Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his department is taking to promote programmes that engage directly with men and boys to prevent violence against women and girls.
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.
Asked by: Baroness Helic (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with the government of Israel on the provision of UK practical support for investigating, and caring for survivors and witnesses of, sexual and gender-based violence committed on 7 October in Israel.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We are aware of the shocking reports of sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas on 7 October. It is vital that reports of sexual violence are investigated independently, rigorously, and sensitively to avoid re-traumatisation, that perpetrators are held to account, and that survivors receive holistic support. We continue to engage regularly with partners, including Israel and the United Nations, to urge that all reports of sexual violence in conflict are investigated, that survivors have access to specialized services and justice, and that parties abide by applicable international humanitarian and human rights law.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what discussions he has had with representatives of the Northern Ireland Administration on a strategy on ending violence against women and girls.
Answered by Steve Baker - Minister of State (Northern Ireland Office)
The Secretary of State recently visited the Women’s Aid Federation NI in Belfast as part of the 16 Days of Action against gender-based violence, to hear about this important issue.
It is disappointing that Northern Ireland remains the only region of the UK without a dedicated strategy to tackle violence against women and girls. The UK Government notes the significant work currently underway in the Executive Office to develop a Strategic Framework to End Violence Against Women and Girls. It is vital that the Northern Ireland Executive is restored to approve and implement this strategy.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to introduce non-statutory guidance on a whole school approach for preventing violence against women and girls in education settings.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The department proposed to publish non-statutory guidance focusing on teaching about sexual harassment, sexual violence and violence against women and girls in response to a report by Ofsted into sexual abuse in schools and colleges following the tragic death of Sarah Everard. Once the current review of the Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE) statutory guidance is complete, the department will consider how best to support schools to teach about this topic.
A new draft statutory RSHE guidance will be released at the earliest opportunity, which will then be subject to public consultation.
Asked by: Earl of Sandwich (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to increase the UK's response to acute humanitarian needs in Sudan and South Sudan.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK's top humanitarian priority in Sudan is to secure humanitarian access and operational security guarantees for humanitarian agencies. In November, we announced £14.3 million in humanitarian aid for Sudan, bringing our total support to £36 million for 2023-2024. This year, the UK has also committed £28.1 million of humanitarian aid to South Sudan, including £2.25 million to help meet the urgent needs of refugees and returnees there, who have fled the violence in Sudan. UK support is being delivered through the UN and other trusted partners and includes crucial food security and nutrition assistance, safe drinking water, medical care, shelter, and protection services including for those affected by Gender Based Violence (GBV).
Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of reports of atrocities, including ethnic cleansing and gender-based violence against women, across Sudan in recent months.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK has consistently denounced all human rights violations that have taken place since the military coup on 25 October 2021, including the escalation in incidents since 15 April 2023. We condemn the ongoing attacks on innocent civilians by militias, particularly the Rapid Support Forces; this violence has all the hallmarks of ethnic cleansing. The UK, alongside the Troika (US & Norway), issued a joint statement on 17 November condemning the reported mass killings including ethnic targeting of non-Arab and other communities, killings of traditional leaders, unjust detentions, and obstruction of humanitarian aid. We continue to denounce conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) in Sudan including at the UN Human Rights Council and Security Council, and in a joint statement in July, alongside 15 other members, by the International Alliance on Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict. The UK has enhanced its atrocity risk monitoring, including the monitoring of CRSV. The October UN Human Rights Council adopted the UK-led 'Sudan Core Group' resolution to establish a Fact-Finding Mission to ensure that credible allegations of human rights investigated impartially to support future accountability efforts.
Asked by: Baroness Helic (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of reports of sexual and gender-based violence perpetrated by Hamas on 7 October; and what discussions they have had with (1) other governments, and (2) the United Nations and other international organisations and officials, on the basis of this assessment.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We are aware of the deeply concerning reports of sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas on 7 October. It is vital that reports of sexual violence are investigated independently, rigorously, and sensitively to avoid re-traumatisation, that perpetrators are held to account, and that survivors receive holistic support. We continue to engage regularly with partners, including the United Nations, to urge that all reports of sexual violence in conflict are investigated, that survivors have access to specialized services and justice, and that parties abide by international humanitarian and human rights law.
Asked by: Theresa Villiers (Conservative - Chipping Barnet)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, if he will raise in the United Nations, the issue of gender-based violence by Hamas terrorists.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We are aware of the shocking reports of sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas on 7 October. It is vital that reports of sexual violence are investigated independently, rigorously and sensitively to avoid re-traumatisation, that perpetrators are held to account and that survivors receive holistic support. We continue to engage regularly with partners, including the United Nations, to urge that all reports of sexual violence in conflict are investigated, that survivors have access to specialized services and justice, and that parties abide by applicable international humanitarian and human rights law.
Asked by: Baroness Helic (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answers by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon on 4 July (HL8647) and 18 September (HL9785), what progress has been made in monitoring conflict-related sexual violence in Sudan, what steps they are taking to support accountability for conflict-related sexual violence in Sudan, and what steps they are taking to ensure that the United Nations fact-finding mission for Sudan includes conflict-related sexual violence expertise.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK is committed to tackling gender-based violence including conflict-related sexual violence globally. We continue to call for an end to the violence in Sudan, and for those responsible for human rights violations to be held to account. The UK has enhanced its atrocity risk monitoring, including monitoring of conflict-related sexual violence. The Human Rights Council (HRC) adopted the UK-led 'Sudan Core Group' Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) in October, which will ensure that credible allegations of human rights violations and abuses, including conflict-related sexual violence, by all sides will be investigated impartially by experts in their field to support future accountability efforts. The HRC Presidency has begun the selection process for the three experts that will make up the FFM. We continue to support the Office for the High Commissioner for Human Rights and other UN partners working with Sudan's Combating Violence Against Women Unit.
Asked by: Nick Fletcher (Conservative - Don Valley)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, with reference to (a) page 8 of the Home Office's Tackling violence against women and girls strategy, published July 2021 and (b) Section 54 of the Online Safety Act 2023, whether men and boys are included within Ofcom's guidance on protecting women and girls.
Answered by Saqib Bhatti - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The phrase Violence Against Women and Girls (otherwise known as ‘VAWG’) is an umbrella term used by the Government, which refers to acts of violence or abuse that we know disproportionately affect women and girls. This definition is set out in our 2021 Tackling VAWG Strategy which seeks to support all victims of these crimes, including male victims.
The Online Safety Act takes an approach which will protect all users online, which includes men and boys. The section 54 guidance is a summary document, pulling together measures that protect users from content and abuse as set out in the Act, that disproportionately affects women and girls, but do not only affect women and girls.