To ask the Minister of Health, Social Services and Public Safety to detail (i) when the last meeting of the Inter-Ministerial Group on Domestic Violence took place; (ii) attendance at the meeting; and (iii) the whether any meetings are scheduled to take place in the future.

The Inter-Ministerial Group on Domestic and Sexual Violence (IMG) last met on 14 November 2012.

This meeting was attended by the following Ministers:

Minister Poots, Department of Health, Social Services & Public Safety (Chair);

Minister Ford, Department of Justice; and

Junior Minister McCann, Office of First Minister and Deputy First Minister.

Senior officials from the Department of Education, Department for Employment and Learning, Department of Finance and Personnel and Department for Social Development were also in attendance.

IMG approval will be required to progress the new ‘Stopping Domestic and Sexual Violence and Abuse in Northern Ireland’ Strategy to the Executive. I am presently giving consideration to whether this requires a full IMG meeting.

The normal expectation would be that IMG meets a few months after RSG meets. In practice, given the level of representation, an IMG meeting will only be convened where there is sufficient business arising from the RSG meetings to justify Ministerial attendance and consideration. RSG has recently been focusing on the development of the new Strategy; this has not necessitated the convening a full IMG meeting. Where IMG members have required briefing, but a full meeting was not justified, briefing has been provided via correspondence.