Catherine Atkinson

Family Justice System: Domestic Abuse and Safeguarding

Communication is absolutely essential, and a huge amount of work is being done to ensure it is in place. I am proud to be building on the work of my predecessor in that space. In relation to victim support services, it is important that, in total, the Ministry of Justice will invest £550 million in support services over the next three years of the spending review. Many hon. Members raised the incredible and essential work that so many support services do. I thank Kaleidoscopic UK for being here,

Family Justice System: Domestic Abuse and Safeguarding

I thank the hon. Member for his intervention. Of course, as he set out, we always need to be mindful of long-established principles of judicial independence in these matters. However, ensuring that we have the right training in place will go a long way towards ensuring that we have the family courts that we need, and towards ensuring that we have effective systems in place. Collectively, these reforms represent a large body of work. We want to make sure there is clarity on what we are doing, whi

Family Justice System: Domestic Abuse and Safeguarding

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Furniss. I am honoured to speak in my first Westminster Hall debate as the Minister for Victims and Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls, particularly given how important this topic is. I thank the hon. Member for Wokingham (Clive Jones) for securing the debate. He and many Members, including the hon. Member for North Cornwall (Ben Maguire), clearly set out the concerns around family courts enabling the continuity of abuse. The hon. Member

Violence against Women and Girls

I meet constituents every week, and victims will always be my priority. The hon. Gentleman has come to this House time and again to list horrific offences, but he has not once apologised for the damage that his party did to our justice system. Victims will not forget the mess the Conservatives created, forgive their failure to take action or be fooled by their claims to care now. It is this Labour Government who have committed to halving violence against women and girls, and this Labour Governme

Topical Questions

I am honoured to take up the role and build on the incredible work that my hon. Friend the Member for Pontypridd (Alex Davies-Jones) undertook. She was absolutely essential to the development of the VAWG strategy, “Freedom from violence and abuse”, so that this Government have a plan to prevent violence, pursue and prosecute perpetrators and support victims. We will be working across Government to deliver the strongest crackdown in British history.

Victims Code

The Victims’ Commissioner will deliver a new, strengthened victims code. We have engaged with victims, support services and criminal justice professionals in a consultation that closed on 30 April, and we are now taking time to consider nearly 200 responses. We will issue a public response ahead of finalising the new code and bringing it into force.

Victims Code

I am grateful to the right hon. Member for raising this deeply distressing case. I pay tribute to Dr Birkett’s daughter for her courage in continuing to engage, which is truly commendable. He is right that the Parole Board is independent of Government. The Deputy Prime Minister’s application for reconsideration was not considered to have reached the threshold. He decided to seek permission not to set aside the Parole Board’s decision, but for judicial review of the decision, and that has been fi

Violence against Women and Girls

This Government are committed to halving violence against women and girls. Baroness Harman will report directly to the Prime Minister and work across Government to ensure that we deliver the urgent change that is needed. There are few who can match Baroness Harman’s decades-long commitment to women and girls. She has consistently driven change, and I look forward to working closely with her in our new roles.

Violence against Women and Girls

I thank my hon. Friend for his continued leadership as co-chair of the all-party parliamentary group for the survivors of Fayed and Harrods. I was in contact with Baroness Harman yesterday and will raise the possibility of her joining the Prime Minister’s meeting with victims and survivors. I too would be humbled to meet those for whom my hon. Friend has advocated so powerfully both in and outside this Chamber.

Violence against Women and Girls

I thank my hon. Friend for her consistent and proactive support for domestic abuse victims. Ensuring that it is perpetrators and not victims who are punished and restricted is key to the DAPOL—domestic abuse perpetrators on licence—pilot that will be rolled out nationally from September. Offenders are tagged on release and subjected to strict conditions, such as exclusion zones and curfews. DAPOL will allow the Probation Service to tag any and all offenders who are considered to be at risk of pe

Violence against Women and Girls

Baroness Harman’s record speaks for itself. She has spent decades turning words into action, whether by passing landmark legislation, strengthening protections or relentlessly pushing this issue, which should never be used for party political point scoring, up the political agenda. It is this Prime Minister and this Government who are determined to halve violence against women and girls. Our VAWG strategy sets out the plan to do so, and we are getting on with the job of delivering it.

Family Court: Harassment of Domestic Abuse Victims

I thank the hon. Member for raising this important issue. Alongside the roll-out of child-focused courts, more work needs to be done to look at coercive control. I know it is an issue of real interest to many across the House, and it is something that the Government take very seriously.

Topical Questions

I thank my hon. Friend for her consistent efforts to raise the issue of online harms. Whether it is physical, verbal or online, abuse is abuse, and this Government are determined to tackle violence against women and girls online as well as off. We are making it illegal to take or make intimate images without consent, including deepfakes. Our new deletion orders will ensure that courts can require offenders convicted of intimate image offences to delete images of their victims. The VAWG strategy

Topical Questions

My hon. Friend and neighbour shares with me a keen interest in rail, as we represent a city that is at the centre of the largest cluster of rail companies in Europe. We have launched a new campaign to drive up reporting of harassment on trains, and the new safer railway scheme, under which train operators must show what they are doing to tackle violence against women and girls so that they can travel with confidence. I look forward to working with my hon. Friend on that initiative.

Topical Questions

It is unsurprising, but yet again we do not have any Reform MPs in the Chamber. People will be shocked to hear about those cases of racially aggravated sexual violence, and any comments celebrating them are utterly repugnant. The Government are determined to support victims of violence against women and girls. We are committed to supporting victims not only with £550 million for victim support, but we are also introducing independent legal advisers for adult rape victims.

Topical Questions

Those of us who have spent years campaigning to address violence against women and girls know that we are building on the work of pioneers. Baroness Harman was one of those pioneers, and I am looking forward to working closely with her across Government to deliver our VAWG strategy. As part of that we will be delivering the new victims’ code, which will set out the service, support and information that victims are entitled to. We are supporting victims with the largest ever investment of £550 mi

Victims Code

The new victims code will ensure that victims know what services, support and information they are entitled to in the criminal justice system, but our civil and family courts should never be used to perpetuate the trauma that victims have suffered. I would be happy to meet my hon. Friend, or to arrange a meeting with the relevant Minister, so that we can better understand the case that my hon. Friend raises, and what his constituent faces.

Violence against Women and Girls

The Conservatives left a criminal justice system in which victims wait years for trials and feel traumatised by their experiences in court and in which our prisons were full, with the system at risk of collapse. That is not to mention the Probation Service, which, after the Conservatives’ failed privatisation attempts, was on its knees. It is this Labour Government who are taking action to halve violence against women and girls, reduce the time that victims wait to see justice and better support

Violence against Women and Girls

The right hon. Gentleman is absolutely right that justice delayed is justice denied, which is why this Government are taking such proactive steps to reduce the delays that victims are experiencing. I would be happy to meet him and other Members who I know are hugely concerned about the impact of these cases on victims and survivors.

Family Court: Harassment of Domestic Abuse Victims

I thank my hon. Friend for again speaking up on behalf of domestic abuse victims. I remember the powerful debate that he secured on protecting children from domestic abuse. The Government recognise the vital role that legal aid plays in supporting victims of abuse. Child-focused courts, otherwise known as pathfinder courts, have been rolled out to 10 court areas, most recently the Isle of Wight in January. Legal aid is available in child-focused courts for victims of domestic violence or those a

Family Court: Harassment of Domestic Abuse Victims

Perpetrators must not be allowed to use the family courts to further their abuse. While the family courts already have a range of tools designed to protect victims, we are going further by rolling out the child-focused courts model nationally.