Domestic Violence: Refuges
Debate between Lord McColl of Dulwich and Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
It is always a pleasure to take a question from the noble Lord, who raises an important point about joined-up thinking. The Government are investing a great deal more—whether, for example, through our Troubled Families programme, on which the DWP and the DCLG are working together, or through recent announcements about local health provision. The noble Lord will recall that my honourable friend Jane Ellison made an announcement on how hospitals and doctors’ practices will be encouraged to identify such cases. On policing, my right honourable friend the Home Secretary has written to each PCC to ensure that our policy is reflected as a key priority in their programmes.
Lord McColl of Dulwich
My Lords, will the Minister acknowledge that one of the problems in this field is that large numbers of people in public life refuse to admit the size of the problem, which is that millions of men are smashing up millions of women? Their reply is: “I like to think the best of people and I cannot believe the size of this problem”. We all like to think the best of people, but that does not preclude accurate diagnosis.
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
My noble friend again raises an important concern that has been relayed to us. Women who are abused in this way sometimes blame themselves, and it is important that we have local experts working at a local level. One of the things that we can perhaps take some comfort from is that, after a slight dip this year, we have seen an increase in referrals to the CPS on this issue. More importantly, there has been an increase of 21% in the last calendar year in prosecutions for this heinous crime committed against women and, on occasions, against children. It needs to be stamped out.
Violence Against Women
Debate between Lord McColl of Dulwich and Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
I can certainly talk about the Home Office funding. Its contribution is going to be £28 million for the spending review period. Within that, some of the schemes we are looking at are those I have already alluded to, such as refuges for women who fall victim to violence. The other thing I would point out to the noble Baroness is that we will be working with the third and voluntary sectors, which do an absolutely sterling job in protecting those women who are the victims of abuse and crime.
Lord McColl of Dulwich (Con)
Would the Minister support an exhibition in Parliament of pictures showing some of the thousands of women who have been brutalised? It would include a photograph of a lady who was smashed up with a baseball bat by her partner. The surgeons who had to repair the damage got splinters in their fingers and streptococcal infections as a result. It would also show that the man removed the whole of her upper lip by biting it off.
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
My noble friend has pointed graphically to some of the horrors that result from this issue. They say that a picture can replace a thousand words. It is not my place to give approval for such exhibitions, but I can assure my noble friend that any steps that can be taken to avoid violence happening, be they at the national or the international level, will be taken. I am sure he will acknowledge that through schemes such as the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict, which is starting tomorrow, and the initiative of my right honourable friend the Prime Minister in hosting a conference in July on FGM and forced marriage, the Government are demonstrating that violence against women, whether it is perpetrated domestically or internationally in conflicts, is totally to be condemned and utterly wrong.