This Government remains committed to tackling violence against women and girls, and to ratifying the Istanbul Convention. As a member of the Women & Equalities Select Committee, I take this issue very seriously, and will continue to push the government to put tackling violence against women and girls at the top of their agenda.
As you will be aware, the previous Government signed the Convention in June 2012, and in most respects, the measures already in place in the UK to protect women and girls from violence comply with or go further than the Convention requires.
It is the case that further amendments to domestic law, to take extra-territorial jurisdiction over a range of offences, are necessary before the Convention can be ratified. I have been assured that the Government will seek to legislate when the approach to implementing the extra-territorial jurisdiction requirements in England and Wales is agreed and Parliamentary time allows.
Let me be clear that the UK continues to lead efforts at home and abroad to tackle violence against women and girls, end Female Genital Mutilation and combat early and forced marriage.
I would have loved to be at the debate on this however I had an important constituency surgery which I could not move.