The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home
Department ():...To reduce the risk of
perpetrators committing further offences, as the strategy
confirmed, we launched a fund for Police and
Crime Commissioners to run programmes to address
the behaviour of domestic abuse and stalking perpetrators. The
funds will provide programmes to cover a range of different
methods for tackling stalking. It is right that we recognise that
stalking only recently came on to the statute book in its current
form. Our understanding is not quite as well developed as it is
for many other crimes that involve serious violence against women
and girls. That is why it is important that we have those
programmes and evaluate the evidence so that we can understand
what works. That work includes the development of a multi-agency
stalking intervention project in Cambridgeshire, and the
development of the compulsive and obsessive behaviour
intervention programme in Surrey. The aim of all such programmes
is to encourage behavioural changes to reduce the frequency and
gravity of the abuse presented by the perpetrator, thereby
improving the safety of and protection for the victim...
...The hon. Member for Gower asked for information on the west
midlands pilot. We have confirmed £11.3 million funding for
PCCs to run programmes to address stalking and
to evaluate the success of this work. The project is in its early
stages, but we will provide her with an update from the west
midlands police and crime commissioner when we
are able to.
The violence against women and girls strategy also confirmed that
the Home Office has this financial year tripled the funding that
we provide to the Suzy Lamplugh Trust, which runs the national
stalking helpline. That funding is enabling it, among other
things, to expand its advocacy work. Since July, the trust has
used the funding to provide advocacy support for 29 people who
are particularly vulnerable or whose cases are particularly
complex. I visited the helpline in November, and it was an
incredible experience to see at first hand its vital work and how
it is helping so many victims.
Hon. Members will be aware from our response to the petition last
August of the additional funding for the national stalking
helpline and of the almost £100,000 that we provided to Paladin,
which many Members mentioned. I thank Paladin for what it does.
We provided funding to it between April 2020 and March 2021 to
provide additional independent stalking advocacy caseworkers
during the height of the pandemic. The provision of ISACs trained
by Paladin is also part of the Home Office’s funding to the
Merseyside police and crime commissioner to
address the behaviour of stalking perpetrators.
In the current financial year, the Ministry of Justice will have
provided just over £150 million for victim and witness support
services, including an extra £51 million to increase support for
sexual violence and domestic abuse victims. That includes funding
for independent domestic violence advisers. Domestic abuse
funding can include stalking that takes place in a domestic
context, where the stalker might be a former partner or a family
member of the victim. It is open to Police
and Crime Commissioners to use their core,
un-ringfenced funding to fund ISACs. The point has been made that
stalking does not always take place in a domestic violence or
abuse context. It is also correct to say that we do not ring
fence funding for independent stalking advocacy caseworkers in
the same way that we do for equivalent roles in domestic abuse
and sexual violence, as the petition and many Members have
referenced...
To read the whole debate, CLICK HERE
