Drugging and Sexual Assault of Women

Baroness Foster of Oxton Excerpts

Tuesday 7th July 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

We have put an additional £13.9 million into the National Centre for Violence Against Women and Girls, and we want to ensure that measures are brought forward so people can respond and bring forward reporting on those issues. We have also put a range of other measures in place which I think are important, including domestic abuse protection orders. The noble Baroness makes an important point. Ultimately, I want individuals who have been victims of crime, or even think they have been victims of crime, to report them and to be taken seriously. As I mentioned in an earlier answer, every indicator at the moment in terms of prosecutions, convictions, reports and police action is up over the past 18 months.

[Baroness Foster of Oxton (Con)]

My Lords, I think the Minister, who I respect very much, may not be quite correct. One of his colleagues who is a Home Office Minister was interviewed on Sunday—I think it was by Laura Kuenssberg, or it was on GB News—and was asked directly whether rapists were going to be released early from prison. The Minister did not answer the question. He did not deny the fact. He just went into the normal verbal criticism of the last Tory Government. Perhaps the Minister could check out what he has said to this House today, because clearly, there appears to be a conflict between Ministers in the Home Office.

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

I am speaking on behalf of the Home Office at this Dispatch Box and I say to the noble Baroness that the prisoners judged the most dangerous by the courts are excluded from being released early. That is the Home Office’s position.