Equality formalizes the diversion of the 016 telephone line with Castilla-La Mancha and Murcia

The Government Delegation against Gender-Based Violence, under the Ministry of Equality, has formalized respective agreements with the Autonomous Community of Castilla-La Mancha and the Autonomous Community of the Region of Murcia for the provision of the 016 telephone service for information, assistance, and legal advice regarding violence against women. The resolutions, signed on October 15, 2026, are published in the Official State Gazette (Boletín Oficial del Estado) no. 264, of October 24, 2026, section III, with references BOE-A-2026-22294 (Castilla-La Mancha) and BOE-A-2026-22295 (Murcia).

The publication is carried out in compliance with article 48.8 of Law 40/2015, of October 1, on the Legal Regime of the Public Sector. The agreement with Castilla-La Mancha was signed on October 13, 2026, and that of Murcia on October 9, 2026. Both replace the previous agreements—signed on January 11, 2022, and December 1, 2021, respectively—and respond, according to the text, to the time elapsed since then and to national and international regulatory advances.

Automatic call forwarding to the regional service

The purpose of the agreements is for the Ministry of Equality to automatically forward calls regarding violence against women made to 016 from the territory of each community to the regional telephone line. In the case of Castilla-La Mancha, the destination is 900100114, the line of the Women’s Institute of Castilla-La Mancha available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year; in Murcia, the Urgent Telephone Assistance Device for Women Victims of Gender-Based Violence and other forms of Violence, which is provided through the single emergency telephone number 112.

• The user will be informed of the number to which the call is forwarded and the administrative body that manages it.
• If the call requires urgent or emergency attention, it will be immediately forwarded to the 112 of the corresponding community.
• The communities commit to forwarding calls back to 016 that require languages, means for people with hearing or speech disabilities, or schedules not covered by their service.
• The technical conditions of the procedure will be agreed upon in the Monitoring Commission based on the characteristics communicated by each party.

No financial transfers and four-year validity

The third clause is explicit: the fulfillment of the purpose of the agreement “does not involve financial transfers” and each party will assume the cost of the activities with its own material and personal means. The validity is four years, extendable by unanimous agreement of the parties for a maximum period of up to four additional years.

The agreement shall become effective once registered, within five business days of its formalization, in the State Electronic Registry of Cooperation Bodies and Instruments of the state public sector, and shall be published in the BOE within the following ten business days. The data protection regime refers to Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and Organic Law 3/2018, of December 5.

Joint monitoring and disaggregated statistics

Coordination shall be the responsibility of a Monitoring Commission composed of two representatives from each party, respecting the principle of balanced participation of women and men. It shall be chaired by the head of the Sub-directorate General for Inter-institutional Coordination on Violence against Women, and a civil servant from the same unit shall act as secretary. Decisions shall be adopted by unanimous agreement, and the commission shall meet whenever requested by either party, with a minimum notice of seven business days.

The Ministry of Equality also commits to including in its monthly and annual 016 statistics, disseminated on its website, disaggregated information on calls answered from each of the two territories, and both parties guarantee the joint dissemination of the telephone services.

A state service since 2007

The 016 has been operational since September 2007 and is state-wide, centrally structured, free, multi-channel, confidential, and multilingual, providing uninterrupted service 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Its framework consists of Article 18 of Organic Law 1/2004, of December 28, Article 34 of Organic Law 10/2022, of September 6, and Article 24 of the Istanbul Convention, which requires free and permanently accessible telephone hotlines.

The agreements are also based on the State Pact against Gender-Based Violence, renewed by the Congress of Deputies on February 26, 2025, which expanded its measures from 290 to 461 and has 1.5 billion euros for the next five years, as well as the Multi-annual Joint Plan on Violence against Women (2023-2027), approved by the Sectoral Conference on Equality on March 3, 2023.

The texts are signed by Carmen Martínez Perza, Government Delegate against Gender-Based Violence; María Teresa López Tomé, Director of the Women’s Institute of Castilla-La Mancha, and Concepción Ruiz Caballero, Councilor for Social Policy, Families and Equality of the Government of the Region of Murcia.

The practical impact is that victims from both territories maintain a single point of entry—016—which connects them with specialized regional resources without losing the guarantee of immediate assistance regarding emergencies, languages, or disabilities. The publication in the BOE provides legal certainty to a referral process that until now depended on outdated agreements and establishes in writing who finances, who coordinates, and how the calls handled are accounted for.

Source: Official State Gazette, no. 264, of October 24, 2026, section III, pages 142780 and 142789 (official references: BOE-A-2026-22294 and BOE-A-2026-22295).