Source · Select Committees · Home Affairs Committee
Recommendation 2
2
Deferred
Introduce standardised VAWG definition into government strategy and report annual levels
Recommendation
We recommend that a new standardised definition of VAWG, to be used across government, police and the third sector, should form part of the Government’s VAWG strategy. We further recommend that the Government reports annually to the Committee on the level of VAWG reported against this definition. (Recommendation, Paragraph 8) Collaboration and funding gaps
Government Response Summary
The government's response explained why minutes of cross-government VAWG strategy meetings are confidential and not in the public interest to publish, completely deflecting from the recommendation about a new standardised VAWG definition and annual reporting.
Government Response
Deferred
HM Government
Deferred
The Home Office, in conjunction with the Ministry of Justice, coordinates and leads on several cross-government meetings at Ministerial and Official level, including extensive external engagement to inform the VAWG Strategy. This includes a cross-government Ministerial Group, and a VAWG Strategy Advisory Board with stakeholders to inform the development of the strategy. Through these, government has conducted a series of Ministerially chaired roundtables, with key sector leads, academics, policing, local practitioners and government departments on pertinent topics to deliver our ambition on VAWG. The contents of these meetings have been and continue to be confidential as they inform the development of government policy. To ensure stakeholders can offer robust challenge and have honest and iterative discussions on policies, it would not be in the public interest to publish minutes or summaries of these board meetings.