Speeches by Phillips.

“I am more than happy to discuss the issue with the hon. Lady. I spent this morning in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology with the violence against women and girls sector and Ofcom to look at some of those gaps that she has identified. We will do whatever we can, but absolutely, where it is harassment…”

“Economic abuse can have devastating impacts on victims, even after the relationship ends. The VAWG strategy included ambitious commitments to tackle economic abuse, and it was considered as a cross-cutting theme in HM Treasury’s financial inclusion strategy. Since 2022, we have funded Surviving Economic Abuse to the tu…”

“It is not unusual to hear of such cases, and that is why the Department for Work and Pensions sits on the interministerial group on violence against women and girls. The VAWG strategy commits to removing direct pay, which will enable the Child Maintenance Service to manage and transfer payments, preventing the system f…”

“As I said in answer to the previous question, the Department for Work and Pensions is absolutely fundamental and a core part of the interministerial group that works on the violence against women and girls strategy because of the financial tools—not just through mortgages and other assets—that people have and use in ca…”

“We are delivering the cross-Government freedom from violence and abuse strategy, published in December, which sets out concrete actions for halving VAWG in a decade by preventing violence and abuse, pursuing perpetrators, and supporting victims. As part of that, we have already launched our behaviour change campaign, r…”

“In the launch of the violence against women and girls strategy, I committed to annually updating the House on progress across a number of metrics—both the overarching metrics, and those that sit in different Government Departments, some of which are having to take responsibility for this issue for the first time. On wo…”

“I suppose that this is one area where you could really learn from what the Northern Ireland Executive may have done, because, like you say, there are lots of very rural parts of Northern Ireland. This is what it comes down to. When you push for changes on needs assessments, in the way that the strategy is built, whatev…”

“On my broader knowledge of how well, in the broadest sense, having new migrant communities in Northern Ireland is going, I would have to say that I am not sure. I can talk about the things that I am responsible for in that regard, including things that are in the violence against women and girls strategy. I should just…”

“Come to Birmingham for the week.”

“In a conflict society, it would be more of a surprise if sexual violence was not used as part of it, in my experience of conflicts around the world. Of course, anyone who suffered sexual violence because of conflict should be taken account of. In all my years of dealing with cases of sexual violence, I know that these …”

“The reason I know about the issue of the paramilitarism is because I went to Foyle Women’s Aid and was presented with the research piece that it had undertaken with women in the community. I said to them exactly what I say to you here about looking at some of the strategies that we maybe have used in honour issues to t…”

“It is a really important point. It was one that, while I was in Northern Ireland, was raised with me on a number of occasions with regards to the continued influence of paramilitarism over women in Northern Ireland and the ability to trust—I use the word now purposefully—and inform, almost. It is the culture of being c…”

“Just for a day.”

“To the first question, the PSNI budget—it is seemingly a cop-out—is decided by the Northern Ireland Executive. On your broader issue around police funding, I would like the police to have the moon on a stick, with safeguards attached. Policing funding, certainly in the UK and England, has been increased by over £1 bill…”

“I have met Jon Boutcher a number of times and spent some time with the PSNI while I was over there. I was very impressed with some of the really specific targeted operations that they were doing around sexual offending online and others. Very early on in my tenure, Jon Boutcher asked to speak to me. I had a meeting wit…”

“Yes, me too.”

“Yes, of course. People have a million priorities, and I would be lying if I said that sometimes it was not challenging to make this be the priority that I would want it to be. The greatest ally in that has been the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister really understands and cares about violence against women and girls be…”

“I shall start supporting them. I have no allegiance elsewhere in this sporting game.”

“I shall try to visit.”

“Good old Ulster Rugby.”