Domestic Abuse: Victims and Survivors

Baroness Gale Excerpts

Thursday 12th December 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Gale (Lab)]

My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Chisholm, for bringing this debate before us today. I agree with her that the need to eliminate domestic abuse is a worthy and crucial ambition, as is supporting victims and survivors.

Violence against women and girls is not inevitable but perhaps should be regarded as a national emergency. According to the Office for National Statistics in its latest bulletin, Domestic Abuse in England and Wales Overview: November 2024, an estimated 2.3 million people aged 16 and over experienced domestic abuse in the year ending March 2024.

Two of the purposes of the Istanbul convention—or, to give it its full title, the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence—are to

“protect women against all forms of violence, and prevent, prosecute and eliminate violence against women and domestic violence”,

and to

“contribute to the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women and promote substantive equality between women and men, including by empowering women”.

The previous Government ratified the convention in 2022, and we were all very happy when that happened, but there were reservations on Articles 44 and 59. This Government are reviewing Article 59, and I look forward to the Minister reporting on that review soon, as it will be of great help to migrant women who are victims of domestic abuse. This convention is fully in line with what we are debating today.

I am pleased that this Government have set out an unprecedented ambition to halve violence against women and girls within a decade, and they have announced new measures to tackle spiking, stalking and other crimes that disproportionately affect women and girls. They have already taken significant steps to transform the policing response to these awful crimes.

I am pleased that the noble Baroness, Lady Chisholm, mentioned older people. Older people who are victims of domestic abuse are often overlooked and not taken seriously. Hourglass, the charity that campaigns for better protection of older people, of which I am a patron, is calling on the Government to begin a consultation on developing a strategy to tackle the abuse and neglect of older people. To make sure that we see the full picture of the abuse of older people, police forces should implement a consistent and accessible data collection system in each police force, categorising crime according to age. Will the Minister agree to look at this, as it is so often overlooked?

Istanbul Convention: Article 59

Baroness Gale Excerpts

Tuesday 12th November 2024 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Baroness Gale]

To ask His Majesty’s Government whether they plan to remove the reservation on Article 59 of the Istanbul Convention relating to the residence status of victims of domestic abuse.

[The Minister of State, Home Office (Lord Hanson of Flint) (Lab)]

Tackling violence against women and girls is a top priority for the Government. Our mission is to halve levels of violence against women and girls within a decade. We are reviewing all the issues impacting migrant victims of domestic abuse in the round, including a review on whether it is appropriate to maintain our reservation on Article 59 of the convention.

[Baroness Gale (Lab)]

I thank my noble friend the Minister for that Answer but I am a little disappointed. If he is saying that there will be a review, can he say how long it will take and what its consequences will be? He cannot answer those questions yet, obviously, but I hope that it will recommend that Article 59 be removed because, in the meantime, migrant women are in a very difficult position if they are in an abusive relationship. They are afraid to leave the relationship in case they lose their migrant status or their children. No woman should have to put up with that. I hope that he will take this into account and get the review done as soon as possible.

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

I am grateful to my noble friend for her comments and hate to disappoint her. I hope that I can reassure her that when the previous Government made the original reservation against Article 59, they did commit to evaluate findings of the support for migrant victims scheme pilot, to inform future decisions. That pilot was completed in August 2023. Funding for the scheme has been extended to 2025. We want migrant victims to be treated as victims first and foremost so we are reviewing this. However, the reservation will be maintained until that review is complete, which I hope will be very shortly.