Domestic Abuse: Victims and Survivors

Lord Davies of Gower Excerpts

Thursday 12th December 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Davies of Gower (Con)]

My Lords, in addressing this extremely important topic I sincerely thank my noble friend Lady Chisholm of Owlpen for securing this debate, and thank all noble Lords who have made enormously important contributions.

Let me be clear: domestic abuse is a scourge on our society, and we must take all the steps we can to eliminate it. I am sure that all noble Lords will agree that victims and survivors of these horrific crimes deserve the strongest assurances that His Majesty’s Government can give that they are doing all that they can to eliminate domestic abuse.

My noble friend referred to Her Majesty the Queen’s documentary “Behind Closed Doors”, which tells the harrowing stories of women subjected to domestic abuse, with many victims bravely speaking out and Her Majesty the Queen doing an impressive service to bring this to the country’s attention. I do not think any of us would fail to be touched by the stories of the victims.

As the Government over the last 14 years, the Conservatives took a number of steps to seek to eliminate domestic abuse and, as referred to by a number of noble Lords, to reduce violence against women and girls more broadly. However, as always, it is important to be honest: there is certainly more that we could have done when in power to address this issue. We welcome the Minister for Safeguarding and Violence against Women and Girls introducing the new pilot domestic abuse protection order. As the noble Lord, Lord Patten, mentioned, we should not forget violence towards senior citizens, and in many cases it is hidden.

Last year, there were 2.4 million reported victims of domestic abuse, which is a tragic statistic. The numbers seem to be on the rise, and it is certainly the case that my party looks on these statistics with great sadness and anger, as I am sure do all noble Lords.

We tried to tackle the problem of domestic abuse in our 14 years in power but it is not easy. First, we elevated violence against women and girls to a crime type that policing leaders must treat as a national threat, ensuring that victims can always access professional support. We committed a total of over £230 million to our Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan from 2022 to 2025, including quadrupling funding for victim and witness support services by 2024-25, which complemented our £300 million investment in our 2021 tackling VAWG strategy as part of our goal to drive down the prevalence of domestic abuse.

Secondly, we toughened sentences for rapists and stalkers, making sure that they feel the full force of the law. We doubled the maximum sentence for stalkers from five to 10 years, with the average sentence length for adult rape now nine years and eight months, up from six and a half years in 2010. This increase of 46% keeps those who devastate communities behind bars for longer.

Thirdly, we launched the end-to-end rape review, delivering victim-centred system change for victims of rape in the long term. We met ambitious targets set out in the review ahead of schedule to more than double the number of adult rape cases reaching court by the end of the last Parliament, and to return volumes of cases being referred to the police to at least 2016 levels, ensuring that justice is done for the most horrific crimes.

Fourthly, we created new offences of coercive control, strengthening protections for victims. We introduced the offence of coercive or controlling behaviour to recognise behaviour that stops short of serious physical violence but which amounts to extreme psychological and emotional abuse, helping bring perpetrators to justice.

Finally, I should mention that I well remember my own experience as a police officer in the 1980s and the 1990s, when it was quite difficult at times to bring assailants to trial at Crown Court, as in many cases the victim was unwilling to proceed with the matter either due to threats or other reasons and was unprepared to give evidence. It is a real challenge—a great challenge to the police and to the criminal justice system.

One of the things that we did get right, though, was that we introduced measures to make it easier for victims to give evidence in court, ensuring that they can give a full account of the offending without having to face defendants in person. Rape victims are now able to pre-record their evidence, ensuring that they can give a full account of the offending without having to face defendants in court. I suggest that this is an enormous step forward, and I am sure the House agrees. All these measures are aimed at supporting victims and survivors of violence against women and girls, and clamping down hard on those who commit these heinous crimes.

I am sure that, on this occasion, the Minister will welcome the work done by the previous Government on this, as it is a matter above party politics. Can he perhaps confirm, first, whether the Government will continue to work with our Benches on key issues to prevent violence against women and girls? Secondly, as the previous Government had committed £230 million to the Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan from 2022 to 2025, including quadrupling funding for victim and witness support services by 2024-25, can the Minister perhaps confirm whether this Government will honour that commitment?

As we come up to the Christmas period—the noble Baroness, Lady Chisholm, is absolutely right—we must bear in mind that Christmas is not a happy time for everybody in our country. It is a fact that it is a period when cases of domestic abuse rise. I hope the Minister takes these questions in good nature, and I wish to offer my support to help him and his ministerial team so that we can present a very unified voice on this issue.