Asked by: Dehenna Davison (Conservative - Bishop Auckland)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure consistency of support across regions for victims of domestic violence.
Answered by Laura Farris - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)
The Violence Against Women and Girls National Statement of Expectations sets out how local areas should commission effective services. It also aims to increase understanding of the need for specialist services and the value of those designed, and delivered by and for the users and communities they aim to serve (for example victims and survivors from ethnic minority backgrounds, deaf and disabled victims and survivors, and LGBT victims and survivors).
The Domestic Abuse Commissioner’s report on meeting the needs of victims across England and Wales has been useful in highlighting the importance of nationwide provision and specialist support. We have and will continue to use her findings in commissioning and funding decisions.
The Domestic Abuse Act introduced a legal duty on Tier 1 local authorities to provide support for victims of domestic abuse and their children within safe accommodation, including refuges. Department of Levelling up, Housing and Communities have allocated £127.3 million in 2023/24 to LAs to discharge this duty.
Ministry of Justice is also this year (23/24) providing £21 million of ringfenced funding to Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCS) for community-based domestic abuse and sexual violence services. This is in addition to the ‘Core’ funding MoJ provides to PCCs to allocate at their discretion, based on their assessment of local need.
In November 2023, we renewed the commitment to support victims of domestic abuse with a further £2 million investment into the Flexible Fund until March 2025, announced in the Autumn Statement. The Home Office Fund will enable direct payments to victims across England and Wales to help them flee abuse and re-establish long-term safety and independence and builds on a trial of the scheme in 2023.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his Department has taken to tackle (a) violence and (b) intimidation against young women and girls.
Answered by Laura Farris - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)
We have made significant progress since we published the Tackling VAWG Strategy in July 2021 and the complementary Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan in March 2022.
In the Tackling VAWG Strategy, the government committed to invest £3 million to better understand what works to prevent violence against women – to invest in high quality, evidence-informed prevention projects, including in schools, aiming to educate and inform children and young people about violence against women, healthy relationships and the consequences of abuse.
Our Domestic Abuse Act became law in April 2021. This is a landmark piece of legislation which includes important new protections and support for victims. Abusers are no longer be allowed to directly cross-examine their victims in the family and civil courts, and victims have better access to special measures in the courtroom to help prevent intimidation – such as protective screens and giving evidence via video link.
To improve the police response to tackling these crimes, we have supported the introduction of a new full-time National Policing Lead for VAWG, DCC Maggie Blyth, and have added violence against women to the Strategic Policing Requirement, meaning it is now set out as a national threat for forces to respond to alongside other threats such as terrorism, serious and organised crime and child sexual abuse.
The Government also supported the Protection from Sex-Based Harassment in Public Act 2023, which makes public sexual harassment a specific offence. The Act will come into force as quickly as reasonably possible.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to help reduce the rate of victims of crime dropping out of criminal proceedings.
Answered by Laura Farris - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)
Supporting victims within the criminal justice system is a top priority for the government.
The government recognises that lengthy delays in court proceedings can exacerbate the challenges faced by victims and increase the likelihood of dropouts. We are actively recruiting up to 1,000 judges across all jurisdictions in the current financial year, emphasising our commitment to reducing waiting times. We funded over 100,000 sitting days last financial year and plan to deliver the same again this financial year to ensure we can hear more cases and tackle the outstanding caseload. The continued use of 24 Nightingale courtrooms into the 2023/24 financial year further demonstrates our dedication to addressing capacity challenges and expediting the legal process.
The government is committed to providing robust support systems for victims throughout the court process. Our recent initiatives include the full rollout of pre-recorded cross-examination (Section 28) for victims of sexual and modern slavery offences across all Crown Court locations in England and Wales. This allows victims to provide evidence in a less intimidating environment, reducing the emotional strain associated with live courtroom trials. In December 2022, we launched a new 24/7 support line for victims of rape and sexual abuse, providing free, confidential emotional support to help victims cope with the challenges they may face during proceedings.
The government is also quadrupling funding for victim and witness support services by 2024/25, up from £41 million in 2009/10. This includes additional ringfenced funding to increase the number of Independent Sexual Violence Advisors (ISVAs) and Independent Domestic Violence Advisors (IDVAs) by 300, to over 1,000, by 2024/25 - a 43% increase on the number of ISVAs and IDVAs. This year (2023/24), we are providing £38 million of ringfenced funding for ISVAs and IDVAs. We know the support available from ISVAs and IDVAs make victims almost 50% more likely to stay engaged with the criminal justice process.
The Victims and Prisoners Bill, reintroduced last November carried over from the previous session, encompasses measures designed to improve the overall experience of victims in the criminal justice system, supporting them to cope, recover and see justice done. The Bill introduces a duty on local commissioners in England to collaborate in commissioning support services for victims of domestic abuse, sexual abuse and serious violence, and introduces a requirement for statutory guidance about support roles such as ISVAs and IDVAs, ensuring a more cohesive and effective support provision.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool, West Derby)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to recommendation 16 of the Report of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, published in October 2022, what recent progress his Department has made in helping ensure that (a) the (i) UK and (ii) Welsh Government introduce a national guarantee that child victims of sexual abuse will be offered specialist and accredited therapeutic support and (b) these services are fully funded.
Answered by Laura Farris - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)
The Victims’ Code sets out the services and support that victims of crime are entitled to receive from the criminal justice system in England and Wales. Under this Code, all victims, including children, are entitled to access victim support services they may need to help them cope and recover from the impact of a crime. When they report a crime, they have the right to receive information about and be referred to support services by the police, including therapy and counselling within two working days. This is regardless of whether anyone has been charged or convicted of a criminal offence or when the crime itself occurred. They can also access support services directly.
We are quadrupling funding for support services by 2024/25, up from £41 million in 2009/10. This has allowed us to increase specialist services for survivors of sexual abuse. For example, we are increasing the number of Independent Sexual and Domestic Violence Advisers in England and Wales, including those specifically supporting children, by 300 to over 1,000 by 2024/25 - a 43 percent increase over this spending review period. We have also recommissioned the Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Fund, which is providing £26 million between August 2023 and March 2025 to more than 60 specialist victim support services in England and Wales.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool, West Derby)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Government response to recommendation 16 of the final report of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, published in May 2023, CP 844, what recent progress his Department has made on ensuring (a) that child victims should be offered specialist therapeutic support and (b) an adequate supply of these services.
Answered by Laura Farris - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)
The Victims and Prisoners Bill aims to improve support services for child victims by driving forward more informed and effective commissioning at the local level. Under the duty to collaborate, local commissioners must consider the particular needs of children when producing their local commissioning strategies. Local areas are required to conduct a joint needs assessment to inform these strategies which must give proper regard to the needs of child victims, including the risk of sexual abuse, and whether, and how local support services meet those needs.
All victims are entitled to support under the Victims’ Code, and we are quadrupling funding for support services by 2024/25, up from £41 million in 2009/10. This has allowed us to increase specialist services for survivors of child sexual abuse. For example, we are increasing the number of Independent Sexual and Domestic Violence Advisors, including those supporting children, by 300 to over 1,000 by 2024/25 – a 43 percent increase over this spending review period. We have also recommissioned the Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Fund (RASASF), which is providing £26 million between August 2023 and March 2025 to more than 60 specialist victim support services.
My Department is also investing almost £90,000 in the Bluestar project at the Green House, who will provide training to 60 specialist victim support services who receive funding through the RASASF to build knowledge and confidence in the delivery of pre-trial support to victims of all ages, including children. A further £270,000 is also being invested in the Centre of Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse to improve the provision of services for victims of child sexual abuse. Activities will include a directory of support services and a data hub. This will enable victims to access information to get the right help, as well as helping commissioners to assess demand for support and allocate resources. Further details can be found in the recent statement from the Home Secretary
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment his Department has made of the implications for his policies of the experiences of the criminal justice system of survivors of domestic abuse.
Answered by Laura Farris - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)
In March 2022, we published the cross-Government ‘Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan’, which seeks to transform society’s response to domestic abuse through preventing reoffending, supporting victims, pursuing perpetrators and strengthening the systems processes in place needed to deliver these goals.
To ensure victims are given the support they need, the Government has supported the Domestic Abuse Matters programme which provides specialist domestic abuse training to police forces. We are funding the development of a new module of this training programme, targeted specifically at investigators of domestic abuse offences to enable further improvement in police responses to domestic abuse incidents. A 2020 evaluation of the programme showed a 41% increase in arrests for coercive or controlling behaviour, associated with the training.
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) have quadrupled funding for victim and witness support services by 2024/25, up from £41 million in 2009/10. This funding includes £21 million ringfenced per annum for PCCs to commission services supporting victims of sexual violence and domestic abuse. The MoJ are using additional ringfenced funding to increase the number of ISVAs and IDVAs by 300, to over 1,000, by 2024/25 - a 43% increase.
In February 2023, MoJ laid secondary legislation to ensure legal aid will be available for domestic abuse victims seeking a Domestic Abuse Protection Order. The legislation now also allows for more types of evidence to be accepted from victims of domestic abuse, making it easier for victims to evidence their claims and access the support they need.
In March 2023, the Government introduced the Victims and Prisoners Bill to Parliament. Under the Victims’ Code, victims are entitled to have their crime investigated without unjustified delay and to be provided with information about the investigation and prosecution.
Asked by: Kevin Foster (Conservative - Torbay)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to tackle violence against women and girls through the criminal justice system.
Answered by Laura Farris - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)
This Government’s track record in tackling violence against women and girls includes introducing
• Our landmark Domestic Abuse Act, which created the new criminal offence of non-fatal strangulation; recognised wider forms of abuse, such as emotional and economic abuse, in law for the first time; and extended the controlling and coercive behaviour offence to include post-separation abuse; and,
• The Rape Review, through which we have tripled the number of cases the police are now referring to the CPS and more than doubled the number of adult rape cases reaching court since 2019.
And we are going further by introducing:
• The Sentencing Bill, which will legislate to ensure that rapists and the most serious sexual offenders remain in prison for the whole of their custodial sentences, up from 2/3 currently and after the last Labour Government lowered it to only 50%; and
• The Criminal Justice Bill, which will strengthen the multi-agency management of offenders convicted of controlling or coercive behaviour.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he (a) is taking and (b) plans to take to reduce the number of cases of sexual offences waiting to be heard in the crown court.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
We remain committed to reducing the Crown Court caseload and are working closely with the judiciary and other partners to improve the experience of court users. We have introduced a raft of measures to achieve that aim, including funding over 100,000 sitting days last year and planning to deliver the same again this year. We are investing £220 million for essential modernisation of our court buildings over the next two years as well as investing in judicial recruitment, so that we expect to recruit more than 1,000 judges by the end of 2023/2024.
We have invested a significant amount of extra money for the Criminal Justice System to help improve waiting times for victims of crime. We have opened extra courtrooms, and continued hearings, alongside quadrupling funding for victims’ services so victims get the support they need throughout the process. Judges prioritise cases involving vulnerable complainants and witnesses, and seek to ensure that domestic abuse, serious sex cases and those with vulnerable witnesses are listed at the first available opportunity.
In June 2022, we announced our Specialist Sexual Violence Support (SSVS) project in three Crown Courts, to improve the support on offer in court for victims of rape and improve timeliness of cases going through the system. This includes trauma-informed training for all staff at courts who come into contact with victims, improved facilities and technology, and at least one Case Coordinator at each court.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the proportion of people convicted of assault in a domestic context who were charged with the offence of common assault under Section 39 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Gareth Bacon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice does not hold the data requested. Offences involving domestic abuse can take various forms and are prosecuted under the offence in law that best reflects their nature and circumstances, for example, assault or harassment. These offences can take the form of domestic abuse or non-domestic abuse and data collected from courts does not distinguish between the two.
This Government continues to take concerted action to pursue perpetrators of domestic abuse. We have:
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to encourage workplaces to (a) promote positive cultural change and (b) prevent harmful attitudes and behaviours that lead to violence against women.
Answered by Laura Farris - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)
The Department works closely with and promotes organisations that seek to improve the employer's response to domestic abuse, including with the Employers Initiative on Domestic Abuse (EIDA) and the Employers Domestic Abuse Covenant (EDAC).
In addition, through the Employers Engagement Fund, The Survivors Trust has been awarded funding in 2023/24 and 2024/25 to work with employers to raise awareness of domestic abuse, train their employees on how to identify, better understand and respond to domestic abuse disclosures in the workplace.
Our national communications campaign ‘Enough’ was launched in 2022, to challenge the harmful behaviours that exist within wider society. Campaign advertising has reached millions of individuals across England and Wales, and thousands of clicks on the website through to organisations that support victims of these crimes.