Decision details
Correspondence with the Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Children in relation to violence against women
Decision Maker: Equality, Local Government and Communities Committee - Fifth Senedd
Status: Complete
Is Key decision?: Yes
Purpose:
Inquiry5
The Equality, Local Government and
Communities Committee undertook a post legislative inquiry into the Violence
against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence (Wales) Act 2015 (the
Act).
The
Committee’s predecessor in the Fourth Assembly, the Communities,
Equality and Local Government Committee, was responsible for scrutinising
the Gender-based Violence, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence (Wales) Bill
before it was renamed and became an Act. The Committee reported
on the Bill in November 2014.
Terms of reference
The Committee
looked at the progress made in the implementation of the Act’s provisions and
its impact to date. In particular, the Committee considered:
- To what extent the approach to tackling violence against
women, domestic abuse and sexual violence is improving as a result of the
obligations in the Act?
- What are the most effective methods of capturing the views
and experiences of survivors? Are arrangements in place to capture these
experiences, and to what extent is this information being used to help
inform the implementation of the Act’s provisions?
- Whether survivors of abuse are beginning to experience
better responses from public authorities as a result of the Act,
particularly those needing specialist services?
- Whether the National Adviser has sufficient power and
independence from the Welsh Government to ensure implementation of the
Act?
- To what extent the good practice guide to healthy
relationships is successfully influencing the development of a whole
school approach to challenging violence against women, domestic abuse and
sexual violence?
Evidence gathering
As part of its
evidence gathering, the Committee received 36
written submissions, held six oral evidence sessions and visited 4 projects
to meet with service providers and survivors.
Report
The Committee
published its report: Is
the Violence against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence (Wales) Act 2015
working? (PDF, 2.98MB) in December 2016.
On publication
of the report, John
Griffiths AM, Chair of the Committee said:
“We found
that, while the Act will achieve improvements in the way public authorities
support survivors and prevent abuse, there are some practical improvements that
need to be made to ensure the Act achieves its aim of substantially improving
the public sector response to violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual
violence.”
A ‘quick read’
version of the report has also been published, read it here.
The Welsh
Government laid its response
(PDF, 171KB) to the report in February 2017, ahead
of a debate in Plenary
which was held on 15 February 2017.
Follow-up
work
Following the
publication of a Wales Audit Office report
(PDF, 6.8MB) on the Act, the Committee held a follow up evidence
session on 6 February 2020.
The Committee
held an additional scrutiny
session with the Minister on 12 February 2020.
Update
The Welsh
Government’s periodical updates on the pace of the implementation of the Act
can be viewed below.
Should the
Committee decide to hold further evidence sessions in the future it will
communicate this on its homepage and through its Twitter account.
Decisions:
4.1.a
The Committee noted the correspondence with the Cabinet Secretary for
Communities and Children in relation to violence against women.
Publication date: 05/05/2017
Date of decision: 03/05/2017
Decided at meeting: 03/05/2017 - Equality, Local Government and Communities Committee - Fifth Senedd
Accompanying Documents: