Tackling domestic abuse is a key priority for this Government. We want to continue building on our landmark Domestic Abuse Act to further strengthen support available for all victims of domestic abuse, including the most vulnerable in society, and tackle perpetrators of these abhorrent crimes.

We know that domestic abuse affects a wide and disparate group and that a “one size fits all” approach is not appropriate to support all victims. Whilst anyone can suffer from domestic abuse, for older victims, abuse may be more hidden and disguised, or compounded by other age-related factors such as mental or physical ill health.

We also understand the importance of specialist and ‘by and for’ services (specialist services that are designed and delivered by and for the users and communities they aim to serve) in providing the tailored support that victims and survivors of domestic abuse need. We work closely with, and fund, organisations providing this vital support, including the charity Hourglass.

In 2021/22, the Home Office provided Hourglass over £200,000 to support their work in enhancing their helpline, providing casework support, and training specialist IDVAs. For 2022/23, we have provided pro-rata funding for an extended 8 months.

In March this year we went even further and published our Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan. The plan invests over £230 million of new funding to tackle domestic abuse, with over £140 million to support victims. This includes over £47 million in ringfenced funding for victims’ services.

Our Domestic Abuse Plan commits to, where possible, offering multi-year awards to fund organisations supporting victims and survivors of domestic abuse. This means that smaller organisations, including ‘by and for’ services, can offer a stable service to victims and survivors. The VAWG National Statement of Expectations, and Commissioning Toolkit, which we published alongside the plan, will also provide support to commissioners to help them increase provision of ‘by and for’ and specialist services.

We will be running an open commercial competition in the coming months for ‘by and for’ and specialist services, including those providing services for older victims. As part of the competition, we will undertake market engagement allowing interested organisations to discuss and input into the competition prior to bidding.

Most universities in England are exempt charities, which means they are exempt from registration with, and direct regulation by, the Charity Commission.

Exempt charities have a principal regulator appointed, whose duties include promoting compliance with charity law.

The Office for Students (OfS) is the higher education regulator in England, and in accordance with charity law, is the principal regulator for higher education exempt charities in England.

Universities registered with the OfS are subject to ongoing conditions of registration. The OfS may investigate any adverse event, actual or alleged, where a breach of these conditions may have occurred, and take action as necessary, in accordance with its role as the regulator of higher education, and principal regulator of higher education exempt charities of England.

This can include engaging with the Charity Commission on the possible use of its powers under charity law.

The Government and the Police remain rightly focussed on combatting the harms and exploitation associated with prostitution and helping those that wish to leave sex work. During the current unprecedented circumstances, we have also provided £750m to a range of charities. This will support those organisations at risk of financial hardship that are providing key frontline services to vulnerable people affected by the pandemic. We understand that those involved in prostitution can be vulnerable to exploitation. That is why £76m of this funding will be allocated to charities and organisations throughout the country to support the vulnerable in our society during the pandemic, including for victims of modern slavery, sexual violence and domestic abuse. Of this, the Ministry of Justice is providing £10m to support sexual violence services through Covid 19 pressures. A further £3m per annum until 2022 will also be invested in the recruitment of more Independent Sexual Violence Advisors across the country. The Home Office will distribute £7.8 million in emergency support for charities helping vulnerable children who have been impacted by the coronavirus outbreak (including those supporting children who may be at risk of sexual abuse). Wider funding from the £750m will be provided by the National Lottery Community Fund, which is currently open for applications.

Previously, we have provided funding for women’s charities to help women exit prostitution through the tampon tax and from dedicated funding of £100 million for specialist Violence Against Women and Girls services.

The Government promised to match whatever the public donated to the BBC Big Night In fundraising event – which was broadcast on 23rd April – starting with a contribution of at least £20m to the National Emergencies Trust appeal. The remainder will be split between the Comic Relief and Children in Need charities. On the night of its broadcast, the event raised £27m.

On 8 April the Government announced a £750 million package of support for charities providing key services and supporting vulnerable people during the Covid-19 crisis. This funding package will help charities providing essential services to continue their operations and to weather the storm until we return to more normal times. Funding for charities will be made available in the coming weeks and further information will be announced on Gov.uk. The Government’s aim is to get funding to those in greatest need as soon as possible.

This Government is committed to tackling the heinous crime of modern slavery and ensuring that victims are provided with the support they need to begin rebuilding their lives.

We recognise that language skills can increase an individual’s resilience to exploitation. The National Referral Mechanism (NRM) is our system for identifying and providing access to support for suspected victims. This support is provided through a Government-funded support service, the Victim Care Contract (VCC), delivered by The Salvation Army and their 12 subcontractors. The VCC provides a package of support to victims of modern slavery including, but not limited to, accommodation if needed, financial support, interpretation services if needed and access to a support worker.

The Home Office does not hold information on the number of people entering the NRM that have required translation support in the last 12 months.
The VCC does not include the provision of English courses, however potential victims are supported to access language classes by their support worker as appropriate.

The Government published a new Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Strategy on 8 March setting out an ambitious programme to make tackling VAWG everybody’s business, ensure victims and survivors get the support they need and inspire confidence in the Criminal Justice System to bring more perpetrators to justice as well as doing more to rehabilitate offenders.

The strategy committed £80 million between 2016 and 2020 to protect women and girls from violence. This increased funding will help to deliver our goal to work with local commissioners to deliver a secure future for rape support centres, refuges and FGM and Forced Marriage Units, whilst driving a major change across all services which promotes early intervention and prevention including through specialist domestic violence charities.

The Government published a new Violence Against Women and Girls strategy on 8 March committing £80 million between 2016 and 2020 to protect women and girls from violence and abuse. The strategy sets out how we will support local areas in implementing tailored services for victims who experience different forms of discrimination or additional barriers to accessing support. This includes the launch of a Service Transformation Fund from 2017 which will help to meet the needs of women and girls experiencing multiple disadvantage including victims from black and minority ethnic communities.

We are determined to ensure that all victims of domestic violence, including those from black and minority ethnic communities, have the same opportunities to access the criminal justice system and the appropriate support and services.

The Government has already committed £40 million for domestic abuse services including refugees between 2016 and 2020, provided a £2 million grant to Women’s Aid and SafeLives to support a new domestic abuse early intervention project, protected funding of over £6.4 million to 86 female Rape Support Centres for 2016/17. We have also committed to a further year of funding to support the local provision of 144 Independent Domestic Violence Advisers (IDVAs) and 87 Independent Sexual Violence Advisers for 2016/17.

The Government will shortly publish an updated Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) strategy which will set out how we will work with local areas and specialist charities to support all victims of VAWG, including black and ethnic minority victims.

I have regular discussions with voluntary and community sector leaders and the outlook is mixed. The environment continues to be very tough but recent quarterly statistics from the Charity Commission shows charitable income has grown by 4.4% in the year to March.

Official Statistics also suggest that giving of money is stable and volunteering has grown. Finally, a new pillar of funding for the sector—social investment—is showing encouraging signs of growth.