8. Statement by the Minister for Social Justice: Violence against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence Strategy 2022-26

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:46 pm on 28 June 2022.

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Photo of Jane Hutt Jane Hutt Labour 5:46, 28 June 2022

Thank you very much, Mark Isherwood. I welcome the commitment and the engagement of Welsh Women’s Aid. You referred to their response when I published the strategy in May. They, of course, have been part of the consultation. They have helped to co-produce the strategy and, indeed, they serve on the new national partnership board. The new national partnership is a new way of taking this forward. It’s what we call the blueprint. It brings together devolved and non-devolved organisations, very much in the way that we have been taking forward the female offender and youth justice blueprint. So, it’s strengthening that partnership between devolved and non-devolved, between public bodies, local government, the health service, police, who are co-chairing, and the PCC, Dafydd Llywelyn. It’s a structure for delivery that brings together all of those organisations. It does actually secure joint ownership and commitment for shared decision making and for accountability. Clearly, Welsh Women’s Aid, as members of that board, have worked alongside other specialist organisations, and critically important as far as migrant women and survivors are concerned, of course, is BAWSO. So, I very much welcome all of the points that have been made. We work together to deliver on those, particularly as we have the national partnership board to drive that forward.

I’m very pleased that, yesterday, I was able to give evidence alongside the Minister for Health and Social Services and, indeed, the Deputy Minister for Social Services to the Equality and Social Justice Committee, to respond to their all-important inquiry into the needs of migrant survivors, and to be able to respond to many of the questions that were made, particularly on ways in which we want to support those with no recourse to public funds who are victims of VAWDASV and require support. This is something where we have a steering group that has been set up to look at this. We are also looking at our legal powers in relation to how we can provide financial assistance to help people subject to no recourse to public funds. We have a steering group that is led by the national advisers to the VAWDASV strategy, to look at ways in which we can support those survivors. We supported them through the pandemic because it was a public health imperative that we did support them. I’m looking forward to the results of the inquiry from the Equality and Social Justice Committee, which is crucially important.

I would say that I hope that you would raise, as I did yesterday, my concern that, in fact, the UK Government is trying to say that they can endorse CEDAW, the Istanbul convention, which seeks to eliminate violence against women, by excluding migrant women. Well, you just can't do that. Migrant women have to be included. I hope that you would also support us, and I'm sure the committee will be making those points. You do make important points. There are many questions there, and I'll just deal with as many as I can.