Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans she has to increase support for victims of domestic abuse, including early intervention and safeguarding.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
This government recognises the devastating impact of domestic abuse on victims, which is why we have set the ambitious target to halve VAWG in a decade. Prevention and early intervention will sit at the heart of the forthcoming Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy, with a focus on addressing the root causes of VAWG including supporting our education system to teach children about respectful and healthy relationships and consent.
In May 2025 we announced a £19.9m investment to provide vital support to victims of VAWG, increase awareness of VAWG and actively prevent these horrific crimes. This includes over £6 million for national helplines supporting victims of domestic abuse, 'honour'-based abuse, revenge porn and stalking and £2.5m on prevention and early intervention.
Asked by: Anneliese Midgley (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the forthcoming Violence Against Women and Girls strategy and its delivery plan will include (a) funding and (b) measures to address technology-facilitated domestic abuse.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Tackling violence against women and girls (VAWG) in all of its forms, including abuse facilitated by technology, is a top priority for this government, with an unprecedented mission to halve it within a decade. The rapid development of technology has provided additional spaces for VAWG and equipped perpetrators with new ways to harass, intimidate, stalk and coerce women and girls. We will set out plans to address technology-facilitated VAWG in our forthcoming Strategy.
Following the Chancellor’s announcement on 11th June, we are working through the details of funding for tackling VAWG over the Spending Review period of 2026-2029. We will provide further details on funding when departmental budget allocations have been finalised.
Asked by: Ashley Fox (Conservative - Bridgwater)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to answer of 26 June 2025 to Question 60158 on Victim Support Schemes: Domestic Abuse and Sexual Offences, whether the funding announced for the 2025-26 financial year to help prevent such crimes is ringfenced.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Tackling violence against women and girls (VAWG), including domestic abuse and sexual violence, is a top priority for this Government with a manifesto mission to halve VAWG in a decade. We will deliver a cross-government transformative approach, underpinned by a new strategy which we aim to publish as soon as possible.
Ringfences are an important tool in supporting specific policy priorities. However, the use of ringfences must be balanced against the need for departments to retain sufficient flexibility to allocate funding within their settlements and respond effectively to emerging issues, ensuring the best use of public resources.
Home Office funding announced for VAWG in the financial year 2025-26 was not ring-fenced by HMT as part of phase one of the 2025 Spending Review settlement, and the Home Secretary retained discretion over budget allocations for VAWG funding.
Asked by: Anneliese Midgley (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many police officers have undergone specialist technology-facilitated domestic abuse training in each of the last five years.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The College of Policing is the responsible body for setting standards, developing curriculum and monitoring training delivery within policing, including the technology-facilitated domestic abuse training within Operation Modify.
In our manifesto, we committed to strengthening training on Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) for policing to ensure that all officers have the right skills to investigate all VAWG offences, including technology-facilitated abuse.
In response to this, the Home Office has invested £13.1 million this year to launch the new National Centre for VAWG and Public Protection (NCVPP). This funding includes an uplift of nearly £2 million to deliver a robust package of training improvements across public protection crime types, including technology-facilitated abuse.
Asked by: Pippa Heylings (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she made of the potential impact of the proposals in the consultation on Earned Settlement on victims of domestic violence before its publication; and what steps she will take to ensure that protections for those victims, including the Domestic Violence Concession and Indefinite Leave to Remain routes, continue under any future settlement framework.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
We are committed to reducing Violence against Women and Girls.
The Immigration White Paper, published in May 2025, committed to retain safeguards to protect the vulnerable, including settlement rights for victims of domestic violence and abuse.
The current public consultation on the proposed earned settlement scheme seeks views on the proposal that vulnerable groups, including victims of domestic violence and abuse, should retain their ability to settle without being subject to a minimum qualifying period.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to tackle violence against (a) women and (b) girls in (i) Surrey Heath constituency and (ii) Surrey.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Tackling violence against women and girls (VAWG) is a top priority for this Government with a manifesto mission to halve VAWG in a decade. We will deliver a cross-government transformative approach, underpinned by a new strategy which we aim to publish as soon as possible.
In advance of the strategy, we have already introduced measures designed to strengthen the police response to VAWG, protect victims and hold perpetrators to account. These include: funding to rollout Drive Project to tackle high-risk and high-harm domestic abuse perpetrators across England and Wales; embedding the first domestic abuse specialists in 999 control rooms in five police forces; measures to tackle spiking; measures focusing on preventing and tackling ‘honour’-based abuse (HBA), and launching the new Domestic Abuse Protection Orders in selected police forces and courts which go further than any existing orders.
The Home Office has provided the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) for Surrey with an annual funding allocation of £998,248 for 2025/26 for interventions around perpetrators of domestic abuse. PCCs in England and Wales receive annual grant funding from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), to commission local practical, emotional, and therapeutic support services for victims of all crime types.
Furthermore, this government has increased funding to local authorities, which includes Surrey Heath constituency, to £160 million for 2025-26, an uplift of £30 million from the previous year, to provide further support in safe accommodation for domestic abuse survivors, including tailored support for protected groups.
Asked by: Ashley Fox (Conservative - Bridgwater)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to answer of 24 June 2025 to Question 60160 on Victim Support Schemes: Finance, how much ringfenced funding for Domestic Violence and Domestic Abuse Support will be provided in the (a) 2025-26 and (b) 2026-27 financial year.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Ensuring victims receive the right and timely support is a key part of this Government’s mission to halve violence against women and girls.
We provide funding to all 42 Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) which includes ringfenced funding for domestic abuse and sexual violence services. These services are commissioned based on local need.
I have protected dedicated VAWG victims spending in the Department by maintaining 2024-25 funding levels for ringfenced domestic abuse and sexual violence support this year. This includes combined ringfenced funding for PCCs to spend on domestic abuse and sexual violence support services.
As announced on 2 December 2025, Ministry of Justice will be investing £550 million in victim support services over the next three years of this Spending Review period – the biggest investment in victim support services to date. This includes a 2% uplift year on year for the next two years to funding for PCCs. The breakdown of grant funding is also publicly available on the Government Grants Information System (GGIS), which is released annually in March covering the previous financial period of grant spending.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department has taken to help reduce instances of matricide.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The scale of violence against women and girls (VAWG) is intolerable, and this Government has set out a mission to halve these crimes over the next decade.The Home Office is working to develop the evidence base on domestic abuse related deaths by funding the Domestic Homicide Project, which captures information all domestic abuse related deaths, including matricides, from all 43 police forces in England and Wales. The objective of this project is to improve our understanding of these cases and identify how the response to them can be improved. Further information about this research can be found at the following link: https://www.vkpp.org.uk/vkpp-work/domestic-homicide-project/. In addition, Domestic Homicide Reviews (DHRs) offer a vital opportunity fornational and local agencies, local communities and society as a whole to learn lessons from domestic abuse related deaths, including cases of matricide. We are currently reforming the DHR process to ensure learning is effectively identified and implemented to improve systems and ultimately, prevent future deaths.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps are being taken to ensure reports of domestic abuse are taken seriously and not missed by the system.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
We expect police to take all reports of domestic abuse seriously, taking necessary steps to protect victims. Missed opportunities are costing lives and far too many have already been lost.
At present, we know many domestic abuse victims do not receive an adequate response when they phone the police. The government will not stand by while women are failed by systems charged with keeping them safe. That's why earlier this year we launched 'Raneem's Law' in the first five police forces. Under 'Raneem's Law', domestic abuse specialists are embedded in 999 control rooms to improve the police response to reports of domestic abuse. The specialists use their expertise to advise on risk assessments, review 999 calls and support officers responding to domestic abuse incidents.
Through an expert-led and cohesive police response, ‘Raneem’s Law’ helps ensure that when a victim has the courage to come forward it will be treated with the seriousness and urgency it deserves.
We are also committed to ensuring policing have the right skills and training to respond appropriately to reports of domestic abuse, and are working closely with the new National Centre for Violence Against Women and Girls and Public Protection to deliver this.
The Home Office has already invested £13.1 million this year into the new National Centre for VAWG and Public Protection (NCVPP). This funding includes an uplift of nearly £2 million to deliver a robust package of training improvements.
Grounded in academic research and behaviour change science, new training programmes will prioritise trauma-informed learning to ensure that all officers are well equipped to investigate these crimes and provide support to victims.
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. These steps are just some of many that we are taking towards tangible and impactful change.
Asked by: Jess Asato (Labour - Lowestoft)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether her Department has (a) implemented a domestic abuse policy for staff and (b) trained line managers to effectively respond to staff who are experiencing domestic abuse.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department for Transport adopted a domestic abuse charter in 2018 which provides advice and guidance for staff affected by domestic abuse and for their colleagues and line management who may be called upon to support them. Line manager guidance on supporting staff experiencing domestic violence and abuse was strengthened further in 2024. This covered: the signposting of sources of support and advice such as the Employee Assistance Programme that all staff have access to; and outlining the flexible leave options available to deal with scenarios that might arise such as disruption of childcare arrangements, legal appointments, or a move of home. It also highlighted the importance of discretion and taking a reasonable approach where periods of sickness absence are directly linked to domestic violence or abuse.
Line Managers receive standard line management training when they first take on a managerial role. This includes a focus on wellbeing, recognising signs of stress or poor mental health, and conducting supportive conversations. The training also covers signposting to resources such as the Employee Assistance Programme, internal wellbeing guides, and Mental Health First Aiders, which can be relevant when supporting staff experiencing challenging personal circumstances, including domestic abuse.
DfT’s Gender Equality Network has committed to supporting the Safer Streets mission organised by White Ribbon UK, a campaign that engages with men and boys to prevent violence against women and girls. I have given permission for DfT to apply for White Ribbon accreditation.