Domestic Violence

Andrew Percy Excerpts

Wednesday 29th October 2014 Westminster Hall

[David Simpson]

My hon. Friend is exactly right. Abuse can go on for so long that it becomes the norm and a way of life, but I will deal with that when I move on to reporting.

[Andrew Percy (Brigg and Goole) (Con)]

I congratulate the hon. Gentleman—my hon. Friend—on securing this important debate. He is quite right to say that domestic violence cuts across sex, race and socio-economic boundaries, but it often involves men committing violence against women. He mentioned his pledge a moment ago, and I commend to him the White Ribbon campaign, which urges men to sign a pledge

“never to commit, condone, or remain silent about men’s violence against women in all its forms.”

We could all show some leadership by signing that pledge and by hosting public signings in our constituencies, as I plan to do at the end of the month.

[David Simpson]

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right. Folk need to sign that pledge. Violence against women, men and children is totally wrong.

Today, people in my constituency are suffering at the hands of brutal, self-centred, manipulative individuals who are intent on destroying the lives of their partners and children. It is time that their actions were halted. I have spoken with women, men and children from Lurgan, Banbridge, Portadown and more rural areas who have been subjected to domestic violence, and I recognise the need for the abuse to stop. While this is a debate for the whole UK, I beg your indulgence, Dr McCrea, as I shall speak primarily about my constituency and Northern Ireland.

Research on domestic violence in Northern Ireland shows that one in four women have experienced or currently experience domestic violence, and that it accounts for approximately one fifth of all recorded violent crime in the Province. Over the past few years, an average of five people have been killed each year as a direct result of domestic violence. The Police Service of Northern Ireland attends an average of 60 domestic violence-related incidents a day, but it recognises that a large amount of such crime goes unreported. Every week, on average, police attend over 400 domestic incidents and deal with more than 100 domestic assaults. If there are 400 incidents in each of the 52 weeks of the year, that equates to over 20,000 call outs relating to domestic violence. It is well known that over 30% of all domestic violence starts during pregnancy. Since 1999, Women’s Aid across Northern Ireland gave refuge to 14,714 women, and 14,356 children and young people.

--- Later in debate ---

[David Simpson]

The hon. Gentleman is right that children suffer, and not only in childhood, but as they grow into adulthood. The experience remains with them and the visions of what they saw as children stick with them, and they might affect their own relationships, because they could feel that such behaviour is the right and natural thing to do.

[Andrew Percy]

I fully support what has been said. May I give a real example? Recently, I joined the police on patrol as part of the police parliamentary scheme and we attended a young lady who told us that she had been violently assaulted by her partner on no fewer than 50 occasions. Apart from her physical injuries, the saddest thing that evening was the story she told about her four-year-old son now hitting her. Making children witness domestic violence is child abuse and should be dealt with as such.

[David Simpson]

Absolutely. It almost becomes a natural thing for children to do, because they witness it and think it is the right thing to do.

I am aware that the PSNI is actively seeking to tackle the crime in Northern Ireland. It is startling to see that within the Province 9,546 crimes with a domestic abuse motivation were recorded in 2011-12, which was more than the total for robbery, armed robbery, hijacking, theft, arson, dangerous driving, recorded sexual offences, handling stolen goods and offences under anti-terrorism legislation put together. We can thus see the significance of domestic violence in Northern Ireland alone.

The statistics make that a bit more real: the PSNI responded to a domestic incident every 23 minutes; there was a domestic crime every 60 minutes, approximately; there were 20 recorded offences of murder, seven of which, or 35%, were classed as having a domestic motivation; and 550 people were raped or suffered attempted rape. The statistics are harrowing and that is why priority must be given by the Government and by the devolved regions to tackling the problem head on. Under-reporting is key, given that only around 25% of women ever report their worst assault to the police, and on average a victim is assaulted 35 times before reporting the incident or seeking support. That should not be the case, and it is time for us and for the Government to put our heads above the parapet and to be counted when it comes to tackling such behaviour.

I briefly mentioned the economic cost, but it is well documented that on average domestic violence costs the economy £180 million a year, owing to victims’ absence from work because of injury or disability, and the time taken by criminal justice and support agencies to seek alternative housing, financial and schooling solutions for victims and their children. Those are simply a few of the critical realities and choices that victims face when they seek to escape or address violence and abuse in their own home. Domestic violence also has a significant impact on the cost to our health service as a whole and to our policing and justice system. Nor can it be ignored, especially at a time of budgetary cuts and economic recession. Clearly, it is a significant sum of money and another reason, if one is needed, why it is important for the issue to be a priority.

We have looked at Northern Ireland and domestic violence-related statistics there, but the issue is a UK-wide one, which we should all take seriously. Let us look at the UK as a whole. Data from the crime survey suggest that 30% of women and 16.3% of men in England and Wales will experience domestic violence in their lifetime. In 2012-13 there were 1.2 million female and 700,000 male victims of domestic abuse in England and Wales, while 60,080 incidents of domestic abuse were recorded by the police in Scotland, compared with 59,847 incidents in 2011-12, according to Government websites.

I welcome the efforts of the Home Office, in particular the proposals to strengthen the law on domestic abuse, a consultation on which was published in August 2014 by the Home Secretary. Furthermore, I welcome the four key principles of the approach in the strategy paper—to prevent, to provide support, to work in partnership and to take action to reduce the risk—and the extension of the definition which aims to increase awareness that young people in the age group between 16 and 17 can experience domestic violence, to encourage more of them to come forward to get the support that they need. There is also the work on domestic violence protection orders which, following the successful pilot scheme, have been rolled out across England and Wales from March this year. DVPOs give the police more powers in the immediate aftermath of a domestic violence attack, in particular the power to ban a perpetrator from returning home and from having contact with the victim for up to 28 days.

The domestic violence disclosure scheme, commonly known as Clare’s law, is also commendable, as is the fact that it was rolled out across England and Wales from March 2014. Under the scheme an individual can ask the police to check whether a new or existing partner has a violent past—the “right to ask”. If the checks show that a person may be at risk of domestic violence from their partner, the police will consider disclosing the information.

I have mentioned a few initiatives across England and Wales that I believe have gone some way in helping to address domestic violence. I am interested in hearing the opinions of other Members on those initiatives, and, in particular, their assessment of how successful the measures have been in their constituencies. However, the initiatives need to be rolled out across the whole of the UK. This House should also work with the devolved Governments to develop best practice that can be applied across the entire kingdom. The problem is too vast for us to bury our heads in the sand and say that we have tried our best; we need to redouble our efforts and work towards a zero tolerance of such dastardly deeds.

We also need to look, as a whole, at the increased dependency on refuges. Statements have been made about refuges such as:

“Going into a refuge saved my life, and gave hope and a future to my children”.

Another lady said that going into a refuge had given her

“the support and strength that has helped me rebuild my life”.

On hearing statements such as those, one would have to be a very hard individual not to stop and think about the need for such centres and the impact for good they have had.

We all know, however, that to better protect women and children who are survivors of domestic violence and empower them to access the Women’s Aid national network of specialist domestic violence refuges, that network needs to be protected and a new model of funding for refuges has to be developed. The law also needs to be strengthened to recognise coercive control, which is the essence of domestic violence. Women’s Aid has a leading national network of refuges, but we know that it is facing an urgent crisis. Across England, more and more specialist refuges are experiencing massive funding cuts and are being closed down. That crisis will cost lives.

Ultimately more funding is required to tackle these problems, and reform of domestic violence law is needed. We must ask ourselves as legislators whether there is a criminalisation gap that ensures that the pattern of domestic violence and coercive control remains outside the reach of the existing criminal law, which prohibits only single incidents of physical injury. That is food for thought for us all.

A recent report by Her Majesty’s inspectorate of constabulary on police responses to domestic violence found

“alarming and unacceptable weaknesses in some core policing activity”.

It highlighted that the police often did not recognise or respond appropriately to domestic violence and coercive control. HMIC made particular recommendations about training for police and also recommended that there be a renewed effort to tackle domestic violence.

The HMIC report, work by Victim’s Voice and surveys by front-line domestic violence professionals all clearly underline the need for change, to create a culture in which victims report much earlier and are believed when they do, and where the dynamics and patterns of abuse are recognised and understood. I believe, as does Women’s Aid, that criminalising coercive control, psychological abuse and patterns of abusive behaviour would go some way to assisting in stamping out such activity.

I am well aware that these problems cannot be solved overnight. Addressing the issue of domestic violence will not be easy. It will require a great deal of hard work and co-operation. However, I hope that this debate will send a clear message to people in Northern Ireland—and, indeed, the rest of the United Kingdom—that domestic violence is never acceptable. It is my sincere desire that those who are suffering abuse will realise that this Government take the matter seriously, and that we will use the powers available to us to ensure that those who are at risk are protected, so that those who are guilty of the crime will have no hiding place in this society.