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<p>My Department funds UKRefugesOnline a UK-wide database of domestic violence services
which supports the national 24 hour free phone domestic violence helpline. This service
enables those working with victims of domestic violence to identify appropriate services
and potential refuge vacancies around the country so that victims can get the help
they need as quickly as possible.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>In terms of government
records, such information has never been centrally held. Refuges are not commissioned
at a national level, and are generally either provided by local authorities or by
independent voluntary sector organisations. To start recording the number and location
would involve creating a new monitoring and data reporting regime on local government.
It is the broader policy of the Coalition Government to try to reduce the burden of
data reporting on local government, as it costs taxpayers’ money and diverts resources
away from frontline services.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>More broadly, this Government
has secured £6.5 billion investment to help vulnerable people through housing related
support. This forms a key element of refuge funding through local authority commissioned
services.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>We have also allocated £40 million of funding
for specialist local domestic and sexual violence support services until 2015. This
funding is used to part-fund 54 multi-agency risk assessment conference co-ordinators
and 144 independent domestic violence advisers. We have piloted and rolled out Clare’s
Law and domestic violence protection orders; extended the definition of domestic abuse
to cover controlling behaviour and teenage relationships; run two successful campaigns
to challenge perceptions of abuse; and placed Domestic Homicide Reviews on a statutory
footing to make sure lessons are learned from individual tragedies.</p><p> </p><p>
</p><p> </p><p>We are keeping this matter under review, and are keen to support best
practice and greater joint working.</p><p> </p>
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