The Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local
Government (James Brokenshire):...Through the course of
the review we have engaged with specialist domestic abuse service
providers and their representative bodies, local
authorities, Police
and Crime Commissioners and other organisations
that support victims to understand fully both the challenges in
commissioning and delivering these vital services and the positive
features of the current system. We are grateful for their
engagement and extensive input into our work...
...The local partnership boards should include representation
from Police
and Crime Commissioners, health bodies, children’s
services and housing providers, along with specialist domestic
abuse service providers. The boards will be required to assess need
for domestic abuse services; develop domestic abuse strategies;
commission services to meet the support needs of victims and their
children; and report progress to my Department...
(Westmorland and Lonsdale)
(LD): I thank the Secretary of State for his statement,
which I support very strongly. It is very timely, of course. A
recent Women’s Aid report showed that about a third of domestic
abuse services have been forced to reduce the support they
provide in the past few years, and that one in 10 refuges
received no funding from local authorities whatsoever in the past
12 months.
The Secretary of State refers to partnership with Police and
Crime Commissioners. Will he provide additional funds for police
authorities such as Cumbria to reverse the cuts in police numbers
in order to identify and protect victims? Will he say a little
more about what assessment he has made of the impact on other
local services, because councils inevitably raid important other
budgets to subsidise new statutory services if they are not
properly funded and, indeed, ring-fenced?
: The hon.
Gentleman heard what I said about the investment that was
provided last November and the bed capacity it has given, and
about other services that have been provided in that way. There
is clearly much more to do, but the number of available bed
spaces for victims has actually risen since 2010. Again, I want
to see that there is proper, assessed support for the needs that
are there, which is what the statutory duty is all about.
Police funding is obviously a matter for Home Office colleagues,
but I would point out that more than £1 billion extra has been
made available to the police during this financial year.
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