Nationality and Borders Bill

Lord Bishop of St Albans Excerpts

Report stage
Tuesday 8th March 2022 Lords Chamber

It is not a matter of balance. Is it any wonder that victims do not have the confidence that they will be regarded as victims if one of the criteria for support is that they will co-operate with a prosecution? It is not a new point. We support all the amendments in this group. I would like to have longer to say so but we do, and we are not reassured.

[The Lord Bishop of St Albans]

My Lords, I will speak to Amendments 67 and 68 in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Alton. I spoke to these amendments in Committee because I was concerned that Clause 59 was effectively raising the reasonable grounds threshold for identifying a victim of modern slavery. With respect to the Government, I confess that I remain unconvinced by their desire to alter reasonable grounds thresholds, and was not adequately assuaged in my fears that this could erect an unnecessary barrier to victims accessing the national referral mechanism.

The noble Lord, Lord Alton, made the argument in Committee that reasonable grounds decisions on the standard of “suspect but cannot prove” would allow the Modern Slavery Act to be more in line with ECAT. I am not a legal expert so this may well be the case. However, I made the point that since we currently use “maybe” as it exists within the Modern Slavery Act, as opposed to “is” or “are” as proposed by the Government —indeed, rather than “has been” as appears in ECAT—in supposedly bringing ourselves in line with ECAT we would effectively raise the threshold for access to the NRM.

There are then two possibilities here. Either by opting not to have a “suspect but cannot prove” reasonable grounds, we are moving away from ECAT, or we are essentially raising our reasonable grounds threshold away from a standard of “suspect but cannot prove” to be in line with ECAT. If it is the former, the amendments presented by the noble Lord, Lord Alton, would better achieve the Government’s stated aim. If it is the latter, it begs the question as to what the benefits are of aligning ourselves to ECAT if we are in effect raising the threshold and making it more difficult for victims to access the NRM.

I recognise that we have obligations under ECAT but, as the noble Lord, Lord Deben, previously pointed out, we do not break our international obligations by going further than them, and by seeking alignment via Clause 59 we would effectively withdraw to an obligation that is weaker than our existing legislation. It is slightly bizarre that Her Majesty’s Government seem happy to diverge from Europe when it comes to regulation and standards, as was recently announced with regard to the prospective Brexit freedoms Bill, but when it comes to reducing a threshold for the victims of modern slavery it appears that they are rushing for alignment.

As far as I am aware, there is no evidence that the NRM is being abused. In 2020, the single competent authority made 10,608 reasonable grounds referrals, of which 92% were later confirmed as victims, and 81% of reconsidered claims were later positive. There is an obvious fear that, through this higher standard, a number of victims may not even enter the system at all and, furthermore, that exploiters and slavers will be able to lean on this increased threshold to further manipulate and control their victims and deter them from seeking help. Surely this cannot be the Government’s intention.

I will listen with great interest and care to the Minister’s response. I hope that rather than just talk about the need for legal clarity in relation to both the statutory guidance and ECAT, which I recognise is important, he will address the pressing problem about whether this increased reasonable grounds threshold would have a negative effect on people using the NRM or indeed on referrals being made. I believe that this is the central concern that many of us have in this whole group of amendments, which I support.

[The Lord Bishop of Durham]

My Lords, forgive us for having two Bishops in a row. We do not normally do this—it is the way the groupings have fallen out. I support Amendment 70ZA tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Coaker, to which I have added my name with the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, and I declare my interests in relation to both RAMP and Reset. My interest comes from my ongoing engagement in the House with issues concerning children and their well-being and safety, and ensuring that their best interests are central to legislation.

I am deeply concerned that the protection of children identified as victims of modern slavery or human trafficking is not of primary concern in the Bill. I note again that not all children who are in modern slavery or human trafficking are brought into this country from outside. Some are born and raised here but find themselves held in slavery. This is a safeguarding matter, not an immigration matter, and the legislation should recognise that children require special protection. They are covered by the Children Act 1989, as the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss, pointed out earlier. Why on earth is there no specific provision for the greater protection of children despite all our international and domestic obligations? As with many other parts of the Bill, it is simply not satisfactory for a Minister to rely on unscrutinised guidance at a later date, applied on a case-by-case basis. Safeguards must be built into legislation so there is no doubt that children receive the protection they deserve and that this is not left to chance. Can the Minister say when the guidance will be produced so that it can be properly scrutinised, and how can he reassure us that children are properly protected?

Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill

Lord Bishop of St Albans Excerpts

Report stage
Monday 17th January 2022 Lords Chamber

[The Lord Bishop of St Albans]

My Lords, I declare my interest as president of the Rural Coalition. It is a great delight to stand in the House and congratulate the Government on tabling these amendments to address this very serious rural problem of hare-coursing, which has affected so many landowners and farmers across these islands. In particular, I pay tribute to the noble Lord, Lord Sharpe of Epsom, who really listened to the debate, when people from every part of the Chamber spoke. I know that he has taken that back to others. I am hugely grateful to him for doing that.

I know that this is something that the Government were keen to do and that the consultations with Defra and others were ongoing during the passage of the Bill, so I am grateful that we will not see the delay we thought we would face and that we can offer protection to rural communities and, indeed, hares. I will not say much about the actual amendments—they have been laid out already before us—but I note that the changes the Government are bringing forward are the result of a long-running campaign. I pay tribute to organisations such as the NFU, the CLA and others, which have continually raised this issue and campaigned for a change in the law.

I also pay tribute to our rural police forces and our rural police and crime commissioners. I have been speaking to those in my area who work in my diocese, and this has been a real issue for them. It has been very helpful that they have provided input and feedback on the sort of legislative changes that would be most useful to assist them to be more assiduous in combating hare-coursing. I hope these amendments will go a long way to assist the police to do this.

Of course, there will be some other problems beyond the legislative changes, such as with local police resources and their ability to arrive on time and in sufficient numbers to deal with it. That being said, this is a victory for rural communities, rural police forces, hares and, I believe, Her Majesty’s Government; I strongly welcome it.

[Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (GP)]

My Lords, I commend the government amendments, and congratulate the right reverend Prelate on his successful campaigning and all those behind it. It is great that we are seeing an awareness of the huge issues around wildlife crime, but this is very much a piecemeal approach, addressing one small element of wildlife crime, as important as it is. As the right reverend Prelate said, this is about the welfare of hares, as well as what is happening to people living in the countryside.

I ask the Minister—if he cannot respond now, I would appreciate a response by letter—whether the Government are considering doing something about the welfare of hares, particularly those being caught in spring and snare traps. There is a particular issue around Fenn traps approached by tunnels. There is guidance that says they should be restricted in size to the target species, but there is no legal provision on that. I am afraid there is some very disturbing documentation of hares, and pieces of hares, being found in such traps, and in Perdix traps. Think about what happens to an animal trapped by a paw and left to die, possibly for days, in terror and pain; I hope that that is something the Government are thinking about dealing with.

Briefly, on the wider issue of wildlife crime, I point any noble Lords interested in this to the Wildlife and Countryside Link’s annual report—there have been four of them now—on wildlife crime. It is the only summary available on the scale of the problem. As pointed out by that organisation, which is a coalition of 64 groups around the country, there is currently no recording of wildlife crime as a special category by the Home Office. That group is campaigning for that to happen. I hope the Minister might think about taking action on that.

Finally, we have a very solid law against the persecution of raptors, but we have to think about the use and application of that law, given that 60 hen harriers have been killed illegally or disappeared under suspicious circumstances on and around grouse moors since 2018.

Domestic Abuse: Older People

Lord Bishop of St Albans Excerpts

Tuesday 30th November 2021 Lords Chamber

[The Lord Bishop of St Albans]

My Lords, with increasing numbers of bank branches being closed on high streets and the impact of Covid, the elderly vulnerable are having to negotiate the choppy waters of online banking like everybody else, in an environment where there are large numbers of online scams and frauds. What are Her Majesty’s Government doing to offer training and resources to try to protect the elderly vulnerable as they engage with online financial services?

[Baroness Williams of Trafford (Con)]

The right reverend Prelate points to a real problem which particularly targets the vulnerable, never mind the elderly—who are obviously in that bracket. We have Action Fraud, which is trying to tackle the problem. Some information is also being put out to help to guard against people being scammed. I think every one of us has at some point had messages appearing on their email which appear to be genuinely from their bank but, in fact, are not.

Windrush Compensation Scheme

Lord Bishop of St Albans Excerpts

Monday 23rd November 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Williams of Trafford (Con)]

I have to agree with my noble friend that someone dying before they receive compensation is absolutely tragic. Of course, we would work with the next of kin to ensure that any compensation due to that person is paid to the next of kin or to the designated chosen person. The point is that it is not acceptable that people die before they get the compensation they deserve. It is incumbent upon the Home Office to ensure that these claims are expedited more quickly than they have been.

[The Lord Bishop of St Albans]

My Lords, the Windrush protests are a wake-up call to all of us and to every institution in this country. Indeed, the Church of England has set up an antiracism taskforce to look at this issue and to achieve change. Is it correct that the Equality and Human Rights Commission, which is investigating this issue with regard to the Home Office, does not have a single black commissioner on the current board? What do Her Majesty’s Government plan to do to make the EHRC more representative so that it can undertake this work?

[Baroness Williams of Trafford (Con)]

I do not think it essential that there is every protected characteristic on the EHRC. However, I take the right reverend Prelate’s point that—certainly in the current climate—BAME representation or indeed black representation might be a really good asset to the EHRC. I am sure he is correct, but I will check out the veracity of that and get back to him.

Knife Crime

Lord Bishop of St Albans Excerpts

Tuesday 21st July 2020 Lords Chamber

Tabled by

[The Lord Bishop of St Albans]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the statistical bulletin by the Office for National Statistics Crime in England and Wales: year ending March 2020, published on 17 July, which reported that the incidence of knife crime is at a record high, what action they are taking to address the rise of knife crime in England and Wales.

[The Minister of State, Home Office (Baroness Williams of Trafford) (Con)]

My Lords, the Government are taking urgent action to tackle knife crime, which is costing too many lives and leaving too many people afraid. Police funding is increasing by more than £1 billion this year. We are recruiting 20,000 more police officers and making it easier for them to use stop and search, and we are ensuring that more knife crime offenders go to prison for longer.

[The Lord Bishop of St Albans [V]]

I thank the noble Baroness for her reply. We need a much more ambitious approach so that, in the words of the Prophet Isaiah, swords are turned into ploughshares or—to put it into modern language—knives are turned into tools to capture the passion and energy of these young people whose lives are being blighted at the very point when we need their contribution more than ever. Will Her Majesty’s Government commit to a public health approach to this problem, encompassing reducing poverty, increasing youth services and strengthening community policing?

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

I say to the right reverend Prelate that that is the only way to go. Knife crime problems are not caused by any one source and there is no magic area where we can deploy interventions. It has got to be a multiagency, public health approach, as the right reverend Prelate says.

Windrush Compensation Scheme

Lord Bishop of St Albans Excerpts

Wednesday 24th June 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

I agree with the noble Viscount that we can learn from the past in order to make our future world better. This cohort of people who have been systematically failed by successive Governments are a particular case in point. That is why a whole-of-government approach is being taken to look at just what the factors were, are and might be in future if we do not address them by introducing some more fairness into the way that we work.

[The Lord Bishop of St Albans [V]]

My Lords, we are all implicated in the conscious and unconscious bias which bedevils our society. It will change only if we all take responsibility to make that change come about. Due to the age of those who came on the “Windrush”, time is of the essence in gaining compensation. Some of them have already died. What specifically is being done to speed up the process? On the more general issue, what is the relationship between the various groups, such as this cross-government working group and the race equality commission, and is the Minister sure that these groups will complement each other and expedite matters rather than confuse them?

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

I apologise to the right reverend Prelate because the line was not entirely clear. There was a little bit of feedback. I think he talked about the groups complementing each other and not confusing the whole picture entirely. He is absolutely right. He also talked about people who have died. That was brought up yesterday in the House of Commons. It is right that people whose parents or relatives have died take up claims for them, so the Windrush Advisory Group will be very much involved in engagement and outreach. The cross-government working group will be much broader and will look at the lessons learned report from Wendy Williams and a lot more broadly across government at what the right reverend Prelate talked about: unconscious bias and other things that plague some of the workings of our state institutions.

Reading Terrorist Attack

Lord Bishop of St Albans Excerpts

Tuesday 23rd June 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

I am sure that the noble Lord will realise that I cannot talk about any details of this case. On the terrorist threat, the noble Lord, Lord Rosser, asked about additional money for counterterrorism policing, and I pointed out that there is an additional £90 million this year and that we intend to recruit 20,000 more police officers over the next few years. Of course, it is about how that resource is deployed. As my noble friend Lord Caine said, intelligence is a very difficult science. I pay tribute to our intelligence services which, despite some of these attacks, have kept us safe from 25 terrorist attacks over the last three years.

[The Lord Bishop of St Albans [V]]

The Minister has referred to the extra £90 million for counterterrorism. Is this ring-fenced and will it be continued in future years? Secondly, what reassurances and protections are being given to minority communities, which will be feeling very vulnerable at this point?

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

The answer to the first question is yes; the CT budget is always ring-fenced. I do not know whether the right reverend Prelate saw last night on the television the solidarity with which different faith communities in Reading came together immediately. It seems to be really crucial that different faiths come together in the immediate aftermath of things like that, to stand together against terror.

Black Lives Matter: Protests

Lord Bishop of St Albans Excerpts

Monday 15th June 2020 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[The Lord Bishop of St Albans]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of ongoing protests led by the Black Lives Matter movement, and the consequent removal of statues and monuments.

[The Minister of State, Home Office (Baroness Williams of Trafford) (Con)]

My Lords, I understand the strength of feeling around the death of George Floyd and peaceful protest remains a vital part of a democratic society. However, coronavirus remains a real and present threat to all of us and mass gatherings for whatever reason risk spreading the disease. I condemn all forms of illegal activity. Changes to the urban architecture should be affected through democratic processes and not by criminal damage.

[The Lord Bishop of St Albans [V]]

I thank the Minister for her response. Racism is deeply embedded, and it affects every part of society, including the Church. We all have much to do to confront it. Indeed, it is possible to remove statues from public places without dealing with the fundamental nature of the problem. Will another commission be any more successful in stopping the demolition of statues than the Lammy review, the Angiolini review, the Windrush Lessons Learned Review, and the review from the noble Baroness, Lady McGregor-Smith? Would it not be cheaper and quicker for Her Majesty’s Government to implement the recommendations of those reviews, committing proper resources and leadership to drive through the change we so desperately need?

Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence (Ratification of Convention) Bill

Lord Bishop of St Albans Excerpts

2nd reading (Hansard): House of Lords
Friday 10th March 2017 Lords Chamber

[The Lord Bishop of St Albans]

We on these Benches also give our wholehearted support to the Bill. I have been following this issue for some while—indeed, I have participated in previous debate and tabled some Questions. I congratulate Dr Eilidh Whiteford in the other place and the noble Baroness, Lady Gale, on the hard work that they and others have done in getting the Bill so far, and the many agencies involved in getting it to us today, including IC Change.

In the face of a number of cutbacks and closures of women’s services and refuges, we need a step change. Surely we should be giving a lead in this vital area. Violence against women—indeed, any violence—is a tragic evil: tragic because its effects can be so devastating, long lasting and widespread; and evil, not simply because it is violence, but because it is a violence which seeks to deny a fundamental human dignity, which I believe comes from being created in the image of God, given to all human beings. Whatever form that violence comes in—whether that be rape, forced marriage, psychological or political abuse—gender-based violence against women invariably attempts to reduce them to passive objects. It seeks to deny them the status of personhood.

As a safe place of counsel within every local community, the Church often finds itself on the front line, listening to the stories of women who have faced violence and do not know where else to turn. It is one of the greatest and hardest privileges of priesthood to listen to a woman telling her story of abuse. Indeed, sometimes it is a man, although it has rightly been pointed out that this is overwhelmingly an issue for women. We must not underplay that. Of course we want to make sure that men are given protection, but this must not distract us from this important Bill. We hear someone telling their story of abuse, sometimes tentatively for the very first time, sometimes only just beginning to realise that actually, for all sorts of social and familial reasons, they have colluded with it and are only now beginning to realise that it is simply wrong, and we then need to help them find the right sort of support, which is profoundly difficult, particularly in rural communities. I pay tribute to the many organisations working with churches and helping us up and down the country to respond to violence against women, those churches offering premises or funding for refuges and, in particular, the Christian charity Restored, whose work in training dioceses and clergy is invaluable.

The noble Baroness, Lady Gale, has already rehearsed some of the statistics, and I shall not repeat them, although I note how horrific they are when one pauses to look at what is still going on. I am also aware that there are other areas here which have not been picked up. In the past, I have tabled Questions about, for example, how many young women under the age of marriage in this country are being taken abroad, married and coming back to this country. It turned out that we have no idea how many such young women are coming back having been married under laws overseas—sometimes possibly polygamously; we simply do not know. A number of areas here are causing great concern.

In recent years, the Government have made substantial progress on legislating against gender-based violence, and I pay particular tribute to our Prime Minister, who I think all sides of the House will agree has worked tirelessly in both her current capacity and as Home Secretary to address many key legislative areas—legislation to combat forced marriage, female genital mutilation, modern slavery, coercive and controlling behaviour and stalking. The UK has one of the strongest legislative frameworks in the world. The Prime Minister’s work as Home Secretary to improve police reporting of and response to domestic abuse is also to be commended—indeed, celebrated.

However, in that context, it is regrettable that the Bill is required, given Her Majesty’s Government’s repeatedly stated commitment to ratifying the convention. In answer to a series of Written Questions back in 2014, after the convention had come into force, the Government informed me:

“Justice Ministers are currently considering the extent to which we need to amend the criminal law of England and Wales for compliance with Article 44 prior to ratification of the Convention”.—[Official Report, 27/11/14; col WA 3233.]


Yet, three years later, it seems as though Justice Ministers are still “considering”. That delay in ratification is, ultimately, a failure in political will. If we were being charitable to Her Majesty’s Government, we could say that there have been one or two political distractions over the past year. However, I hope that the new reporting requirements contained in the Bill will encourage Her Majesty’s Government to throw their weight unreservedly behind the legislative changes required for ratification—particularly the issue of extraterritorial jurisdiction.

Not only will ratification of the Istanbul convention bolster the domestic framework for combating violence against women, acting as a tool by which civil society can hold the Government to account on the provision of resources to combat gender-based violence, but our ratification of the convention also has an international dimension. As the Joint Committee on Human Rights put it,

“the delay in ratifying the Istanbul Convention could harm the UK’s international reputation as a world leader in combating violence against women and girls”.

Ratification of the convention would be the clearest signal of our commitment to ending the injustice of gender-based violence. It would commit us to sharing best practice internationally, and it would strengthen the Istanbul convention itself as a marker by which other countries might be held to account.

I sincerely hope that Her Majesty’s Government give this Bill a swift passage through your Lordships’ House, and that they follow the passage of the Bill with an equally swift timetable for ratification of the Istanbul convention.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Minister of State, Home Office (Baroness Williams of Trafford) (Con)]

My Lords, first, I wish to take a moment to thank the noble Baroness, Lady Gale, for taking this Bill through the House and for the very constructive conversation that we had this week about it. I single out for special praise the noble and learned Lord, Lord Brown, and the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of St Albans. It is always nice to hear men contribute to a debate that is mainly about women. I say at this juncture that the Government have given their full backing to the Bill and we wholly support its aim of ensuring that we deliver on our commitment to ratify the Istanbul convention.

We all recognise that violence is still far too prevalent in our society today, and that women still face a much higher risk of gender-based violence than men. Physical, sexual and domestic abuse affect women disproportionately: that is the stark reality, I am afraid. We also know that many of these crimes remain unreported—we talked about that at Question Time yesterday or the day before—leaving victims to suffer in silence and perpetrators escaping justice.

Our commitment to ratifying the Istanbul convention shows not only how seriously this Government are taking their responsibility to ensure that all victims are supported and that perpetrators are brought to justice but also our ongoing commitment to strengthening international co-operation in this field, which is vital.

This Government have put prevention at the heart of our approach. We have significantly strengthened the law since we first published our first call to end violence against women and girls—VAWG—strategy in 2010, as the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of St Albans pointed out. We have criminalised forced marriage and breach of a forced marriage protection order in England and Wales. The right reverend Prelate made an interesting point about forced marriage and girls being taken out of the UK for this reason. The joint Home Office and Foreign and Commonwealth Office Forced Marriage Unit provides support and advice to victims, those at risk and professionals. The FMU’s most recent statistics were published yesterday and show that in 2016 advice or support was provided in 1,428 cases; 371 of those, or 26%, involved under-18s. The unit handled cases relating to 60—

[The Lord Bishop of St Albans]

I am sorry to break in but I think I made a slightly different point. However, I am very grateful to have those statistics and will ask for them each year. I think the point is that we have no proactive way of working out why, for example, people are going through immigration and seeing whether there is any way that we can find out more information about that. It is simply an unknown problem. That was what I was trying to push the Government on. Can the Minister comment briefly on that?

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

I am very happy to comment on that. The right reverend Prelate makes a very good point about how we should be proactive about these things as opposed to being reactive. One of the things on which we have taken significant steps over the last few months and years concerns our intelligence at the border and training border staff to look for possible cases of people trafficking or forced marriage. There is a whole host of things that immigration staff are looking out for to prevent some of these things happening. I am glad that the right reverend Prelate brought up that issue. In addition to that, we have fast-tracked female genital mutilation protection orders and have introduced a new mandatory reporting duty for FGM.

We have strengthened legislation on stalking, creating two new offences, and have commissioned training to improve the understanding of stalking among those who come into contact with victims. We will also introduce a new stalking protection order with criminal sanctions to help protect victims at the earliest possible opportunity.

The Rape Action Plan launched in 2014 and led by the Crown Prosecution Service and the National Policing Lead for Rape is aiding the Government’s drive to ensure that every report of rape is treated seriously and every victim is given the help that they deserve. We have protected funding for rape support services at current levels in 2016-17, providing independent, specialist support to female victims of both recent and historic sexual violence. We have also strengthened the law on domestic violence with a new offence of domestic abuse that covers controlling and coercive behaviour. Again, this was another thing we touched on at Question Time on Wednesday. The new offence protects victims who would otherwise be subjected to sustained patterns of abuse that can lead to total control of their lives by the perpetrator. Some victims do not even know that this is happening to them, as we also discussed.

The new domestic violence protection orders and the domestic violence disclosure scheme have also been rolled out across England and Wales. This is all alongside the Government’s work to continue reforming front-line agencies’ response to VAWG. It is vital that victims have the confidence to report these crimes, knowing that they will get the support they need and that everything will be done to bring offenders to justice.

The UK continues to be a global leader in its efforts to tackle VAWG and our reforms to domestic law support a stronger international framework. The Istanbul convention highlights the need for more effective international and regional co-operation. While there is no one-size-fits-all model in our approach, the measures in the convention will ensure that more robust action is taken through legally binding and harmonised standards.

In most respects, the measures already in place in the UK to protect women and girls from violence comply with, or go further than, the convention requires. However, before we ratify the convention, we must ensure that we are fully compliant with it. There is one outstanding issue regarding introducing extraterritorial jurisdiction—or even extra-terrestrial jurisdiction—which needs to be addressed before we are considered compliant. We already have ETJ over some of the offences covered by the convention, including the common-law offence of murder, sexual offences against children, forced marriage and FGM. However, there are a number of offences, including rape of an over-18, sexual assault and domestic abuse, where it still does not apply. Further amendments to domestic law are necessary so that we fully comply with the requirements in Article 44 of the convention. That will require the introduction of primary legislation in England and Wales, as well as in Scotland and Northern Ireland. We are working closely with ministerial colleagues in the Ministry of Justice to progress this issue and, as the Prime Minister signalled, we will explore all options for bringing the necessary legislation forward.

I think it was the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, who asked about the devolved Administrations. We are in regular contact with them about the Bill and the Istanbul convention, and the Minister for Vulnerability, Safeguarding and Countering Extremism has written to her counterparts on the matter.

The Bill places a duty on the Government to lay a report before Parliament as soon as is reasonably practicable after the Bill comes into force, setting out the steps to be taken to enable the UK to ratify the convention, as well as the timescale within which ratification is expected. It also requires the Government to lay an annual report before Parliament on progress toward ratification. I recognise that noble Lords want reassurance that we will continue to update Parliament on our ongoing compliance with the convention post-ratification.

The noble Baroness, Lady Uddin, asked about Brexit, but we are talking about a Council of Europe treaty that is independent of European Union functions and processes, so Brexit will not affect the UK ratifying the Istanbul convention. Once the UK has ratified it, we will be required to submit regular reports to the Council of Europe on compliance. Those reports will provide detailed information on the measures to tackle VAWG, the role of civil society organisations in addressing these crimes, and on prosecutions and convictions. We will ensure that both Houses have sight of those reports.

The Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence—known as GREVIO—which is the independent expert body responsible for monitoring implementation of the convention, will scrutinise the reports and prepare its own report with recommendations. That report will also be available for parliamentary and public scrutiny. As I have said, the Government are very pleased to continue supporting the Bill and its aim of ensuring that we formally demonstrate to Parliament our progress on delivering against our commitment to ratify the convention.

We have made progress in tackling VAWG, but we are not complacent. We know that there is more to do to ensure that the victims of terrible crimes get the support they need. Our cross-government VAWG strategy, published last March, sets out our ambition that by the end of this Parliament no victim of abuse will be turned away from the necessary support. The strategy is underpinned by increased funding of £80 million, which includes the Home Office’s £15 million, three-year violence against women and girls service transformation fund to aid, promote and embed the best local practice and ensure that early intervention and prevention become the norm. An additional £20 million for victims of domestic abuse was announced in the Chancellor’s spring statement.

This funding will help to deliver our goal of working with local commissioners to deliver a secure future for rape support centres, refuges and FGM and forced marriage units, while driving major change across all services so that early intervention and prevention is the norm. Furthermore, to ensure that all victims get the right support at the right time, we have set out a clear blueprint for local action through a new national statement of expectations. That sets out what local areas need to do to prevent offending and to support victims and it will encourage organisations to work with local commissioners to disseminate the NSE and support the implementation of best practice.

We have also recently announced some key measures that will further strengthen the response to VAWG. A major new programme of work on domestic abuse has been announced by the Prime Minister. That cross-governmental work is being co-ordinated by the Home Secretary and the Justice Secretary and will look at legislative and non-legislative options to improve support for victims. The measures that come from that will encourage victims to report their abusers and see them brought to justice, and further raise public awareness.

We also recently announced that relationship and sex education will be put on a statutory footing so that every child has access to age-appropriate provision in a consistent way. The Department for Education will consult on making PSHE statutory.

We must continue to challenge the many forms of discrimination that women still face and ensure that we make VAWG everyone’s business. We all have our part to play in protecting women and girls from violence, and I feel—and very much hope—that noble Lords will join me in supporting the Bill.

Religious Literacy

Lord Bishop of St Albans Excerpts

Thursday 9th February 2017 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

My Lords, the central tenet of the Prevent strategy aims to protect young people who might be vulnerable to both extremism and terrorist preaching either online or in their communities. Actually, it is a protection mechanism, not a targeting mechanism, as I am sure my noble friend will be aware. It is a protective element to help prevent some of the external forces to which our young people are subjected in a negative way prevailing.

[The Lord Bishop of St Albans]

My Lords, just three weeks ago I spent half a day in an immigration removal centre and so gained an up-to-date insight into some of the complex and sensitive issues that are being dealt with there. Concerns continue to be raised about the level of religious literacy among some of the asylum caseworkers. Is the Minister content with the level of training that they are getting in religious literacy and, if not, what can be done to improve it?

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

The right reverend Prelate raises a very important point about the detention estate. Certainly an awful lot of time and effort has gone into the training of staff in terms of the sensitivities around LGBT detainees; in terms of his important point about religious literacy, I will go back and check on just what training is given in that area.