| answer text |
<p>As part of steps taken through our Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy
and Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan, we are tackling perpetrators and supporting victims.</p><p>We
have provided funding to the Lancashire PCC to roll out the Drive Project, which focuses
on the most serious domestic abuse offenders to prevent them from abusing again, and
funded Preston based Saraha to provide bilingual, comprehensive, face-to-face support
service for women from black and minority ethnic backgrounds who are victims of domestic
abuse.</p><p>Nationally, we have invested £9.4 million to develop a New Operation
Model for the investigation of rape through Operation Soteria. This ensures investigations
are suspect based. All police forces in England and Wales are now implementing this
new approach to rape investigations and we have provided £8.5m in 2023/24 to continue
to support policing to improve their response to rape.</p><p>Through the Safer Streets
and Safety of Women at Night Funds, we have invested over £150 million to deliver
interventions to tackle violence against women, anti-social behaviour and neighbourhood
crime.</p><p>This includes just over £3.4m for Lancashire, of which £146,568 has been
awarded to Preston City Council to fund interventions such as the installation of
CCTV, the deployment of taxi stewards and night-time economy sector training, along
with improvements to accommodation for services assisting women at risk and recovery
services for victims of sexual violence.</p><p>Since 2019, the Home Office has provided
over £8m for a Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) in Lancashire. VRUs bring together local
partners to understand and tackle the drivers of serious violence in their area, including
sexual abuse and domestic abuse.</p>
|
|
