Petition · past parliament

Sizeably increase and improve upon current funding for domestic abuse refuges.

Closed 252 signatures

What the petition asks

Between early 2015 and '16, 30 refuges were forced to close as a result of inadequate funding. There are currently 272 refuges across the UK, sharing between them just £20 million of annual government funding. This lack of funding is, in part, responsible for 2 domestic female homicides every week.
Domestic abuse refuges save lives. But they are in dire straits; scarce government funding serves merely to 'patch up' issues which reemerge in exacerbated form each year. Refuges have excessively suffered from recent spending cuts, with 44% of services in 2015 operating without any reliable funding over the previous year. On just one day in 2015, 167 women and children were turned away from 129 refuges nationwide, with 23.27% of referrals in said year being declined out of financial necessity.

Timeline

21 Jul 2016 Petition opened for signatures
21 Jan 2017 Closed to new signatures

Key facts

Signatures 252
Status Closed
Opened 21 Jul 2016
Closed 21 Jan 2017

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Source: the official petition page. Last checked 15 Jul 2026.