North Wales Assembly Member Mark Isherwood has called on the Welsh Government to take action to address concerns that survivors of sexual abuse are not being given the same priority as survivors of domestic abuse.
Speaking in the Welsh Parliament yesterday, Mr Isherwood asked the First Minister to respond to the calls of Welsh Women’s Aid, and other experts working in this field, to address the deficit.
He said:
“We've heard reference to last November's Wales Audit Office report on ‘Progress in implementing the Violence against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence (Wales) Act 2015’, which highlighted gaps in engagement with specialist services and survivors in the implementation of the Act.
“According to the Crime Survey for England and Wales to March of last year - and there will be new figures next month - an estimated 1.6 million women and 786,000 men experienced emotional, financial and physical abuse, or a mixture of all three, in a domestic context. And of course, the vast majority of the victims and survivors of partner or ex-partner abuse were women, and Welsh Women's Aid has also noted that their members who work with survivors of sexual violence have told them that ‘survivors of sexual abuse are not receiving the equivalent priority by commissioners and public services as survivors of domestic abuse’.
“How do you therefore respond to their calls, and the calls of other experts working in this field, for that deficit to be addressed so that, for example, the ‘Housing Support Grant commissioning covers all forms of violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence’, rather than ‘a default assumption’ focusing on domestic abuse?”
In his reply the First Minister said: “I've set out a series of ways in which the Welsh Government is responding to that report and supporting public services in Wales in the work that they do. I'll put it to the Member that another way in which he and his party could help in this agenda would be to have supported last week the Thomas commission report into justice in Wales. Because some of the gaps that appear in public services in responding to women who report sexual violence are in the way that the police and the criminal justice system respond to those complaints, and the Thomas commission report highlights that and suggests that we would be able to make a more coherent set of services available if those decisions were here in the hands of this elected Senedd”.
Speaking outside the Chamber, Mr Isherwood said: “Amongst other things, Welsh Women’s Aid has also called on the Welsh Government to collaborate with them and other experts in all forms of violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence (VAWDASV) to inform its new strategy, and for its Health Minister to ensure public health and health boards prioritize the prevention of VAWDASV and improve responses to survivors and perpetrators. These are all devolved matters for which the Welsh Government is responsible and it is therefore more than regrettable that even on this issue the First Minister chose to divert responsibility away to matters reserved to the UK Government”.
