Domestic Abuse

Baroness Gale Excerpts

Thursday 22nd March 2018 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Gale (Lab)]

My Lords, I thank my noble friend Lady Lister for bringing this debate before us today. In her opening remarks, she covered a range of areas of concern.

Domestic abuse is a blight on our society. Many women who are victims of domestic abuse live in a state of fear every day. According to Women’s Aid—which I thank for its very good briefing—between 2016 and 2017 there were 93,000 prosecutions for domestic abuse and, where gender was recorded, 91.8% were of males. During 2016, 78 women were killed by a partner or former partner, and 85% of these women were killed in their own home or the home they shared with the perpetrator. So home was certainly not a safe place for them. Those who have to live with an abusive partner suffer repeated and prolonged violence and abuse which can impact on all aspects of their lives and result in severe trauma.

Today’s report from the Inspectorate of Constabulary, which was discussed earlier in your Lordships’ House, says that under pressure police forces are taking days to respond to 999 calls that should be dealt with in an hour. The forces say that they have come under “significant stress” from slashed budgets and increased demand. Almost a quarter of forces in England and Wales are struggling to deal with emergency calls in a timely way. In some cases, crimes that require a “prompt” response—that is, police attending within an hour of the call—are not dealt with for days. In Cambridgeshire, for example, the average “prompt” response time was 15 hours. This could include cases of serious assault, including sexual violence.

The inspectorate puts the delays down to a lack of police officers available to attend the emergencies. This is extremely worrying in the case of women experiencing domestic abuse. They cannot afford to wait 15 hours for a response. A woman will probably be in desperate need of immediate help at the time she rings 999. So having to wait is not an option. In 15 hours it may be too late for her.

Her Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary Zoë Billingham, who led the inspection, has said that she has,

“major concerns that policing is under significant stress. On occasions, that stress stretches some forces to such an extent that they risk being unable to keep people safe in some very important areas of policing. About a quarter of forces are all too often overwhelmed by the demand they face, resulting in worrying backlogs of emergency jobs, with officers not attending incidents promptly, including those involving vulnerable people”.

The announcement of a draft Bill on domestic violence is welcome, as is the consultation. However, concerns have been raised over the narrow scope of the Bill. It needs to focus on the support for victims and not just the criminal justice aspect. Domestic violence is one of the toughest crimes to police effectively and this has become much more difficult, as seen in the report out today, so there must be a drive towards progress in prevention and a future free from abuse.

As I understand it, mandatory sex and relationship education is to be introduced in all schools in England from September 2019. It should have a clear and gendered focus on tackling domestic abuse and violence against women and girls and be delivered with a “whole school approach” to prevention. Communities should be supported to talk about domestic abuse, such as through the Women’s Aid “Ask Me” scheme, and to tackle everyday sexist behaviour. I look forward to the ratification of the Istanbul convention to deal with the root causes of inequality and discrimination that underpin domestic abuse. I believe that will be contained in the new Bill.

Much has been achieved in raising awareness relating to all forms of domestic abuse and violence against women and girls. Both Labour and Conservative Governments have brought forward laws which help victims and bring the perpetrators to justice, but more needs to be done, as the noble Baroness, Lady Newlove, said. I hope that the new Bill, which I understand will come before your Lordships’ House in a few months, will go some way towards improving the lives of women and children and bring about a better way of life through preventive measures.