PARLIAMENTARY DEBATE
Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls - 21 May 2025 (Commons/Commons Chamber)

Rates of violence against women and girls are higher in Northern Ireland than anywhere else in the UK. This Government are committed to working with the Executive to tackle this emergency, and I have met and supported many politicians and organisations across Northern Ireland that are doing just that. The Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department, my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham Yardley (Jess Phillips), and I recently met the Northern Ireland TEO—The Executive Office—and Justice Ministers in Belfast to discuss working closely together, including on online safety and support for frontline organisations.

I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend about tackling attitudes. I have met and I am supporting many groups, and I will highlight two that I have visited. The excellent Foyle Family Justice Centre in Derry/Londonderry supports victims, and the St Joseph’s Boys’ school in Creggan is doing fantastic work, with the support of White Ribbon NI, through the shaping mindsets programme, which tackles toxic masculinity head-on in the school.

I thank the Minister of State for all she does on her visits to encourage people across Northern Ireland, especially women, ladies and young girls. What we really need in Northern Ireland is legislative change, longer sentences and more people convicted. What discussions has she had with the Minister responsible for police and justice in Northern Ireland to ensure that, legislatively, we are moving fast to try to stop violence against women and ladies in Northern Ireland?

I thank the hon. Member for raising this issue, and he is absolutely right that what we do needs to be rooted in what happens on the ground. I met the executive unit working with the police to tackle perpetrators, and they are seeing evidence of that. The legislation for our jurisdictions can be joined up—that is absolutely right—but what has come across to me on many visits is the need to tackle what happens online. The Online Safety Act 2023 is now being enacted through Ofcom, which undertook a consultation in Belfast recently on its draft guidance. It proposes practical steps for online safety, and steps to tackle misogyny, pile-ons, domestic abuse and other harms. He is absolutely right about what we can do, through our efforts on the ground, if we all work together.