Genral Election Results

The dust is still settling after the recent election whirlwind and at at the time of writing negotiations remain unclear and reshuffles are ongoing. With the significant and unexpected surge in Labour seats and the absence of a Conservative majority we are awaiting full details on the outcome of the Conservative party’s talks with the DUP.

As the party with the greatest number of seats, it seemed appropriate to remind ourselves of the Conservative manifesto pledges relating to Violence Against Women and Girls which were summarised by the EVAW coalition below. It states “that the needs of ALL women and girls are part of policy making in this area.” We are waiting in anticipation for the first steps to be announced.

Conservative Party manifesto:

• New Domestic Violence and Abuse Commissioner
• New domestic violence legislation
• New Victims Law to guarantee a high standard of police and courts response; and training for prosecution lawyers in rape cases, as well as the ability for sexual violence complainants to record their evidence and be cross-examined pre-trial
• Review of domestic violence refuge funding and guarantees that domestic violence survivors will not lose their tenancies
• Relationships and Sex Education in all schools
• A focus on increasing ‘online safety’ such that online abuse is regarded as seriously as offline, with a particular focus on children and young people
• Dedicated provision for women offenders (includes high proportion of women with histories of abuse)
• Human Rights Act guaranteed only until Brexit is completed, and adherence to European Convention also through the next Parliament
• Will work to reduce asylum claims and possibly change the legal definitions, (but no reference to gender related asylum claims nor to the detention of asylum seeking women)
• Impact of immigration enforcement on women experiencing abuse not mentioned
• FGM  within international development policy

As always we hope that long term sustainable funding for sexual violence support services, and for specialist BME women-led services, will also be a priority as the demand is overwhelming with services unable to meet the need.