Speeches by Phillips.

“My and the Government’s assessment of violence against women and girls is that it is a national emergency. Specifically in relation to Northern Ireland, the data shows us that the rates of femicide—murder and domestic homicide—are higher there than not just other parts of the United Kingdom but quite a lot of the world…”

“No is the answer to that question. Prior to this, the crime survey for England and Wales looked at domestic abuse, sexual violence and stalking. We have asked the ONS to do a piece of work that puts violence against women and girls into a category of all of those things together, so that it can be monitored. The crime …”

“The datasets are different and the overall strategy is assessed on the crime survey for England and Wales. I stress that it is of England. This is not necessarily even a devolved issue. It is that different nations ask different questions for their own needs, so I suppose that that is about devolution. I also recognise…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Twigg. I find myself in the difficult position that the debate was tabled for response by the Home Office, but almost its entire thrust is legal aid, which is the responsibility of the Ministry of Justice. I will do my very best to answer the points made by the hon.…”

“Greedy.”

“Just to be clear, there are no legal ramifications of the homelessness test in part 4 of the Domestic Abuse Act. There is a homelessness duty; in the vast majority of cases, people do not have to undertake legal action in order for the homelessness duty to apply to them.”

“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…”

“I will be down in Devon and Cornwall next week for both business and pleasure—I have turned business into a bit of pleasure as the recess comes along. I would like to thank Airbnb for that. [Laughter.] The issue of need and how we commission services in rural areas has never been properly considered. On the basis of a …”

“First, I thank the Minister for Equalities for securing this debate in Government time. In the time I have been in the House, I think this is only the second time that has happened. I am incredibly proud to stand alongside her. I also thank the Opposition spokeswoman, the hon. Member for Beaconsfield (Joy Morrissey), f…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for his question. This weekend, I was with Black Country Women’s Aid, celebrating its 40th anniversary, and its staff mentioned how my hon. Friend had been incredibly supportive of them. The first of the three aims of our strategy is to stop violence before it starts, focusing on the prevention t…”

“The hon. Gentleman highlights another incredibly sad case. Of course, I work with the Justice Minister in Northern Ireland—we work very closely with all the devolved Administrations to make sure we are working together to deal with this problem collectively.”

“If the hon. Lady were to read the violence against women and girls strategy, she would see that there is a specific section on healthcare workers and workers across the community, specifically targeting the issue of sexual harassment within the NHS. I would also point out to her that the charging rate for sexual crimes…”

“I thank the hon. Lady for her question. Once again, I point to this exact issue being covered in the violence against women and girls strategy, with the need to improve police responses. That is why the Government have invested £13.1 million into a policing centre that focuses specifically on VAWG. On this specific iss…”

“The cross-Government violence against women and girls strategy to which my hon. Friend has referred contains an ambitious package of measures to prevent and tackle economic abuse and to support victims. It includes exploring how to prevent joint mortgages from being used as a tool of abuse, ensuring that coerced debt i…”

“We are delivering the commitments set out in the cross-Government “Freedom from Violence and Abuse” strategy, published in December 2025, which sets out actions to prevent violence, pursue perpetrators and support victims. A ministerial group bringing together 14 Departments provides strategic oversight of delivery, dr…”

“With the mandatory reporting duty, a huge body of work will go into guidance about how to report. However small—however nervous—they are covered by the duty. I have only three minutes still to speak. To the issue of faith-based charities promoting misogyny, I hear the concerns raised by my hon. Friend the Member for No…”

“I thank my hon. Friend the Member for North West Cambridgeshire (Sam Carling) for his speech, and I am grateful to other Members for their important contributions today. I welcome the opportunity to talk about the Government’s commitment to safeguarding and protecting children and adults from harm across all settings, …”

“I am more than happy to look directly into that case. My hon. Friend highlights an important problem: we need clarity about who is responsible in the system. First and foremost, if child abuse in an institution is raised with anyone, it should be reported to the police, with the support of the victim. I do not know the…”

“If the shadow Minister was so upset about this, why did he not do anything about it?”

“What is actually going up is rape charging. To put the record straight, I never criticised increased reporting of rape. What I criticised was the decimation of rape charging under the right hon. Gentleman’s Government, which led to the worst record in history.”