Domestic Abuse Bill

Baroness Uddin Excerpts

2nd reading & 2nd reading (Hansard) & 2nd reading (Hansard): House of Lords
Tuesday 5th January 2021 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Uddin (Non-Afl) [V]]

My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Baronesses, Lady Bennett and Lady McIntosh. I am very much in agreement with them. I echo the sentiment of many noble Lords who have spoken with passion and integrity in welcoming this as a first step towards protecting people and preventing domestic abuse and violence.

Domestic violence is often portrayed as being more prolific in certain communities and cultures, regardless of considerable evidence to the contrary. Perpetrators come from all classes, races, ethnicities, religions and cultures. Sadly, this terrible pandemic has seen a catastrophic rise among all communities, a detrimental increase in injuries and a worsening of mental health, particularly for women and children.

I must take a moment to convey my respect to all those who have lost their mothers, sisters, daughters or friends to domestic violence. Like other noble Lords I feel an outrage that, half a century after the first refuge was opened by Erin Pizzey, one in three women across the globe continues to experience a dangerous level of violence, rape and torture. This legislation carries huge expectations of improving the life chances of the next generation of survivors.

As a professional with direct experience of working with families traumatised by the toxic effect of domestic violence, I understand the significance of partnership community-based work, with the necessity of accessing child, adolescent and adult mental health services in order to break the cycle of abuse. So I commend the many pioneers in Women’s Aid, Southall Black Sisters, Crisis, Barnardo’s, the Refugee Council, the NSPCC, SafeLives, Women Against Rape and the LGA, and I thank them for their insightful briefing.

In these deliberations we are under a moral imperative to forge and enhance multiagency collaboration with community services in order to provide a holistic response to all those who are vulnerable, including the elderly and those with physical and learning impairments, as well as children who have witnessed the terrible trauma of violence in their home.

Some 70% of women experiencing violence will never approach a refuge and will not in the first instance leave their home. We must ensure nuanced approaches so that they too can access safe services and couples counselling, without stigma or rebuke for the choices they may make. I hope that the Government will heed the calls of the domestic abuse commissioner and the LGA for an effective perpetrators programme, as well as widening housing choices for families.

If legislation comes in with only half of the funding and resources needed and wastes further time on reviews, we will have failed to mend many more broken lives. Therefore, this Bill will need to strengthen the hand of the practitioners in the field who can guide families to break and prevent the cycle of abuse. Otherwise, I fear that we will bear witness to further deaths and psychological trauma and devastation blighting more families.

I also hope that this Bill will emphatically cease the othering of ethnic minority and refugee women, so that their cultures and religions are not pathologised, their recourse to public funds is not denied and there are no barriers to them getting the urgent help they need from statutory services. Educating communities and promoting awareness and understanding of the psychological and financial consequences of domestic violence will require skilled and holistic interventions and solutions to address these emotive and complex matters. We must also focus on preventive work with children and young people through PSHE, so they can learn to build and negotiate safer and more respectful relationships. This must go hand in hand with mandatory training for all involved professionals.

Time does not allow me to address the many issues, including no recourse to public funds, online harm and the detrimental effect of court use of parental alienation—where, as has been said many times, children may be weaponised. I look forward to supporting a number of amendments at the next stage of the Bill.

Living free from the threat and fear of violence is a fundamental, inalienable right. I pray that some of what we do as a result of this Bill will be a beacon of hope and a message for the next generation.