WEC to question the Minister for Victims and Safeguarding
The Women and Equalities Committee (WEC) will hear from Laura Farris, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Home Office and Ministry of Justice during the final evidence session of its inquiry into the escalation of violence against women and girls.
- Watch Parliament TV: The escalation of violence against women and girls (Wednesday, 20 March 2.20pm, Grimond Room, Protcullis House)
- Inquiry: The escalation of violence against women and girls
- Women and Equalities Committee
The cross-party committee of MPs will question the Minister for Victims and Safeguarding and officials from the Ministry of Justice and Home Office on themes raised throughout the course of the inquiry, including victims’ experience of police and the criminal justice system, existing intervention programmes for perpetrators of VAWG, and the effectiveness of the Probation Service.
Appearing before the Committee for the first time since taking on the VAWG portfolio, MPs may also question the Minister on other topical VAWG-related issues including abortion buffer zones, non-consensual intimate image abuse (‘revenge porn’), the Government’s ongoing Rape Review and the use of pre-recorded evidence in RASSO trials.
WEC launched its inquiry into the escalation of violence against women and girls in July 2023 to understand whether men who commit certain types of crime and non-criminal offences have a higher potential to commit serious acts of violence against women. It is examining the availability and effectiveness of services and interventions to tackle such behaviours.
In recent years, there have been a number of high-profile cases where women have been raped and murdered by perpetrators with a concerning history of offending. The inquiry is looking at whether non-criminal behaviours or non-contact sexual offences can escalate to more serious crimes. It is examining how the police service and wider criminal justice system respond to these behaviours and what interventions are in place to address different types of offending.
