Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims (Amendment) Bill

Baroness Gale Excerpts

Friday 27th January 2012 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Gale]

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Laming, for bringing this Bill before us today. As other noble Lords have said, with his vast experience in this field, there could be no one better. I thank other noble Lords too for their contributions. It is obvious that there is support for this Bill all around the House, as was the case in another place. The 2004 Act is very important and has proved to have worked well.

My noble and learned friend Lady Scotland took the then Bill through your Lordships’ House. In Committee, the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, spoke about the Law Commissioner and the NSPCC’s concern about cases where children were seriously harmed. She suggested that it was unacceptable to leave no remedy for these cases. My noble and learned friend said:

“In looking at this, I am conscious of the magnitude of the step we are already taking in our proposals in terms of attributing responsibility to those who do not already have a duty of care to a vulnerable child or adult. We are breaking new ground with this offence. Offences that result in the death of the victim have always been viewed in our legal system as particularly serious and meriting unique treatment. This makes a natural and appropriate starting place for extending the bounds of responsibility in the way we propose. I am not ruling out revisiting the question in the future, when we have seen how the new offence works in practice, and possibly extending it to serious harm. But I am very reluctant indeed to do so at this stage. We should be aiming for something clear, simple and well focussed initially to add to the statute book”.—[Official Report, 21/1/04; col. GC 341.]

That was in 2004 and, indeed, it was breaking new ground. It also recognised that time was needed to see how the 2004 Act would work and that there would be the need to revisit it in the future.

The law now deals with the death of a child or vulnerable adult at the hands of parents or other members of the household, and no longer can they escape justice by remaining silent. I believe that everyone will agree that the Act was the correct way to proceed in 2004, but now in 2012 it is time for us to look at it again, as the noble Lord, Lord Laming, has proved with the cases he cited, where children or vulnerable adults have received serious physical injuries. At present, perpetrators escape justice simply by remaining silent, which proves that there is a need for the Bill before us today. It will close a gap in our legislation. The data that the noble Lord, Lord Laming, shared with noble Lords today show clearly that there is now a need to amend Section 5 of the 2004 Act. Eight years on since its passing, now is the correct time to take action. Were a Labour Government in office now, I have no doubt that we would either have brought forward legislation or would be supporting a Private Member’s Bill of this nature. So we fully support this Bill and look forward to working with the noble Lord, Lord Laming, to ensure its smooth passage through your Lordships’ House.