Domestic Abuse: Victims and Survivors

Lord Bishop of St Albans Excerpts

Thursday 12th December 2024 Lords Chamber

[The Lord Bishop of St Albans]

My Lords, I too thank the noble Baroness, Lady Chisholm of Owlpen, for securing this debate and pay tribute to her work in this House. This is such a fundamental, important area for us to address.

I commend the Government on their ambition to halve violence against women and girls in a decade. It demonstrates a commitment to tackling this scourge, and we must do all we can to take a stand against gender-based violence. The voices of men and boys are fundamental in this.

I too welcome the recent launch of the pilots of domestic abuse protection notices and domestic abuse protection orders, and hope they will prove effective in providing greater protection for victims and survivors. I note that implementation is the key issue here. Without proper awareness, monitoring and response to breaches of these orders, they will inevitably have just a limited impact.

Of course, as well as enforcement, there is an urgent need for prevention. Upstream prevention is much better than helping victims and survivors down stream. Although men can be victims, as we have noted, it is mainly women who suffer from this. So how can we tackle the misogynistic and sexist views that can lead to these horrific crimes? In particular, I wonder whether the Minister can be tempted to reflect a little on what can be done in our schools and education systems, as others have raised, as we address this issue.

I wonder if more can be done by His Majesty’s Government to work in co-operation with the voluntary sector. A couple of weeks ago, I was delighted to be invited to speak at an open meeting organised by the St Albans branch of the Soroptimists—“Orange the World” was its title. People from all around the community came together to address this and to raise its profile in local media. I also note the work undertaken by the Mothers’ Union. Its RISE UP campaign involves activism against domestic abuse and gender-based violence and goes on throughout the year, not just during the 16 Days of Activism campaign.

Could the Minister tell us whether the Government intend to publish a more detailed strategy of how they intend to reach their target of halving violence against women and girls in a decade and how they intend to measure that target?