Male Abusive Behaviour

Baroness Corston Excerpts

Wednesday 8th March 2017 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

The noble Baroness raises a very important issue about those agencies that she talks about working together. When I was at DCLG the troubled families programme unearthed an awful lot of instances of domestic violence. Health professionals have a role to play in identifying, for example, a bruise as a result of violence. There are so many things that our professionals can do in identifying and reporting those issues. The police are now better trained not only to take domestic violence seriously but to issue domestic violence protection orders to give the woman—usually—in the relationship some time away from the perpetrator of violence.

[Baroness Corston (Lab)]

My Lords, the Minister will be aware that much of the work that is being done now in relation to domestic abuse is being done by my former honourable friend Dame Vera Baird, who is the lead for police and crime commissioners. No doubt she will accept that 92% of victims of domestic violence are women and many seek help in women’s refuges. Is she aware that Women’s Aid has said that the current funding model proposed by the Government will lead to the destruction of the women’s refuge programme? What are the Government going to do about it?

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

I pay tribute to Vera Baird because I know she does an awful lot of work in this area. The first thing I looked at when I was at DCLG was the whole area of domestic violence—the refuges and the prevention models. The noble Baroness is absolutely right: it is important to keep these refuges open so that no woman is turned away. In fact, there was a significant announcement in the Budget today about underpinning our VAWG strategy, but those interventions to stop domestic violence happening in the first place are also very important.