(1 day, 4 hours ago)
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Baroness Donaghy
To ask His Majesty’s Government what is their strategy to support local authorities and charities in providing emergency accommodation for those experiencing domestic abuse.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Justice (Baroness Levitt) (Lab)
My Lords, local authorities in England have a statutory duty to ensure support in safe accommodation for victims of domestic abuse and their children, and they work in partnership with charities and specialist providers to do so. In 2025-26 the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government provided £160 million, a £30 million uplift, for councils to commission this support for victims. This funding supports the Government’s wider mission to halve violence against women and girls over the next decade.
Baroness Donaghy (Lab)
As my noble friend the Minister knows, yesterday was the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. A woman is killed every three to five days by a current or former partner. Although government policy is great, specialist services, including emergency refuge accommodation, need a further £62 million to meet existing demand. I ask the Minister to reassure the House that everything is being done to increase the momentum to deal with this epidemic.
Baroness Levitt (Lab)
My Lords, I have spent much of my professional life in the fight against violence against women and girls, and I am proud to be part of a Government who have this as a key priority. I pay tribute to the work done by refuges up and down the country. This year we have increased funding for domestic abuse safe accommodation services, such as refuges, by £30 million, and last week we announced that we would maintain funding at least at that level for the next three years, so that is a commitment of at least £480 million over three years.
Baroness Barran (Con)
My Lords, I absolutely agree with the Minister that refuges have provided literally life-saving services. Does she agree with me that in 2025, it is not okay any more to expect women to put their lives into a black plastic bag and flee with their children to the other end of the country? That is not the solution. Can she talk about the real solution, which is to work with perpetrators of abuse and prevent this terrible crime once and for all?
Baroness Levitt (Lab)
As the noble Baroness knows, I broadly agree with pretty much everything she says. That is why the Government are working on the three strands of dealing with domestic abuse: the first is prevention, the second is robust enforcement against those who perpetrate it, and the third is support for victims.
Baroness Burt of Solihull (LD)
My Lords, victims of domestic abuse can fail to qualify to bid for a permanent home because of debt issues often not of their own making. Families and children across the country can be trapped in temporary accommodation because of debt accumulated by the abuser. Should there not be a national rule whereby coerced debt should be excused to help abused families out of the debt trap and into a permanent home?
Baroness Levitt (Lab)
The noble Baroness makes a really important point. On Monday I addressed a reception held in one of the rooms in this Palace hosted by the charity Surviving Economic Abuse. Listening to what was said there reminded me—I hope I did not need reminding, but it made it starkly clear—that for the survivors, economic abuse is every bit as pernicious and damaging as actual violence, or controlling or coercive behaviour. We are acutely aware of this and are doing everything we can to ensure that it is recognised and dealt with.
Baroness Smith of Llanfaes (PC)
My Lords, abusers are increasingly turning everyday objects, such as phone chargers, extension leads and even pens, into hidden cameras and listening devices, making women feel deeply unsafe in their own home. Can the Minister share with us what measures are being taken to protect women against this worrying new trend, particularly in emergency accommodation settings?
Baroness Levitt (Lab)
What the noble Baroness describes is part of a trend of observation and control, which is part of the controlling and coercive behaviour that is now recognised as an integral part of domestic abuse and every bit as violating as actual physical violence. I do not know what is being doing about the actual methods of that kind of coercion that she described, but it sounds to me as though it is already covered by the criminal law.
Baroness Hussein-Ece (LD)
My Lords, I refer to some of the cases that I have dealt with over many years of women who are victims of domestic abuse. I have been involved in trying to help a family for the past year. The problem is the sheer lack of suitable accommodation for these women and their children. The impact on the children is enormous because they have to keep moving from place to place, with insecurity at school and at home. Unfortunately, in the family I am dealing with, the children who have just started secondary school are having symptoms of mental health problems as a result and are unable to sit exams. I want to go back to the Question about what support local authorities are getting from central government to provide enough accommodation and support for these families. Charities have been very restricted in funding recently.
Baroness Levitt (Lab)
The short answer is that the £30 million uplift is bringing funding to £160 million per year. In 2024-25, 76,850 individuals, including children, were supported in safe accommodation, but we recognise that that left just under 30,000 who were in effect turned away because the provision was not there. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s Part 4 evaluation is showing progress in this, but it highlights the needs for further improvements. The department funds No Woman Turned Away, which offers caseworker support to access refuges and other forms of accommodation provided by local authorities.
Lord Jamieson (Con)
My Lords, Labour pledged fairness and protection for domestic abuse victims, yet refuges are shutting, councils are financially stretched and housing delivery plans are years away from delivery. How do the Government justify these gaps while reorganising local government? Will the Minister admit that without a national ring-fenced strategy for domestic abuse housing, Labour’s promises will fail victims?
Baroness Levitt (Lab)
I do not accept that at all, hence the increase in funding and the fact that we have given a guarantee that for at least the next three years, the funding will remain stable at least, allowing local authorities to plan with consistency and security, knowing what the level of funding is going to be.
Baroness Boycott (CB)
My Lords, it is just over 50 years since Erin Pizzey opened the first women’s refuge in Chiswick. I went there myself. At the time, about 1.5 women a week were being killed. That number has stayed remarkably consistent, despite government efforts of every stripe. If all those women in a year were killed on the same day in Trafalgar Square, there would be a national outcry. But there is a drip feed of women consistently suffering from domestic abuse, which is not taken seriously enough by the police or the authorities, and they are dying. It is truly shocking that 50 years later we have the same statistics. Are the Government building enough houses, is there enough police support and is there enough public awareness that it is not the woman’s fault?
Baroness Levitt (Lab)
The fact that it does not all happen on one day in Trafalgar Square does not make it any less of an outrage. I think every noble Lord in this House will hear the anger in the noble Baroness’s voice and, I hope, in my own voice. There is a profound commitment from across this Government to halve violence against women and girls within a decade. There are various departments engaged in this, all pulling together to try to deal with the three strands I mentioned earlier: prevention, support for victims and robust interventions against the perpetrators. We are determined to do this, and we are going to.
Baroness Royall of Blaisdon (Lab)
My Lords, I am very proud of what my Government are doing and their ambition to reduce violence against women and girls, and I am very proud of the record of my noble friend. However, as we know, tech-facilitated abuse is growing and growing. What initiatives are there to train police officers, including first-line responders, on identifying, investigating and gathering evidence for tech-facilitated abuse?
Baroness Levitt (Lab)
I thank my noble friend for her question. I think there is a broad acceptance, even by the police forces, that the police response to domestic abuse in the past left something to be desired. The Home Office is investing £13.1 million in the National Centre for Violence Against Women and Girls and Public Protection to strengthen police training. Working with the College of Policing, new research-based programmes will equip officers at all levels to investigate all forms of offences and to support victims.