End-to-end Rape Review

Baroness Uddin Excerpts

Tuesday 22nd June 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Wolfson of Tredegar (Con)]

My Lords, I am not sure it is right or proper for me to comment on individual cases from the Dispatch Box. There is a proper procedure for people who seek probation or to have sentences served outside a formal prison, and I think it would be unwise and probably improper of me to say any more on the subject than that.

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

My Lords, the heinous crime of rape, including marital rape, violates trust and dignity as well as physical and mental well-being. There cannot be consent to rape, which violates the most fundamental, basic right to say no. Victims must be believed. I worry how many other victims are not reporting.

This report reinforces what we and women’s rights organisations know. As my noble friend Lady Newlove said so eloquently, women’s organisations have repeatedly called on the Government time and again for action, funding, services and training, including for police officers. Indeed, we have failed hundreds of thousands of women victims and survivors, with the Government fully aware of all the facts contained in this report. Given what the Minister said on the need for education, are the Government further considering the resource implications of the report alongside a public information and education campaign? Knowing also that sexual violence and the abuse of children is prevalent in schools, are they considering working with all communities to state that sexual violence is against the law, that we take this as being of the utmost seriousness and that we are as committed to eradicating this pandemic of sexual violence as we are to erasing Covid, both nationally and globally?

[Lord Wolfson of Tredegar (Con)]

My Lords, I am very happy to accept the two adjectives used by the noble Baroness: “serious” and “committed”. That is exactly what we are. She is right to say that there are resource implications. There are resource implications in what I said about mobile phone data and Section 28, but we want to make sure that the criminal justice system delivers for victims of rape. Obviously, as the Lord Chancellor said yesterday, resources are a necessary part of that.