County Lines Drugs Gangs

Lord Farmer Excerpts

Wednesday 8th January 2020 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Farmer]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the statement of the Chief Constable for Devon and Cornwall Police that children involved in county lines drugs gangs should be seen as victims not criminals.

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

My Lords, county lines exploitation has a devastating impact on our communities. We are working to disrupt county lines gangs and end the exploitation of children and vulnerable adults. This includes investing £20 million in a new package of measures to crack down on these gangs. Our position is clear: children who have been groomed and exploited through country lines should be seen as victims first and foremost.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Farmer (Con)]

I thank my noble friend the Minister for her reply. The chief constable points to the lack of family and security in these children’s lives and to the need to bridge the gap between dysfunctional homes and school. That is exactly what the family hubs promised in the Conservative manifesto aim to do. Can my noble friend update the House on the Government’s plans for delivering on that promise?

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

I certainly can, and it is apposite that my noble friend has asked this Question today, because earlier today he will have heard the PM reiterate his commitment to family hubs to our honourable friend Fiona Bruce in another place. My noble friend Lord Younger has also written today to outline our commitment to supporting vulnerable families with the intensive, integrated support that they need to care for their children. That is why the Government have announced up to £165 million of additional funding for the troubled families programme in 2021, and they will be setting out their plans for family hubs in due course.

Queen’s Speech

Lord Farmer Excerpts

Monday 21st October 2019 Lords Chamber

[Lord Farmer (Con)]

My Lords, today I wish to focus on constitutional affairs, justice, family law and wider family policy—or rather the lack of it.

In the gracious Speech there was a commitment to,

“protect the integrity of democracy and the electoral system in the United Kingdom”.

Democracy’s integrity rests on freedom of speech. We must keep resisting “no-platforming” in our universities and expose the deceitfulness of the term “safe space”. Settings where ideas or beliefs with no inclination towards terrorism cannot be discussed are dangerous spaces, because they have become sound-proofed against the reality of other people’s opinions. When religious groups have no freedom of expression, democracy is defied. Thomas Jefferson said that,

“religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God … the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions”.

Yet Christians in this country can lose their livelihood as a result of free and courteous expression of their faith.

Past Conservative Governments have been assiduous defenders of free speech, regardless of whether they shared the views provoking controversy. Mrs Thatcher’s Government condemned the fatwa against Salman Rushdie as,

“an attack … on the fundamental freedoms for which our society stands”,—[Official Report, Commons, 21/2/89; col. 839.]

despite the chasm between them and Rushdie. He tried to galvanise an intellectual fightback against Thatcherism and was perceived to be sympathetic to terrorism. Defending him undermined British interests abroad. Yet for Thatcher:

“Whether or not we have any sympathy with Rushdie’s views is not the point”.


The rule of law and the basic freedoms of all British citizens were her Government’s guiding principles. They must be ours.

Secondly, our democracy is being eroded by egregious imbalances in constituency size, and we have a “boundaries limbo”. Current constituencies, based on the early 2000s, have widely divergent sizes of electorates. All four national Boundary Commissions submitted their seventh general review reports, reducing 650 constituencies to 600, over a year ago. This Government’s 2017 manifesto commitment to equal seats can and should be delivered, with a new set of constituencies in place for the next general election, halting the slide into 21st-century rotten boroughs, as should repeal of the Fixed-term Parliaments Act, which prevented the current Prime Minister delivering a de facto referendum on his handling of negotiations with Europe.

Turning to justice, the Government will strengthen,

“public confidence in the criminal justice system … improve safety and security,

and strengthen rehabilitation. For rehabilitation to be strengthened, it has to be based on evidence. The Ministry of Justice found that men and women in prison who receive family visits are 39% less likely to reoffend than those who do not. When prisoners are required and enabled to maintain their family responsibilities, this can lead to profound change and improve safety and security. The Government needs to keep their foot down hard on the accelerator of progress so every prison fulfils its duty of care to the men and women it holds, and to their families and friends who visit. At best, they partner with the prison to ensure that those who have served their sentence do not return. Helping prisoners have healthy and supportive relationships is not being soft on crime. Reduced reoffending means fewer victims, lower criminal justice and welfare costs, higher tax revenues when ex-prisoners find work—and fewer children growing up with absent parents.

Children’s welfare is paramount in family law. However, it can be used to justify superficially attractive policies which may do them more harm than good. The Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Bill referred to in the gracious Speech intends to,

“minimise the impact of divorce, particularly on children”.

Removing fault from divorce is unlikely to lead to the more harmonious post-separation world that Ministers predict. Solicitors say that much conflict is actually focused on who gets the children and for how long, and on finances. Evidence contradicting government assertions that de jure unilateral divorce would not impact on marriage or longer-term divorce rates was ignored, as was the large volume of contrary responses to consultation.

That, last week’s backtracking on internet safety and the lack of family measures in proposed legislation tempts me to cynicism about the Prime Minister’s declaration that this country will become,

“the best place to start a family and send your kids to school”.—[Official Report, Commons, 14/10/19; col. 19.]

Family breakdown is the elephant in the room of social policy. In 2016, the DWP’s family stability indicator found that only 58% of all 16 year-olds still live with both birth parents. The proportion was much lower in low income households. Three-quarters of all children in middle to high-income households live with both birth parents, compared to less than half in poor households. Despite family breakdown being both a driver and result of income poverty, the DWP has stopped collecting that data.

We need a rich tapestry of family strengthening policies, not threadbare rhetoric. The Prime Minister can allay my cynicism by appointing a Cabinet-level Minister to co-ordinate family policy across government and constituting the Cabinet committee repeatedly called for since the of the noble Lord, Lord Laming, on the appalling death of Victoria Climbié almost 17 years ago.

A cross-party consensus is growing that social sustainability is as threatening as environmental sustainability. I cannot be as patient as the noble Lord, Lord Laming. I am not convinced that I have another 17 years ahead of me, and I am not inclined to glue myself to the roof of a Tube train. However, I can and will continue to press the Government hard for the family-strengthening policies we urgently need.

Economy: Productivity

Lord Farmer Excerpts

Thursday 28th June 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bates]

My noble friend Lord Heseltine undertook a review for the Government on competitiveness in 2012, which was a key part of what fed into our industrial strategy. The point that he made is that it is absolutely critical that we leverage our technical research and that innovation becomes a core part of what we do going forward. We totally accept that and recognise we need to do more. That is why R&D investment from the public sector is at its highest level for 30 years and why we are investing £4 billion in aerospace research and development; it is all to take forward those types of policies.

[Lord Farmer (Con)]

My Lords, is my noble friend aware of whether any quantitative Treasury analysis has been done on the effect of family breakdown and dysfunctional family relationships on productivity? If so, what conclusions were reached?

[Lord Bates]

First, I pay tribute to the work that my noble friend has done consistently to promote family as a key part of our society. We know the devastating effects that family breakdown can have on people’s health, well-being and educational opportunities. We have not conducted any piece of work in that specific area, but it is certainly something that I am prepared to look at and discuss with him further.

Domestic Abuse

Lord Farmer Excerpts

Thursday 22nd March 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Farmer (Con)]

My Lords, it is a great honour to follow the noble Lord, Lord Bird, with his always stimulating, fresh-thinking and original approach to this subject. I also congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Lister, on securing this debate. There is much to welcome in the Government’s plan to transform the national response to domestic abuse, in particular their emphasis on prevention.

My main point, which I will illustrate with emerging good practice, is that when couples and their children affected by domestic abuse receive the right support at the right time, this can prevent further abuse—this really follows on from what the noble Lord, Lord Bird, said. We need a much greater emphasis on working with abusive men and motivating them to change their behaviour. This can even enable some couples and their families to stay together safely—for these units to be survivors, as it were.

I know that men, too, can be victims, and I am glad that the government consultation acknowledges this, but I will focus on male-to-female violence. As we have heard, the organisation SafeLives, which provided much helpful data for my speech, found that 95% of victims are women and 95% of perpetrators are men. There is never any excuse for domestic abuse and its gravity should never be downplayed to keep families together—but neither should we forget that, while victims invariably want the violence to stop, many want the relationship with the perpetrator to continue.

The presence of children can influence this. After physical separation, a child’s father still exists in her mind and she often has unresolved and mixed emotions. Confused impressions of him affect her other relationships. Children often live in the hope that one day they will have a caring relationship with their father. Perhaps counterintuitively, Stover et al’s research found that, on average, pre-school children fare worse the less they see their father after domestic abuse. They are more depressed, anxious and aggressive. Poignantly, 67% of female survivors maintain contact with the perpetrator for the sake of their children.

Responding to the uncomfortable truth that around 30% of domestic abuse begins during pregnancy, the philanthropic Stefanou Foundation developed “For Baby’s Sake”. This whole-family change programme works with expectant mothers and fathers as co-parents, whether or not they are together. The team helps them end the abuse, overcome its impact and nurture their baby’s and other children’s development. The rollout of two prototype projects in Hertfordshire and the west London tri-borough is being evaluated by King’s College London, with highly promising interim findings. This is a great example of philanthropy, not government, taking the lead, although I am encouraged that the Government have funded a pilot of the SafeLives “One Front Door” model in seven areas across the UK. Instead of treating all family members as separate individuals, a whole-family approach looks at the risks faced by them all and works across the family unit to enable them to move on safely.

The Government consultation also mentions that South Wales Police and Welsh Women’s Aid are piloting the Change that Lasts model. I have previously mentioned to your Lordships my respect for Safety in the Vale, formerly Glamorgan Women’s Aid. It has done much pioneering work with families at medium to low risk, taking a restorative family approach while making safety the top consideration. It has helped two-thirds of families to stay together safely by meeting the needs of the women, children and men involved. We know that children are profoundly affected by living in such households: they are traumatised, which affects their mental health and their ability to do well at school. If they see only a model of deeply unhealthy behaviour, where violence is a prominent ingredient, their peer and future partnering relationships will inevitably suffer. Childhood exposure to domestic violence is one of the most powerful predictors of both perpetrating and receiving domestic abuse as an adult.

Whole-family approaches ensure that we do not forget the need to help perpetrators change their behaviour. The founder of SafeLives, Diana Barran, emphasises prioritising what we would want for our best friend if she were being abused: she should be able to stay safely in her home and community instead of having to flee. The perpetrator should be challenged to change and held to account, switching the narrative away from, “Why doesn’t she leave him?” to “Why doesn’t he stop?” Research shows that some perpetrators have as many as six different victims, but fewer than 1% receive any specialist help. Much more needs to be done to deal with this problem at source. What are the Government doing to ensure a significant expansion of evidence-based perpetrator programmes?

We also need to prevent abuse from happening in the first place. Identification of cases is much improved but prevalence is little changed. Clearly, our response, both as a society and from the Government, does need to be transformed. A significant minority still exists who view violence from male to female partners as acceptable.

Social marketing is vital. Hull’s “Strength to Change” campaign, informed by research from the University of Central Lancashire, makes men aware of how heinous their violence is to their partners and children. It pushes them towards help that holds them to a high standard of accountability and ensures that health and other professionals know where to refer men who are desperate to change. Are the Government supporting awareness programmes that do not just make disclosure easier but starkly bring home to men that violence is never acceptable and that they can and must access non-stigmatising help?

Budget Statement

Lord Farmer Excerpts

Monday 4th December 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord Farmer (Con)]

My Lords, many of your Lordships kindly gave time on 2 November to speak in the take-note debate on A Manifesto to Strengthen Families. Signed by over 55 honourable Conservative Members from the other place, the aim was to make it crystal clear to senior members of the Government that a solid quarter of their own Back Benches are determined that the impasse over family policy should be overcome. Signatories, including many noble Lords, are now working to build further support across all parties and in all government departments for policies that will strengthen and help bring stability to families.

As I said during that debate, since 1997, Governments of all colours have fallen short of stated intentions and ignored the elephant in the room of family breakdown, yet the Joseph Rowntree UK Poverty 2017 report published today reiterated the evidence that it is a root cause, as well as an effect, of poverty. It hits the poorest the hardest, compounds existing disadvantage and is a potent driver of wider social breakdown.

I regret that I feel compelled to draw attention to the almost complete lack of funding for family-strengthening policies in the recent Budget Statement. There was one line in the Red Book confirming that there would be a £15 million investment for relationship support and addressing parental conflict in 2018-19 and 2019-20. While this is obviously welcome, there remains a lack of a preventive approach in contrast to other major areas of government policy, particularly education and health, yet the prevalence of fractured and dysfunctional families has significant cost and business implications for all departments of government —therefore, especially for the Treasury. A figure of around £50 billion is often cited as the annual cost of family breakdown, but that inadequately captures the ways that failing families undermine many government priorities such as improvements in productivity. As we say in A Manifesto to Strengthen Families:

“Well-functioning families make a considerable contribution to society: they are wealth generators and vital to our nation’s economic competitiveness. There are very high social and economic costs when families falter, and currently this country is paying a particularly steep price”.


Every department of government needs to recognise that stronger families are potential assets that will reduce their financial outgoings and help them deliver their core business more effectively. Therefore, each one needs to contribute to a broad strategy. The Ministry of Justice, for example, has recently published my review on the need to see prisoners’ family ties as assets for preventing reoffending and reducing intergenerational crime. Its own research has found that prisoners who receive family visits are 39% less likely to reoffend than those who do not. Reoffending costs £15 billion per year but this is just the starting point for the large savings to be made. Each prisoner who “goes straight” will increase productivity, start to contribute to the economy and give his children a much better example to follow.

There is a clear business case for ensuring that policies to strengthen families become embedded in the machinery of government. Investing in this will yield significant benefits, albeit in the medium to long term. The Chancellor is well placed to implement a strategy that will ensure that the foundations—the human building blocks—of our economy are increasingly robust and in a much better condition to meet future challenges.

Leafing through previous Social Mobility Commission reports, I have found a strange silence on the issue of family breakdown. Before the events of this weekend I had—with some sadness and indeed some anger, given that this body is publicly funded to speak truth to power to improve lives—concluded that the commission had taken an ideologically inspired position on family breakdown. To its credit, it paid much attention to the issue of parenting, but almost none to the backdrop that sets the tone in so many households—the relationship between parents. This blindness seemed to me a fatal flaw that would undermine the effectiveness of its wider proposals. Therefore, my first question to my noble friend the Minister is: will the new Social Mobility Commission chair give the full gamut of family factors influencing social mobility the attention bandwidth they deserve, including parental relationship stability and conflict? He or she should know that viewing family-strengthening policies that go beyond cash transfers, childcare and parental leave as off limits for public opinion is mistaken. This is the impasse I referred to previously.

Recent surveys carried out for the Centre for Social Justice challenge the Westminster village assumption that policies to boost family stability will be unpopular. They found that despite the long-term trend of family breakdown in the UK—at least a third of people have directly experienced relationship break-up—support for stronger families, and indeed marriage, remains strong. Almost three-quarters of adults in Britain think that family breakdown,

“is a serious problem … and more should be done to prevent families from breaking up”.

More than 80% of adults think that,

“stronger families and improved parenting”,

are important in “addressing Britain’s social problems”, and almost 90% of new or soon-to-be parents support public money being spent on,

“strengthening families and improving parenting”,

specifically for,

“children growing up in poverty”.

Tackling family breakdown is not toxic. The public are becoming increasingly alive to this issue and the Government must not lag behind.

I submitted a Question for Written Answer asking Her Majesty’s Government whether,

“to strengthen families, they intend to make available funds for projects other than those specified in the Budget Statement”.

My noble friend Lady Buscombe—the Minister—informed me that,

“strengthening families is a cross-government objective and other government departments will be able to confirm their own plans in this area”.

To reiterate, this Budget was almost devoid of funding to tackle family breakdown. Can my noble friend the Minister explain how the Treasury will be proactive in requiring Ministers to meet this cross-government objective, so that we can be more productive, enjoy better well-being and live within our means?