, with multiple applied risk assessments support it. DAPOL can also run alongside Alcohol Monitoring on Licence (AML) where alcohol misuse is linked to risk. Evaluation findings indicate that DAPOL provides reassurance to victims, with Victim Liaison Officers reporting that the ability to evidence breaches quickly helps reduce victim anxiety and strengthens confidence in the justice system.
Asked by: Ellie Chowns (Green Party - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Freedom From Violence and Abuse Strategy, what proportion of the £550 million funding for victim and survivor support services over the next three years will be directed to (a) Specialist services run by and for the community and (b) other domestic abuse services.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
This Government has committed to halving Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) in a decade. That is why we are investing £550 million over the next three years for victim and witness support services. The 42 Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) across England and Wales receive annual grant funding from the Ministry of Justice victim and witness budget to commission local practical, emotional and therapeutic support services for victims of all crime types, including domestic abuse. This includes ‘core’ funding, which is for PCCs to allocate at their discretion based on their assessment of local need, and funding that is ring-fenced for sexual violence and domestic abuse services. It is for PCCs to decide how much of their funding will be directed to specialist services run by and for the community, and other domestic abuse services.
Asked by: Carla Denyer (Green Party - Bristol Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what additional resources she plans to provide to ensure the police can meet the expectation set out in the Freedom From Violence and Abuse Strategy for police forces to follow the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
We know that more needs to be done to ensure the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme is as effective as it can be for victims and survivors.
We are working closely with the Independent Office for Police and Conduct and National Centre for Violence Against Women and Girls and Public Protection to review the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme, and better understand the barriers forces face when applying the statutory guidance, including any resourcing implications.
In the VAWG Strategy, we committed to create a clearer, more consistent framework for police and other agencies to improve implementation of the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme. We will also develop and roll out a digital tool, to support the police to make better decisions when disclosing to victims and survivors.
Asked by: Alex McIntyre (Labour - Gloucester)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to tackle and identify economic abuse in the welfare system to support victims and survivors.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is committed to safeguarding vulnerable individuals and preventing economic abuse within the welfare system. Front line staff receive mandatory domestic abuse training, including economic abuse. Specialist training is provided for teams such as Child Maintenance Service, Universal Credit, Counter Fraud and Debt, ensuring colleagues can identify, respond, and support claimants safely and appropriately.
As part of the '“Freedom from Violence and Abuse: a cross-government strategy to build a safer society for women and girls”, DWP has committed to strengthening domestic abuse training for staff. We have also pledged to remove the Direct Pay service type so that the Child Maintenance Service manages and transfers payments between parents, preventing it being used as a tool of abuse.
DWP supports vulnerable customers by considering individual circumstances in debt recovery and signposting to specialist services. Our Debt Management Vulnerability Framework and annual adviser training strengthen this approach. DWP collaborates with Surviving Economic Abuse to ensure safeguards are in place for new debt recovery powers under the Public Authorities Fraud, Error and Recovery Act, protecting victims of domestic abuse.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to help ensure that victims of domestic abuse and specifically children are supported and rehabilitated through court processes.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Government is committed to ensuring that victims of domestic abuse, including children, are properly supported through court processes in England and Wales.
We are reforming court procedures in private family law proceedings relating to children to make them safer and more child-centred, including through the expansion of the Pathfinder model. This innovative court model uses a less adversarial approach for private law children proceedings and is now operating in 10 court areas including all of Wales. The model sees the courts work closely with local domestic abuse agencies, to ensure that specialist support and access to domestic abuse risk assessments are in place. We are committed to expanding the model so that more people can benefit from this approach.
We are also committed to improving the criminal court response to domestic abuse and are considering additional measures to achieve better outcomes for victims. As recommended by the Independent Sentencing Review, this includes considering whether to expand the use of Specialist Domestic Abuse Courts.
Victims of domestic abuse involved in family court proceedings, as well as in civil or criminal court proceedings, may have protections such as special measures, including giving evidence via a video link or from behind a screen. Alongside this, abusers may be prohibited from directly cross-examining their victims, in family and civil proceedings. In these cases, the court may appoint a qualified legal representative instead. In the criminal courts there are longstanding statutory prohibitions against an unrepresented defended cross-examining a complainant or witness. Practice Directions in the criminal and family courts also permit Independent Domestic Violence Advisers (IDVAs) and Independent Sexual Violence Advisers (ISVAs) to accompany parties in proceedings, which provides further support to victims.
Asked by: Adam Dance (Liberal Democrat - Yeovil)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to support victims of (a) rape and (b) sexual abuse in Yeovil constituency (i) through the criminal justice process and (ii) beyond.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Department has committed £550 million to victim support services over the next three years – the biggest investment in victim support services to date.
The 42 Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) in England and Wales, including the Avon and Somerset PCC, receive annual grant funding from the Department’s victim and witness budget. Funds are used to commission local practical, emotional, and therapeutic support services for victims of all crime types. This includes ‘core’ funding, allocated at the PCC’s discretion, based on their assessment of local need, and ring-fenced funding for sexual violence and domestic abuse services.
The Department also provides grant funding directly to over 60 specialist organisations through the Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Fund (RASASF). Activities support victims to cope with their experiences and move forward with their lives, regardless of whether they report the crime to the police. Three organisations in Avon and Somerset receive RASASF funds, offering tailored support to victims of rape and sexual abuse, including Independent Sexual Violence Advisers (ISVA), counselling, therapy, and groupwork.
The 24/7 Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Line, also commissioned by the Department, provides victims access to vital help and information whenever they need it.
On 1 December 2025, all PCCs and RASASF recipients received confirmation that their grants will be extended for two years until March 2028, with a 2% year-on-year uplift in recognition of the increasing cost of service delivery.
During the criminal justice process, special measures, such as screening the witness from the defendant or giving evidence via live link, are available to victims of rape and sexual offences, who may otherwise feel unable to give evidence.
We are introducing legislation to make access to special measures easier, so eligible victims and witnesses can give their best evidence to the court.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to extend the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme to include offences such as stalking, sexual assault and harassment.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The scale of violence against women and girls in our country is intolerable, and this Government is treating it as the national emergency that it is.
The Government committed in its manifesto to giving stalking victims the right to know the true identity of their online stalker. Through the Crime and Policing Bill, we are introducing statutory guidance to support the police to release identifying information about a stalker to a victim, so victims can know who is threatening them.
The Crime and Policing Bill will also enable the Home Secretary to issue statutory guidance about the disclosure of information to prevent sexual offending. This will ensure the Child Sex Offender Disclosure Scheme and any similar schemes in the future are delivered consistently by all forces.
The Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme currently enables the police to disclose information to a victim or potential victim of domestic abuse about their partner’s or ex-partner's previous abusive or violent offending.
In the recently published Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy we committed to exploring the potential to expand both the stalking Right to Know scheme and the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme to other forms of violence against women and girls.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of recent trends in levels of violence against women and girls in (a) Surrey and (b) Surrey Heath constituency.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The scale of violence against women and girls in our country is intolerable and this Government is treating it as the national emergency it is. The “Freedom from Violence and Abuse: a cross-government strategy to build a safer society for women and girls”, published on 18th December 2025, sets out the strategic direction and concrete actions to prevent violence and abuse, pursue perpetrators, and support victims, and to deliver our unprecedented commitment to halve VAWG in a decade. The headline metric we are using to measure progress against our ambition is through a combined estimate of the proportion of people aged 16 and over who have experienced any of domestic abuse, sexual assault, or stalking in the previous 12 months, based on the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW).
Figures for domestic abuse-related offences recorded by the police are published at the Police Force Area level by the Office for National Statistics. The latest available data can be found in Table 8 here: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/datasets/domesticabuseprevalenceandvictimcharacteristicsappendixtables
Figures for crime recorded by the police may be subject to issues such as recording practices and willingness of victims to contact the police.
Asked by: Euan Stainbank (Labour - Falkirk)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what progress her Department has made on the development of the new Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy; and how her Department is working with devolved governments, including the Scottish Government, to ensure effective coordination on prevention, perpetrator interventions and data sharing.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
“Freedom from Violence and Abuse: a cross-government strategy to build a safer society for women and girls”, was published on 18 December 2025. It sets out the strategic direction and concrete actions to prevent violence and abuse, pursue perpetrators, and support victims, and to deliver our unprecedented commitment to halve violence against women and girls (VAWG) in a decade.
We have engaged with the Welsh Government, Scottish Government, and Northern Ireland Executive in the development of the Strategy.
Each Devolved Government has its own strategy, and ours has been informed by best practices drawn from the approaches of all three jurisdictions, including Equally Safe, Scotland’s strategy to prevent and eradicate VAWG, the Northern Ireland Ending VAWG Strategic Framework, and Wales’s Strategy for Violence against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence. We are committed to sharing learning and best practice to make our work complementary, and this includes sharing data. VAWG is a national and international emergency, and we will continue working with all devolved governments to ensure a coordinated UK-wide response.
Asked by: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she will confirm funding for perpetrator intervention services for the next financial year.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The scale of violence against women and girls in our country is intolerable and this Government is treating it as the national emergency that it is.
We have committed to several measures in the recently published Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy that aim to disrupt perpetrators in the community and reduce revictimisation. We will:
This landmark investment into disrupting the behaviour of perpetrators is about shifting the way we combat domestic abuse, putting the responsibility for ending abuse on those who cause it.
We have confirmed continuation of funding of the current Domestic Abuse and Stalking Perpetrator Intervention Fund for a period of six months from April 2026 to provide continuity ahead of anticipated competitions.