Jess Asato MP: speeches

Speeches

• 14 Apr 2026 · Crime and Policing Bill · Hansard source

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  I welcome the Bill before us today. It contains a multitude of crucial measures to tackle issues from non-consensual intimate images to retail worker assault, child criminal exploitation and knife crime. I thank the Ministers for Policing and Crime, for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls and for Victims and Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls, their teams and the whole Government for their work on the Bill. I particularly express my gratitude to the Government for accepting the principle of amendments to the Bill that I first tabled last year, which have been ably taken up more recently by Baroness Bertin in the other place. Government amendments to Lords amendments 263, 264 and 265 rightly accept that online pornography is a key driver of violence against women and girls, child sexual abuse and commercial sexual exploitation. We know that online pornography is driven by a profit-maximising algorithm that encourages addiction. Like any other addiction, it can spiral. Addicts find themselves having to move towards increasingly extreme content, including illegal content, to get the same fix, or they find that offline, in real-world actions, and we know the impact that that has. Pornography is not just entertainment; it has become a form of education. It trains brains to link endorphin and dopamine production to violent, degrading and, in some cases, paedophilic-adjacent content. It promotes the idea that pain for women is pleasure for men. It instils the notion that to be close to a woman is to dominate or degrade her. From Wayne Couzens to Dominique Pelicot, we know how the consumption of online sexualised violence can turn into offline violence. I therefore welcome clauses 105 and 106. They build on my proposed new clause 102, tabled on Report, and will criminalise the possession or publication of strangulation or suffocation in pornography. This is vital given that 36% of women under the age of 34 have been strangled during sex, and strangulation is now the second most common cause of stroke in young women. I also welcome the Government amendments in lieu before us that build on mine and Baroness Bertin’s amendments to ban pornographic content that features step-incest or performers role-playing as children. Content such as that, which sexualises children, with very young-looking performers dressed in school uniforms, holding lollipops and stuffed toys, very clearly promotes a sexual interest in children. Two pieces of research from 2024 found that between 43% and 63% of those who have committed offences relating to child sexual abuse material began by habitually watching so-called “barely legal” content. It is right that through the Government’s amendment in lieu to Lords amendment 265, this gateway to paedophilia is swung firmly shut. We know that CSAM consumption and the further child sexual abuse that it can so often encourage largely originate from exposure to online content that is happened across incidentally, rather than with purpose. Offences for online child sexual abuse increased by 26% in 2024. Content that depicts step-incest—for example, with a stepfather and stepdaughter—likewise eroticises and encourages the sexual abuse of children and those for whom we have or should have a caring responsibility. Sadly, half of all sexual abuse cases against children are perpetrated by a step-parent or family member. Given that we are increasingly living in an age of blended families, permitting the depiction of this abuse is particularly pernicious. Pornography also has an impact on those who appear in it, and we know that women are all too often coerced or trafficked into the industry. I therefore welcome the Government amendment in lieu of Lords amendment 264, which builds on my amendment and that of Baroness Gabby Bertin to grant the Government the power to require pornography sites to proactively verify the age and consent of those featured on it, rather than just waiting for content to be reported. The amendment will crucially grant powers to allow performers to withdraw their consent retroactively so that they are not forever trapped into a life in the pornography industry by pictures and videos from perhaps even decades prior. It is of the utmost importance that the Government stick to their timetable to deliver that and work at pace across Departments and with experts from the sector to deliver on it. I am incredibly grateful to UK Feminista, Barnardo’s, CEASE and the APPG on commercial sexual exploitation for their tireless work on these issues and to Ministers who have worked constructively with me and many Members across this House to ensure that we get these vital changes in the Bill. I am also grateful to the Government for engaging similarly constructively with me on my amendment to Lords amendment 300, which relates to the proposed statutory definition of so-called honour-based abuse. Along with my hon. Friend the Member for Leeds Central and Headingley (Alex Sobel), I was honoured last year to host a screening of the powerful Channel 4 documentary “The Push”, alongside the mother of Fawziyah Javed, who was failed through a series of missed opportunities by statutory bodies to identify her as a victim of honour-based abuse. She was pushed off Arthur’s Seat by her husband, killing her and her unborn child. That is why it is very welcome that this Bill introduces a definition of honour-based abuse. It represents an important step forward and a great win for all the victims and organisations who have campaigned for this for many years. Nevertheless, I and organisations that work in this space, such as Karma Nirvana, are concerned that the definition as it stands falls short of fully capturing honour-based abuse. The Lords amendment references only a “person”, whereas we know that honour- based abuse is often perpetrated by multiple people as part of a family or community—a feature that distinguishes it from other forms of domestic abuse. I have therefore proposed the addition of “or persons” to Lords amendment 300 in order to reflect that. It is a tiny change, and an amendment sought by Baroness Sugg in the other place. I recognise some may argue that it is already covered by the Interpretation Act, but having spent many years in the domestic abuse sector I know that overstretched and under-resourced multi-agency professionals, particularly the police, may interpret legislation literally and act only within the explicit wording to be set out in Lords amendment 300. Some have also argued that the use of “persons” would be contrary to the usage and interpretations in other criminal law contexts, yet there are many examples of offences that relate to things such as organised crime, gangs and riot that reference “persons”, including in the Serious Crime Act 2015 and the legislation before us. A definition of honour-based abuse is the culmination of years of campaigning. I remember working with many people who are still in this House on getting it included in the Domestic Abuse Act 2021, which sadly it was not. I invite the Minister to clarify, in her speech, that the Government intend the amendment to cover multiple perpetrators as well as a sole perpetrator. I would appreciate her and her colleagues’ continued commitment to working with organisations such as Karma Nirvana to ensure that the statutory guidance accurately reflects the true nature of honour-based abuse. Also, there must be funding for training for multi-agency professionals, which will undoubtedly be required if the definition stays as it is.

• 27 Jan 2026 · Women’s Safety: Walking, Wheeling, Cycling and Running · Hansard source

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  I thoroughly agree. Women are often filmed while running, and girls are put off exercise by the way that men create this material, which can go viral. We have seen recently that men have been using smart glasses to film women in public spaces going about their everyday lives. Those women have then been harassed, with everything that goes with that, simply for being in a public space.

• 27 Jan 2026 · Women’s Safety: Walking, Wheeling, Cycling and Running · Hansard source

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  I beg to move, That this House has considered women’s safety while walking, wheeling, cycling and running. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Jardine. Violence against women and girls happens in every corner of life: in our homes, in our workplaces, on the internet and in public. Whether we are commuting or exercising, women and girls across the country risk harm just being out and about. The threat of harm hangs over women’s decisions and moulds them. Those cycling home from work may weigh up whether to take the direct route home or the safer route—the one that is lit and busier, but not too busy. In preparing for this debate, I was contacted by a woman who led a female running group in Hampshire for more than 11 years. She said: “During that time, there was not a single week when women in my group, or I personally, did not experience some form of unwanted attention while running…This ranged from so-called ‘micro’ incidents, like sarcastic clapping, comments about our bodies, unsolicited advice shouted from passing vehicles, through to more serious incidents, including being filmed while warming up, having objects thrown at us, and one time being physically assaulted…Unfortunately, these experiences were not isolated or rare—they were routine.” Women’s fear and experiences of harassment are often minimised—I saw that in the responses to my announcement of this very debate on social media—but when women have to do an unspoken risk assessment of their route every time they want to walk to the shops or take a run, it is a chronic weight around the neck of society. It is a fear that men do not have to live with day in, day out. As one of my Lowestoft constituents put it: “Would a man, when running in the dusk or dark, every time they saw a member of the opposite sex heading towards them feel a slight fear and feel a sense of relief when they have passed that individual?...Would a man tell their partner or friend in advance of their route and the time they would be back? Would a man cautiously look behind them every few metres to see if they were being followed?” The threat of harassment and assault is enough to force women to lead smaller, less free lives, withdrawing to the safety of being behind the front door.

• 27 Jan 2026 · Women’s Safety: Walking, Wheeling, Cycling and Running · Hansard source

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  As a fellow East Anglia MP, I praise Norwich Cycling Campaign for its women’s safety audit. I am sure it is a model that many local areas should follow. In the medium and long term, of course, we want to see real change. A poll conducted by the Cycle to Work Alliance in 2024 found that safety concerns deter 45% of potential cyclists from commuting by bike. Although this is obviously broader than harassment, there is certainly a gendered element to it given that women are three times more likely than men to fear cycling to work.

• 27 Jan 2026 · Women’s Safety: Walking, Wheeling, Cycling and Running · Hansard source

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  I absolutely agree. I firmly support the idea of a social media ban for under-16s, partly because of the huge impact it has on girls and their body image, which obviously affects the way they think about taking part in sporting activities, often in public. We also know that many of those girls are catcalled and whistled at as they come home from school, not just by boys their own age, but often by grown men. That has a chilling effect on their decision to engage in sport and other activities. Last year, I was glad to invite Dr Caroline Miles, who researches the abuse of women runners, to meet the Safeguarding Minister, my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham Yardley (Jess Phillips), to discuss the issue in front of us today. Alongside her colleague Professor Rose Broad, their research found that 82% of the women they surveyed had safety concerns while running, and 68% had experienced abuse while out running, but only 5% had reported it to the police. Of those who experienced abuse, 91% received it verbally, 29% were followed and 10% were sexually flashed—that is illegal. Indeed, very recently, a man exposed himself to a woman on the seafront in Lowestoft when she was out on her daily walking route, which has had a profound impact on her sense of outdoor safety. The university researchers also looked at the 81 offences recorded by Greater Manchester police and Merseyside police in 2021 and 2022, and they found that more than 40% were sexual offences. They identified three areas where they think the Government could go further: improved space design, police training and challenging societal attitudes. I am glad to see that the Government’s violence against women and girls strategy, launched just before Christmas, says: “Well-lit streets, accessible transport, and thoughtful urban design can deter violence and reduce opportunities for harm”. We now need to see national design guidance reflect the concern about violence against women and girls. The strategy states that tackling VAWG “must be embedded in the training of every officer as a fundamental requirement.” Yesterday’s policing White Paper sets out that the College of Policing, with the new national centre for VAWG and public protection, is currently developing a “programme for frontline officers that focuses on the core skills needed to respond across crime types like domestic abuse, sexual violence, stalking and harassment.” I hope that includes harassment outdoors. The training should learn from the best practice that already exists across a number of forces, such as the Jog On campaign, as part of which undercover female officers posed as joggers to catch perpetrators. It is vital that we encourage women who are harassed while out running, cycling or walking to report it, and that we ensure that, in reporting it, they feel that they will be taken seriously.

• 27 Jan 2026 · Women’s Safety: Walking, Wheeling, Cycling and Running · Hansard source

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  I absolutely agree, and it is one of the reasons why I took those University of Manchester researchers to meet the Safeguarding Minister. I hope that, given the VAWG strategy is a living, breathing document across a 10-year period, we can make sure this is in future versions of the strategy. It is incredibly important. The long-term programme of awareness, training and behaviour change at the heart of the strategy aims to drive a societal response that empowers victims and deters perpetrators. In the medium and long term, that will drive the change we wish to see.

• 27 Jan 2026 · Women’s Safety: Walking, Wheeling, Cycling and Running · Hansard source

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  I would obviously love to congratulate Newbury Road Club and the other organisations that are highlighting Cycling UK’s “My ride. Our right” campaign, and that have been very active in this discussion about women’s cycling safety. I will come on to segregated cycle lanes. In these dark winter months, safety concerns can often be at their greatest. Research by Sport England’s “This Girl Can” campaign found that 72% of women worry about their personal safety when it is dark and change their behaviour as a result. That has knock-on impacts. As one of my constituents wrote to me, “if women feel unsafe or intimidated in these spaces, we lose more than just an exercise route—we lose a vital lifeline for our health.” Indeed, to protect themselves, women are forced into more expensive, less healthy options to get around, such as driving, and the many benefits of active travel, including long-term public health savings, are lost. A study by Finnish researchers found that active travel reduces absences from work, and Transport for London found that people who walk to their high streets spend 40% more in local shops. That is also replicated for those who cycle to our local high streets. Cycling requires the physical environment to reflect the needs of women and girls to be safe. Cycling UK found that 45% of women say that direct, traffic-free paths to town centres would encourage them to cycle more, and 39% say that physically separated cycle lanes would make the biggest difference. Polling from Cycling UK in 2018 also found that 50% of respondents in London saw a lack of separate cycle lanes as a barrier to cycling. Thanks to large-scale investment in a network of cycling and walking infrastructure in our capital, the same survey in 2025 saw that concern halved. That model ought to be replicated throughout the country. I therefore look forward to the Government’s cycling and walking investment strategy later this year, and I hope to see that investment in infrastructure explicitly reflect the real barriers that women and girls face, particularly given that the gender gap in cycling has widened since 2018. Nine in 10 female cyclists have experienced abuse while on the road, and 63% said it occurred at least once a month. As a result of these experiences, over 20% of those women said they had given up cycling temporarily or permanently. I hope to see a target and a plan in the strategy to reduce the gender gap in active travel. There is a wealth of organisations in this space, and I am sure the Minister and her Department will be encouraged to continue to consult meaningfully with these organisations in preparing and implementing the strategy. Like all of us, I want to see my girls, my children, grow up with the freedom to enjoy the outdoors, live healthy lives and travel safely wherever they want. Our constituents rightly demand that freedom, and we must answer their call. We must be able to live in a society where women do not need to walk down the street clasping their keys in their hands or pretending to be on the phone to someone to protect themselves. Girlguiding’s latest girls’ attitudes survey found that 68% of girls aged 11 to 21 have changed their everyday behaviour in the last year to avoid sexual harassment. Of that 68%, 12% say they have changed where they exercise and 11% say they have changed the type of exercise they do. I will not stop fighting for a society in which that 68% becomes 0%.

• 27 Jan 2026 · Women’s Safety: Walking, Wheeling, Cycling and Running · Hansard source

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  I thank all Members who contributed and the Minister for her remarks and ongoing work on this issue, which forms a key part of the Government’s ambition to halve violence against women and girls. We all very much look forward to working with her to improve women’s safety in this area. I finish with this quote from the Belonging Forum: “When women feel unable to move freely in public spaces, this limits opportunities for connection, reinforces isolation and undermines a sense of belonging.” We must work to tackle that. Question put and agreed to. Resolved, That this House has considered women’s safety while walking, wheeling, cycling and running.

• 22 Jan 2026 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  I recently visited Community Dental Services in my constituency, which is supporting the roll-out of our very welcome supervised toothbrushing in schools programme. As we know, dental decay is the leading cause of hospital admissions for young children. Despite that, a number of schools in my area are declining to take part. I therefore ask the Leader of the House to find Government time for a debate on how we can improve the uptake of this vital policy.

• 20 Jan 2026 · Domestic Abuse-related Deaths: NHS Prevention · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir John. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Stroud (Dr Opher) for securing this debate on such an important issue. In 2022, 44% of victims surveyed by the Domestic Abuse Commissioner said that their first disclosure was to a healthcare professional. Unlike the criminal justice system, health spaces focus on wellbeing and recovery and are therefore a crucial front door for identification and referrals into specialist services, not just for the many women affected by domestic abuse, but the 105,000 children who, right now, live in homes where there is high-risk domestic abuse. We know that victims who reach out to police are just the tip of the iceberg, given that fewer than one in five ever contact the police about their abuse. Getting our response to violence against women and girls right in healthcare is key to unlocking our ability to properly tackle domestic abuse. For that reason, I was delighted to be asked by the Health Secretary to become his violence against women and girls adviser. I worked for six years at the domestic abuse charity SafeLives and saw first hand the huge role that health could play. In the report “A Cry for Health”, we found that nearly a quarter of victims at high risk of serious harm or murder had been to A&E as a result of domestic abuse injuries in the year before they were able to get help. We also found that staff were worried about asking, even though it is required under National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines, because they felt they would open a can of worms and, in some cases, make the situation worse. In some cases we found victims visited A&E 15 times before getting the help they needed. Health professionals were patching victims up and sending them back into the violent and controlling arms of their abusers. Research from Standing Together Against Domestic Abuse, as we have heard, has shown that in 2024, 89% of domestic homicide reviews had at least one recommendation for professionals in the health system—professionals who could have helped save the life of the woman who had been murdered. I have met families whose relatives were killed after repeated contact with health services. In SafeLives’ report on health in London, a survivor who was interviewed and who did disclose at A&E said: “When I went to A&E the doctor told me we only do bones here, not that ‘relationship mental health stuff’. But didn’t offer to refer me to somewhere that did.” This has to change. In 2018, Elena was killed by her partner, Razvan. The month before her murder, she was treated in hospital for abdominal pain after using crack cocaine, but she left hospital with Razvan before she could be discharged. As a result, a child and family assessment was conducted, and they were visited at home together the day before she was killed. She was not seen alone. She was never seen alone. She was pregnant. Razvan was with her and never, ever left her side, and no one thought to question her on her own or spotted that she was subject to an extensive range of domestic abuse as well as sexual exploitation. There are, of course, thousands of hard-working health professionals who do safeguard their patients, but it is clear that there is much more to do. I will always remember a senior GP who told me, honestly, after I asked why health did not share information when a patient was at clear risk of serious harm, “Well, I care more about the thud of an envelope with a GMC logo on it, than hearing that one of my patients has been murdered.” That is why the co-location of specialist domestic abuse professionals in all health settings is so important. The “A Cry for Health” report found that when independent domestic violence advisers are located in hospital settings, they make a net positive saving of £2,050 per victim in health costs. They also lead to 84% of victims feeling safer, with 73% seeing an improvement in their quality of life. It is about their health and their wellbeing, which makes them both safer and more likely to recover. Hospital-based IDVAs also identify victims earlier, on average. It is a preventive measure, with their victims on average experiencing six fewer months of abuse than those engaging with local services. We can prevent abuse through the co-location of specialists in health settings. We also know that co-location works in primary care settings, as the IRISi— identification and referral to improve safety—programme has demonstrated for decades. That is why Steps to Safety, announced in the VAWG strategy just before Christmas, as we have heard, is so welcome. The programme aims to ensure that by 2029 any victim or survivor in England can get the help they need through their GP. It will also ensure that each GP practice is linked to specialist support workers who can support victims to access their local specialist support services. It is crucial that the support is independent from statutory services and sits within those local specialist services, not generic services, if it is to be trusted by victims. As well as supporting the Department to roll out Steps to Safety and to look at other areas and neighbourhoods to locate VAWG expertise, I will also be focused on improving VAWG commissioning in the NHS and on exploring links between alcohol and violence against women and girls. I am clear, as is everyone, that alcohol does not cause VAWG, but it can be a factor in escalation and serious harm. There is much that I have not shared: mental health, maternity, links into family hubs and other community health settings, where we need to be exploring the role of health. We need to treat this as a public health epidemic if we are to reach our goal of halving VAWG. If anything, health has a bigger role to play than the police and courts in identifying perpetrators and in identifying and providing lifesaving support for adult and child victims. I am clear that the DHSC is serious about doing just this, and I am personally committed to doing everything I can in my role to help.

• 12 Jan 2026 · Social Media: Non-consensual Sexual Deepfakes · Hansard source

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  Having campaigned for a ban on nudification apps, I hugely welcome the Secretary of State’s announcement today. We have all seen how AI has been used to humiliate and sexualise women, with bullet holes, blood, gagging, bruising, and even the horror of a Jewish woman being stripped of her clothes and placed at Auschwitz. Like a number of colleagues, over the weekend I have also had my own treatment and been stripped into a bikini by AI on X—much less than many victims have suffered but a reminder of what many thousands of women face daily. Will my right hon. Friend look at how the Government can work with industry to introduce AI watermarking, alongside ways of enabling users to mark that their pictures or videos should not be digitally manipulated without their consent?

• 8 Jan 2026 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  A happy new year to you and your staff, Mr Speaker. Like many Members across this House, I receive regular alerts from the Environment Agency warning of potential flooding in my constituency. Every time the phone rings, I get the feeling of dread that this will be the time when my town floods. Every time the alert is downgraded, my constituents and I breathe a sigh of relief, as happened most recently on Monday. A major flooding event is expected every 20 years in Lowestoft, which is the only UK coastal town with no formal tidal flood defences. I know the devastation that a flood would bring, like the last time in 2013, when 152 homes and businesses were flooded. Will the Leader of the House find Government time for a debate on coastal flooding?

• 18 Dec 2025 · Violence against Women and Girls Strategy · Hansard source

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  I would like to make the House aware of my appointment as the VAWG adviser to the Secretary of State for Health, and it is the commitments made by the Department of Health and Social Care in this transformative strategy that I wish to raise. Will the Minister confirm that the roll-out of the Child House model represents a significant step in delivering against recommendation 16 of the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse, and that the introduction of the Steps to Safety service, which will embed specialist support workers across groups of GP practices, will play a huge role in better identifying victims of domestic abuse and sexual violence through those settings?

• 10 Dec 2025 · Pornography and Violence against Women · Hansard source

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  On the final day of the UN’s 16 days of activism against gender-based violence, I present a petition on behalf of my Lowestoft constituents on the pornography industry and the serious and long-lasting impact it is having on our society, not least in fuelling violence against women and girls. Pornography that depicts performers as children or stepfamily members is abhorrent and fuels real world interest in the sexual abuse of children. The petition states: “The petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urge the Government to extend safeguards applied to pornography offline to pornography distributed online; and to legally require all pornography websites accessed from the UK to verify the age and permission of every individual featured on their platform—and give performers the right to withdraw their consent at any time to the continued publication of pornography in which they appear. And the petitioners remain, etc.” Following is the full text of the petition: [ The petition of residents of the United Kingdom, Declares that pornography use is fuelling sexual violence; violence against women is prolific in mainstream pornography; and sexual coercion is inherent to the commercial production of pornography. The petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urge the Government to extend safeguards applied to pornography offline to pornography distributed online; and to legally require all pornography websites accessed from the UK to verify the age and permission of every individual featured on their platfor m –and give performers the right to withdraw their consent at any time to the continued publication of pornography in which they appear. And the petitioners remain, etc. ] [P003147]

• 27 Nov 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  Earlier this year, I met representatives of Historic England, local historians and community representatives to address the neglect of the grade 2 listed Crown hotel in my constituency. Once a cornerstone of the community and a place where countless memories were made, it is now crumbling, and bringing the rest of our historical high street down with it. Will the Leader of the House find time for a debate on the protection of listed buildings on our high streets?

• 27 Nov 2025 · Domestic Abuse: Children · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Jardine. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Isle of Wight West (Mr Quigley) on securing this important debate. Domestic abuse does not just claim adult lives; it devastates children. Lybah, a child survivor of domestic abuse and a SafeLives changemaker, said: “As a child I felt like I was often overlooked and was never really acknowledged as a victim of DA. Rather than helping me process what happened to me I was told by services to write down my thoughts and feelings and draw a picture of what a ‘happy family’ should look like.” Some 71% of adult survivors are unable to access specialist support for their children, according to the Domestic Abuse Commissioner. That is why the work of Foundations in finding what works to support child victims—including piloting Bounce Back 4 Kids, a therapeutic programme supporting child recovery—is so important. Every year, around 200 children in the UK are bereaved by domestic homicide. Shockingly, we still do not know the actual number, because it is not officially recorded. Those children are the hidden victims behind the headlines. Survivor Debrah prevented her father from murdering her mother by hitting him on the head with a poker. He told her that she “had better kill him” or he would kill her as well. A week and a half later, he succeeded in killing her mother. From prison, her father was able to block Debrah from living with her mother’s sister, instead sending her either to his own family or to live with a grandparent who had previously molested her. Her siblings were forced by social workers to visit him in prison. After just 14 months, her father was released and her younger siblings were made to live with him. They were beaten and starved and, within a year, he attempted to kill a new girlfriend. Debrah is one of the many children behind the shocking headlines we see far too often. I pay tribute to the tireless work of the Joanna Simpson Foundation and Children Heard and Seen, which I was honoured to host in Parliament recently, and do so much to support many of these children and the adults they become. Many of these children face a double loss: one parent to bereavement and one parent to prison. They do so while carrying the stigma of their parent’s actions and the deeply conflicting emotions that come with it. Professionals working with these children often struggle with the language to explain what has happened. They were simply not trained to approach this subject. As there is no statutory mechanism to identify and support children when a parent goes to prison, schools frequently have no idea what a child is living through. Under current UK law, a parent convicted of killing their partner can retain parental responsibility, allowing them to influence important decisions about their children’s lives, causing deep distress for the families and caregivers who are supporting the children left behind. Jade’s law was meant to change that, and was passed by Parliament in May 2024, but it has still not been implemented. I urge the Government to fast-track this, as families like that of Kennedi Westcarr-Sabaroche are still facing challenges from convicted murderers who continue to exert coercive control over their children from prison. Furthermore, the support they and their carers receive is patchy, short-term and inconsistent. Carers, often grandparents or extended family, are left to navigate grief, financial strain and complex legal processes with little help. Jodie Edith, the grieving mother of Kennedi Westcarr-Sabaroche, said: “In April 2024, our world went dark after receiving the knock at the door that no parent could ever imagine, telling me that my beloved daughter Kennedi had been killed by her partner of nine years, leaving a child behind. With limited emotional trauma-informed support from counselling services for me, the caregiver, and my grandchild, it left us unable to grieve.” That is why I hope the Government, in their VAWG strategy, will consider creating a dedicated, specialist national service providing wraparound support for children bereaved by domestic homicide and their carers, alongside a guarantee for every bereaved child to have an independent advocate to ensure their voice is heard in all decisions about their care and future. We also need specialist training for all professionals in contact with these children. Finally, we need to introduce a statutory duty to commission specialist services for child victims of domestic abuse. I proposed that in a debate on the Victims and Courts Bill, and I hope the Government will look at it again as the Bill moves to the House of Lords. I will finish with the words of child survivor Roann Court, who said: “I watched my mum being brutally killed when I was 15, and the support was virtually non-existent for me and my family, which has had a lasting impact for us all. Children need support—we are as much victims as our parent who is killed.”

• 25 Nov 2025 · Violence against Women and Girls: London · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stringer. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Poplar and Limehouse (Apsana Begum) on securing the debate. I am honoured to work with her on the all-party parliamentary group on domestic violence and abuse. I also want to pay tribute to the Minister. Her determined and courageous leadership has seen sweeping changes, including the news today that domestic abuse protection orders have protected 1,000 victims since their introduction last year. She has pioneered a new national centre for violence against women and girls, putting VAWG on a similar footing to counter-terrorism for the first time. Raneem’s law has embedded the first domestic abuse specialists in 999 control rooms. Following years of campaigning, honour-based abuse will have a statutory definition. I want to focus on healthcare. Health services are too often overlooked in efforts to tackle domestic abuse and VAWG, despite domestic abuse costing the UK healthcare system £2.3 billion. Investing in healthcare-based responses reduces missed opportunities to support victims, ultimately saving money and lives. In my previous life, I worked on the SafeLives report “We only do bones here”. It was titled after a survivor who gave evidence, who said that when she disclosed to her A&E doctor that she was experiencing domestic abuse, he told her: “We only do bones here, not that relationship, mental health stuff.” He then sent her away, without even referring her to a specialist service. The report found that four out of five victims never go to the police, yet in the most extreme cases, victims reported attending A&E up to 15 times. That demonstrates the urgent need for specialist domestic abuse support in healthcare settings. Independent domestic violence advisers, co-located in A&E or maternity units, can identify victims earlier and ensure that women are supported to be safe, ending the awful process of patching up victims, only for them to return a few weeks later, beaten further. We know that victims are far more likely to disclose abuse in health settings. Research found that hospital-based IDVAs generate a net saving of £2,000 per victim in health costs. Embedding IDVAs in hospitals is key to improving referrals and outcomes, with nine in 10 victims reporting improved safety after hospital-based IDVA support. Support at primary care level, through brilliant evidence-based interventions such as IRIS—identification and referral to improve safety—is also crucial. Time after time, we read domestic homicide reviews calling on health professionals to share information that could have saved the victim’s life, but cultural change in health is stubborn. I remember meeting a senior doctor and asking why information sharing was proving so difficult. I will never forget his answer: “I will be honest. I fear a letter thudding on the doormat with the GMC’s logo more than hearing that one of my patients has been murdered.” Where is “first do no harm”? I know the Minister will agree that the role of health will be crucial in the VAWG strategy. It would be remiss of me not to mention the clear funding crisis facing specialist women’s charities. That is not new, but the rapid closure of services is. Just as we approach a once-in-a-generation VAWG strategy with an incredible commitment to halve VAWG in a decade, there is a real fear that the expertise we will need to rely on may not exist unless an emergency funding package is issued quickly. I hope that the Government will consider amendments I tabled to the Victims and Courts Bill, which will soon move to the Lords, including one that would create a statutory duty to commission specialist services for victims of domestic abuse and sexual violence—women and children. It is absurd that support for the most traumatised and vulnerable victims is not even a postcode lottery; no one anywhere has an actionable right to say, “I deserve specialist support.” We will never truly protect women and girls when the spaces that heal and rebuild them are so easily dismissed.

• 20 Nov 2025 · Injury in Service Award · Hansard source

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  I thank the Backbench Business Committee and the hon. Member for Cheadle (Mr Morrison) for bringing forward the debate. It is certainly long overdue. I also thank former police officer Tom Curry, who was injured in the line of duty and whose campaign with other injured emergency service workers has brought us here today. I want to pay tribute to a constituent of mine, Sue Mitchell, who I met today alongside her husband. In November 1984, Sue was 22 and on her sixth day working for Essex police when, while pursuing teenage burglars, she was severely rammed by their car as she and her colleague tried to block their escape. Despite having a shattered kneecap and hand injuries, Sue was able to chase and arrest one of the burglars. She was beginning to recover, but crippling back pain and losing feeling in her legs prevented her from returning to the frontline. She had to leave her flat because she could no longer climb the stairs. Nine months after the incident, she returned to light duties at Southend police station, but despite surgery on a damaged spinal disc, which was diagnosed three years later, the police retired her on medical grounds at the age of 26, less than a week after the operation. The teenage burglars were handed 12 months’ youth custody, but Sue has had to live with what happened that day for the past 41 years—a lifetime of chronic pain and medical issues. She sustained those injuries in the service of us all, out of duty to maintain law and order, and an eagerness to right wrongs. Five days after the incident, the then chief superintendent praised her “meritorious” conduct and wrote that “consideration will be given to more formal recognition of” her and her colleague’s “action at a later stage.” That later stage never came and Sue was never recognised. We have the chance now to right that particular wrong—something so long promised should now be delivered. As we have heard, it is estimated that 15,000 former police officers have, like Sue, been forced to retire due to an injury they suffered in our service. Today’s call to action is supported by nearly a third of Members of this House, across all parties, and by the Police Federation, the Fire Brigades Union, the Fire and Rescue Services Association, the National Fire Chiefs Council and Unison, of which I must declare I am a member. Medal recognition for Sue and other blue-light emergency workers who have been injured in the line of duty will not change what has happened to them, but it could go some way to repaying the debt we owe them for their service and their sacrifice.

• 30 Oct 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  I am delighted that next week a new 107 bus will serve residents in the Gunton area of Lowestoft, following representations that I made to First Bus. However, many of my constituents rely on the No. 99 to get to and from the town centre, and from Monday to Saturday the last bus home leaves at 5.40 pm, closing off our town to tourists. Will the Leader of the House find time for a debate on the impact of buses on local growth and regeneration?

• 27 Oct 2025 · Prisoner Release Checks · Hansard source

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  I welcome the fact that Dame Lynne Owens will be speaking to the victims of Kebatu to understand the impact on them, but will the Deputy Prime Minister confirm whether the previous Government made any steps to speak with victims affected by prison release errors that happened on their watch due to the system being starved of funding?

• 27 Oct 2025 · Victims and Courts Bill · Hansard source

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  I want to start by thanking the Minister for accepting the principle behind amendment 9, which I have now withdrawn, and for introducing a new amendment to restrict parental responsibility for serious child sexual abusers who offend against children who are not their own, building on the Government’s welcome step of restricting it for those who do. This represents a real step forward for child safety, and I pay tribute to the collaborative spirit of the Under-Secretary of State for Justice, my hon. Friend the Member for Pontypridd (Alex Davies-Jones), and to the many Members across the House who supported the amendment, alongside Fair Hearing and the many victims who have fought so hard for this change. I also want to put on the record my support for new clauses 1, 2 and 18, and to give my heartfelt love to my hon. Friend the Member for Bolsover (Natalie Fleet) and her eloquent bravery. I would like to speak to new clauses 10 and 11, which stand in my name, although I will not be pushing them to a vote. These twin new clauses seek to place statutory duties on the relevant authorities to commission specialist services for victims of abuse and exploitation and those who care for them. The Government have already committed, in their tackling child sexual abuse progress update earlier this year, to increase access to support for victims and survivors of child sexual abuse, and the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse, which reported three years ago last week, recommended a national guarantee of support for victims of sexual abuse. New clause 10, which is supported by Women’s Aid, the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, Barnardo’s, Action for Children, Catch 22, the Centre of Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse, SafeLives, Respect and the Independent Domestic Abuse Services, as well as 49 of my colleagues across the parties, seeks to make this a reality by ending the postcode lottery that victims face and ensuring that we have adequately funded specialist services for whoever might need them.

• 27 Oct 2025 · Victims and Courts Bill · Hansard source

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  I absolutely agree that kinship carers, parents and partners are different from those of the primary victim, and they need support in their own right. When we fail those third-party victims, we fail the primary victim, too. We allow them to disengage from the legal process, and we deprive them of the wraparound support they need when they are at their most vulnerable. New clause 11 is supported by the organisations Restitute, We Stand, Acts Fast and Ivison Trust, and a version of it was first laid by Baroness Sal Brinton in the other place in a Bill last year. It would place a statutory duty on commissioners to ensure that appropriate independent services are available for the parent, guardian or person responsible for the care of a victim who is under 18 at the time of the offence, or who is an adult at risk of harm. Once again, that should already be happening—it is supposedly a right in the victims code. The independent inquiry into child sexual abuse recommended that support for non-abusing parents and carers should be statutory. New clause 11 would bring that crucial recommendation to fruition. Families should not have to wait years; they want action now. As with victim services, severe funding shortages fail to make the ambition set out in the code a reality. Together, new clauses 10 and 11 would ensure that if any one of us here, or someone we cared for, were abused or exploited, we or they would be supported. It is an ambition long supported that must now be met with action. I look forward to working with the Minister and colleagues across the House on saving our specialist services and saving victims and their families, and I will be pleased to vote for the Bill tonight.

• 27 Oct 2025 · Victims and Courts Bill · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for her intervention and pay tribute to the services in her local area. We all have many such specialist services, and I am sure that we will want to pay tribute to them this evening. The Centre of Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse estimates that there are 55,000 adults and children in England and Wales on waiting lists for support following child sexual abuse, and the Domestic Abuse Commissioner has found that over a quarter of domestic abuse services are having to turn away children who are victims of abuse. It is a stain on this country that fewer than half of domestic abuse victims are able to access the community-based support that they deserve. I expect that the public would be astonished to know that there is no automatic right to specialist support after a terrible, traumatic crime such as rape or domestic abuse. Even though the victims code specifies that people have a right as a victim to be referred to specialist services, this is not an actionable right. Victims cannot sue anyone if it is not upheld. The sad reality is that specialist services are on their knees. Twenty-three child sexual abuse support services have closed in the past 18 months due to financial pressures. Just the week before last, Jewish Sexual Abuse Support was forced to close due to cuts, which have had a particular impact on small by-and-for organisations. Its chief executive, Erica Marks, gave the stark warning that we could “expect to see more community sexual violence organisations fail”. That is unacceptable if we want to halve violence against women and girls. By-and-for services such as hers are the backbone of our response to victims of abuse. They help to reach some of the most excluded in our society. Losing the vital, lifesaving support provided by organisations such as JSAS and others will not make victims safer.

• 21 Oct 2025 · Sentencing Bill · Hansard source

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  No, I will make progress. The expansion of specialist domestic abuse courts is also very exciting. I am concerned, however, by the provisions that allow for the automatic re-release of recalled perpetrators after 56 days, and fear that they may place some victims at serious risk of harm. Those who perpetrate crimes such as domestic abuse and stalking know everything about their victims—where they live, where they work, where their children go to school, their regular routines—and we know how fixated such abusers can be. Although I welcome the exemptions of those managed under MAPPA—multi-agency public protection arrangements—categories 2 and 3, I must note that this will not capture the vast majority of domestic abusers. By the point a perpetrator is sentenced, it is likely that their victim has already been subject to abuse for years. SafeLives, a domestic abuse charity, has found that high-risk victims live with domestic abuse for 2.5 years. They will just be beginning to rebuild their life when their perpetrator is released from prison. If the perpetrator goes on to harass their victim, their probation officer may decide to recall them to prison, but after 56 days they will be released again, potentially to harass or abuse. They may again be recalled, and then released again 56 days later. I can see no provisions in the Bill to prevent this cycle, which could end in serious harm or the death of a victim.

• 21 Oct 2025 · Sentencing Bill · Hansard source

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  I want to speak about new clause 5 and amendments 22 and 23 in my name. The Government’s commitment to tackling violence against women and girls was never just a pledge, never just a slogan; it has always been about action—about changing things for women, girls and victims everywhere for the better. We have seen that time and again under this Government. Indeed, just today, they announced that child sexual abuse offenders convicted of serious sex offences against any child will now automatically lose their parental responsibility after being sentenced, rather than victims having to be dragged through the tough and costly family court process. This Bill moves us forward in our mission to halve violence against women and girls in a decade. As chair of the all-party parliamentary group on perpetrators of domestic abuse, I have always argued that we must focus on tackling perpetrators’ behaviour. Instead of asking, “Why doesn’t she leave?”, we must ask, “Why doesn’t he stop?” I therefore welcome the new restriction zones that the Bill will introduce, which will limit the movement of perpetrators, rather than victims, and the increased use of tagging. I am also pleased to see the new judicial finding of domestic abuse, which will revolutionise our understanding of sentencing for domestic abuse and ensure that we can exclude perpetrators from future measures that put victims at risk.