Domestic Violence (Police Response)

Helen Jones Excerpts

Thursday 10th April 2014 Westminster Hall

[Helen Jones (Warrington North) (Lab)]

I congratulate the hon. Member for Brentford and Isleworth (Mary Macleod) on securing this debate. She has raised a serious issue of particular concern to many women. Although the hon. Member for Shipley (Philip Davies) was right to say that men can suffer from domestic violence too, and the hon. Member for Finchley and Golders Green (Mike Freer) rightly reminded us of the need to consider violence between same-sex couples, it is, overwhelmingly, women who suffer from domestic violence and the most serious assaults. That is a fact of life. Yet the report by Her Majesty’s inspectorate of constabulary makes it clear that there are some shocking failures to tackle this crime and that there is often a failure to believe the victim of the crime.

A number of hon. Members have mentioned the serious nature of the issues that we are dealing with and how varied they can be. The hon. Member for Brentford and Isleworth rightly mentioned what is happening among young girls. Anyone who has read the Children’s Commissioner report about violence in gangs should be seriously concerned. The hon. Member for East Worthing and Shoreham (Tim Loughton), a former Children’s Minister, rightly highlighted the effect on children of domestic violence, which can persist down the generations if it is not tackled early enough. I commend the hon. Member for Braintree (Mr Newmark) on his moving tribute to his constituent, Christine Chambers, and her daughter, who were murdered. The hon. Member for Hornchurch and Upminster (Dame Angela Watkinson) highlighted the nature of coercive control and set out clearly the nature of some of the perpetrators of this violence, which is often not properly understood.

As well as highlighting the extent of domestic abuse, my hon. Friend the Member for Slough (Fiona Mactaggart) also highlighted the failures in the criminal justice system, as did the hon. Member for Brentford and Isleworth did, which let victims down time and again. My hon. Friend also mentioned tackling this issue by having proper sex and relationships education in schools, which is needed.

These are difficult issues. The HMIC report, which I read recently, itemises the shocking failures. I am surprised—I say this gently to the Minister—that the Home Secretary has not yet come to the House to make a statement about this serious report and say what is going to be done about it.

We have heard the statistics this afternoon, which we can repeat over again. Two women a week are murdered by a partner or former partner. Statistically, women between the ages of 15 and 44 are more at risk from domestic violence than from cancer. Every 30 seconds the police receive a call relating to domestic abuse. If this was any other crime, it would be making headlines in the papers every day and would be leading the news, and there would be demands for action. But domestic violence is a silent epidemic, despite the fact that it accounts for one in five violent crimes, shatters families and can ruin children’s lives. If that was happening at football matches, we would hear about it every day. It is shocking that we do not hear more.

Despite the best efforts of some in the police force—I commend those officers who have taken this issue seriously—this issue is still is not being tackled properly. Indeed, in some respects the situation is getting worse. The last set of figures, for 2010-11 to 2012-13, show that reports of domestic violence to the police increased by 11% in that period, and that is only the tip of the iceberg.

During that period the percentage of successful prosecutions dropped by 14%. Some 90% of domestic violence incidents result in no further action. Although in 2009-10 the police were referring 12.1% of domestic violence incidents to the Crown Prosecution Service for decisions on prosecution, which I think all hon. Members in this Chamber would regard as unreasonably low, by 2012-13 that number had fallen to 10.5%. Figures from the Library show that only 6.3% of cases currently result in a conviction, despite the number of cases.

I have to say bluntly that, despite the Government’s action plans and their cross-departmental strategy, we are, in many respects, going backwards. The HMIC report sets out reasons for that, including some long-standing problems in the police and some that are new. However, the plain fact is that, despite the examples of good policing, of victims being protected and of perpetrators being brought to justice, there are far too many examples of poor practice, evidence not being collected, victims not being protected and arrests not being made.

The comment “This is not acceptable” appears in the report again and again, like a refrain, and underlines the extent of the failure. In fact, almost a quarter of police forces—13 in total—could not even provide the data on repeat offenders to HMIC. That is a huge failure by itself. Again, I have to ask whether we would tolerate that if it related to burglary or to any other crime of violence.

A number of items in the report are important. Although I cannot mention them all today, I want to use what time I have to deal with a couple of issues of failure from which a lot of subsequent failures emerge. First, there is often a failure to believe the victim. If I reported a burglary, or if the hon. Member for Hornchurch and Upminster did, we would be believed. However, if we reported domestic violence we would have much less chance of being believed. The report highlights some poor practice and lack of empathy towards victims on the part of some—not all—officers and the fact that many victims feel judged when they report.

Along with that, the report highlights a failure to recognise what a number of hon. Members have spoken about: a failure on the part of some officers to understand the nature of coercive control and its impact on the victim, which is likely to make victims tell officers that they do not want to proceed with a case. Unless officers on the front line understand the psychological impact of that, they will find it difficult to act effectively.

I saw this years ago when I used to get emergency domestic violence injunctions for people. By the time the full injunction was heard, often the victim would come back and say that they did not want to proceed, as the perpetrator had promised not to do it again and everything would be all right. I knew that I would see that person again, beaten up, perhaps with a broken arm or worse injuries, because the situation was never going to change, but the victim was made to feel that it was probably their behaviour that was at fault and that their partner would change. But they never do. That is the psychological impact of coercive control and examples of poor practice show that people do not understand that.

I have spoken to victims who are not allowed out of the house without their partner and whose partner will take the phone with them when they leave, so that they cannot contact anyone, and who are not allowed to see friends. To interview these victims of violence within the hearing of their partner—asking them if they want to proceed, for example—is not to understand the psychological impact of the abuse on them and to fail to understand the nature of this kind of violence. They may also, as hon. Members have mentioned, fear that their children will be taken from them if they proceed.

Along with that often goes the failure to understand how perpetrators behave. The hon. Member for Hornchurch and Upminster set that out well. Perpetrators are often in complete denial; they blank out the abuse. A police officer will arrive at the scene to find the perpetrator perfectly calm and the victim appearing to be agitated. The perpetrator often makes counter-accusations. There was a counter-allegation in 30% of the cases that HMIC reviewed. I have known cases where victims who have suffered repeat domestic violence have finally called the police, only for the perpetrator to make an allegation against them; the victim has been cautioned. That is outrageous.

Unless the police are properly trained to understand the issue, we will continue to see poor practice. As the report states:

“Many frontline officers, and in some cases specialist police officers, lack the skills they need to tackle domestic abuse effectively.”

Often, the police simply do not build a case. In an analysis of case files relating to actual bodily harm, the inspectors found that in only 46% of cases were photographs of the injuries taken at the time and in only 23% of cases were house-to-house inquiries made. That would be routine for any other sort of crime.

The report also found a failure to use intelligence-led policing and targeting to tackle repeat offenders and a failure to use domestic homicide reviews to tackle poor practice. I hope that the Minister will respond to some of the report’s recommendations on speeding up domestic homicide reviews so that lessons can be learned.

It is that kind of failure—failure to do what we would accept as normal for any other crime—that leads many victims to think that they are not believed or taken seriously. The report states that a third of victims did not feel any safer after their dealings with the police, and that should worry us all.

Although many of the issues are of long standing, the Government cannot escape responsibility for the impact of some of their decisions. The plan to lose 15,000 police officers by 2015, with many of them already gone, is having a huge impact on the police. The inspectors highlight the gaps in the capability and capacity of specialist domestic abuse units, with high levels of vacancies and unsustainable case loads. Even worse, they draw attention to a number of cases where they have found police imposing a quota on the number of cases that they assess as high risk, based on what a multi-agency risk assessment conference or specialist unit can cope with rather than the actual risk to the victim. The inspectors are absolutely right to say that that should stop, but it can only stop if we end the hollowing out of the police service and invest in the right training and support for officers dealing with domestic abuse.

It is also important that victims are supported, if they are to see a case through. We have seen reductions in the number of independent domestic violence advisers and closures of specialist domestic violence courts, which are successful in taking a rounded approach to seeing cases through and supporting victims. Women are turned away from refuges every day and the scale of cuts to local authorities is leading to the knock-on effect of reductions in support for domestic violence services. As the report points out, even closing police stations and locating them with other services can have an impact on victims of domestic violence, who see the police station as a place of safety.

Getting better at tackling this issue requires changes, but not only to the police. There has to be a joined-up approach. The Government have to think seriously about putting the resources in place to tackle this crime. One assistant police commissioner recently said to me, “We should stop calling it domestic violence. It is violence, pure and simple—violence, the same as it would be anywhere on the street.”

I have some questions for the Minister, which I hope he will answer. First, HMIC recommended a fundamental review of police training. Will he tell us how that review will be funded and what funding will be available to meet the cost of any recommendations that it makes? The report also says that outdated and antiquated information systems are hampering call handlers’ ability to access information and identify repeat victims. What will he do to assist forces in updating those systems? Will any extra money be allocated, or will it have to come out of existing police budgets, in which case I fear the updating will not happen?

In addition, there is considerable worry among many people that as victim support funding goes to police and crime commissioners, domestic violence will not have the high profile it should have. I hope he will think seriously about offering guidance for police and crime commissioners, because anecdotal evidence is already coming through of refuges and specialist support services not knowing whether their funding will be in place.

The Home Secretary said that she will chair the national oversight group and although she has called on chief constables to change—it is clear that some of them do need to change—the Government need to commit that funding and support for those changes will be provided. We cannot protect victims on the cheap or bring perpetrators to justice without the necessary funding. Women’s safety is at risk and there is less chance than there was of their attackers being brought before a court. That is a moral disgrace, but it is also, as my hon. Friend the Member for Slough pointed out, economic nonsense. If the cost of domestic violence is estimated to be £15.7 billion a year, there is no logic in continuing to fail to tackle it. We need police officers who are properly trained and can intervene early enough and a system to give people the support they deserve. There is an economic cost in not doing that, but also a cost in wrecked lives, broken families and fractured communities.

It is time that we treated these crimes like any other crime and used evidence-based prosecutions. There is no other crime where we expect the victim to build the case, but that is often true for domestic violence. It is up to the police, but it is up to all of us, too. Someone said earlier—it is quite true—that we need more men to stand up against domestic violence. Since we are giving commendations to our local area, I commend my local rugby team, Warrington Wolves, who participated with me earlier in the year in a campaign against domestic violence. To really tackle this issue, we need more role models for men.

We need to ensure that when violence does happen, victims are kept safe and perpetrators are brought before the courts and dealt with properly. Currently, either they are not brought before the courts or, if they are, far too many community disposals are being used for serious cases of violence.

If we are serious about tackling this issue, it is time that it was tackled in the way that any other crime would be tackled: with the police finding the evidence, passing it to prosecutors and people being brought before the courts. We cannot allow the issue to carry on in the way that it has, unchecked and often in silence, with people not willing to speak about it. The victims—those who suffer every day, and those who have, sadly, lost their lives—expect better of us than that, and they deserve better. I hope that when the Minister responds, he will be able to reassure us that we will turn a corner in dealing with this awful crime.

[The Minister for Crime Prevention (Norman Baker)]

I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Brentford and Isleworth (Mary Macleod) for the opportunity to debate this important topic. Members have referred to the review of domestic abuse by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary commissioned by the Home Secretary, which has brought the matter into sharp relief and raised serious questions for the police in particular. I pay tribute to hon. Members from all parties who have spoken in the debate for their worthwhile and thoughtful contributions. I will do my best to respond to each of the points raised.

I think that we can make progress and turn a corner, to pick up the last point made by the Opposition spokesperson; I think that we are turning the corner. One reason is that there is unanimity within this House that domestic abuse and violence must be tackled more seriously than they have been, particularly in the past 20 or 30 years and before that. We must consider it differently, and the HMIC report helps us in that regard.

Domestic abuse is a sinister way of undermining the trust that those in close relationships place in one another. It ruins lives and, as my hon. Friend the Member for East Worthing and Shoreham (Tim Loughton) pointed out, it can affect children significantly as well. As we know, in the worst cases it can lead to death. Domestic abuse happens every day in homes across this country. In most cases it goes unreported, which makes it difficult to know exactly how many people are affected. The crime survey for England and Wales estimates that 1.2 million women were victims of domestic abuse last year, and 77 women were killed by their partners or ex-partners.

We can take some comfort, I suppose, from the fact that that is the lowest number of intimate partner homicides since 1998, but in my view and, I am sure, that of everybody in this Chamber, one such death or loss of life is too many. I think that I speak for my colleagues not just in the Home Office but across the Government when I say that I am determined to see a society in which violence against women and girls is not tolerated, people are able and encouraged to speak out, their concerns are taken seriously and no woman or girl must suffer domestic abuse.

One or two Members have said that every 30 seconds, a victim of domestic abuse summons up the courage to call the police. When a victim reaches out for help, it is vital that the police are equipped to respond effectively and sensitively to help end the cycle of abuse, which in many cases will have been going on for years, as Members have correctly said. That is why, in September, the Home Secretary commissioned HMIC to review the police response to domestic abuse across all 43 forces in England and Wales, following a series of reports on individual domestic homicides by the Independent Police Complaints Commission that caused the Home Secretary concern that the police were not doing all that they could to safeguard victims.

As has been mentioned, on 27 March, HMIC published its findings, which made for depressing reading. The review was thorough and rigorous and showed, frankly, that the police response is not good enough and is failing victims. Crucially, it is clear that the priority that police and crime commissioners have given on paper in their crime plans to tackling domestic abuse is not in many cases, or even most, translating into operational reality.

Although the main findings have been referred to, it may be helpful if I reprise some of them. First, on leadership, the report highlights that poor management and supervision in the police fail to reinforce the right behaviours, attitudes and actions among officers. It also highlights that some officers lack the basic skills and knowledge necessary to engage confidently and competently with victims of domestic abuse. HMIC found that many chief constables and their top teams still focus more on volume and acquisitive crime reduction than on domestic abuse. Leadership on the issue is simply not present.

HMIC also identified many examples of officers who work tirelessly to keep victims safe, sometimes with little support from their wider force. I wanted to put it on the record that such people exist and are doing their best. However, there are also officers who have shown a poor attitude towards victims and failed to treat them with the empathy that they deserve. That is simply not good enough. It is clear that the police must change how they respond to victims of domestic abuse.

At nine focus groups that HMIC held with 70 victims, the majority of participants had experienced poor attitudes from responding police officers. They felt that they had been judged and not taken seriously. I was horrified that one victim told inspectors she had overheard officers dismissing her report:

“Last year one officer came out and his radio was going and I heard him say ‘It’s a DV, we’ll be a few minutes and we’ll go to the next job’. And I thought—thanks a lot, that’s my life.”

That is a significant and harrowing example of what is happening. I was also disturbed to read the account of a victim in Manchester whose 13-year-old daughter was asked to act as a language interpreter for officers investigating allegations against her father. There is no excuse for those attitudes from police officers, and chief constables must act immediately to stamp them out.

It is that failure to see domestic abuse as the serious crime it is that is stopping officers responding effectively. Basic evidence collection that could help to support a prosecution to bring a perpetrator to justice simply is not happening. The hon. Member for Warrington North (Helen Jones) referred to the failure to take such basic steps as capturing photographic evidence. I have been concerned about the fall-off in referrals by the police to the Crown Prosecution Service, so I was particularly worried to see that HMIC has exposed a wide variation in the number of arrests for domestic abuse crime. The arrest rate is anywhere between 45% and 90%. The report also draws out wide variation in cautioning and reveals that some forces are even routinely using restorative justice in domestic abuse cases. I am clear—I put it on the record—that if there is enough evidence to caution, there is enough evidence to charge.

HMIC also carried out a file review of 615 actual bodily harm cases connected with domestic abuse. Photographs of injuries were taken in only half the cases, and in 30% officers’ statements lacked important details about the crime scene or the victim. The Government has spent £1.4 million on body-worn cameras to help officers gather evidence at the scene. Yet HMIC has revealed that body-worn cameras are not routinely available for officers attending domestic abuse situations. Those unacceptable failures to gather evidence effectively mean that opportunities to stop perpetrators in their tracks are being missed and victims are left suffering. As the HMIC report makes clear, the police need to build the case for the victim; they should not expect the victim to build the case for the police.

HMIC has exposed similar weaknesses in police action to safeguard victims. Risk assessment tools can be seen as tick-box exercises that are slavishly followed by officers who do not have the skills to tailor their response to the situation in front of them. A third of all victims surveyed by HMIC felt no safer as a result of police intervention. In more than half the cases that HMIC looked at, there was no evidence of safety measures being considered. Police officers must understand that they have a responsibility to make victims safer, not just while they are on the scene, but once they have closed the front door and gone on to the next call. Chief constables need to take urgent action to make significant changes to front-line policing so that victims are protected and perpetrators brought to justice.

I am encouraged that the majority of chief constables have signalled their commitment to deliver lasting change in response to the HMIC review. Some forces have already taken action to address the issues that HMIC highlighted. Merseyside police identified a problem with the initial evidence collected by officers in domestic abuse cases and trained 1,500 front-line officers to improve their investigation skills. HMIC found that Lancashire constabulary has made domestic abuse “everyone’s business” and delivered an excellent service for victims in partnership with independent domestic violence advisers. That is commendable. It also shows that the police can improve their response.

That is particularly important given that some police leaders have suggested that the problem is wider than the police service and extends to other front-line agencies. It is of course true that all such agencies have a critical role to play, and we are taking steps through our violence against women and girls action plan to improve the response of all front-line professionals. However, domestic abuse is a crime and is accordingly core police business. The report is about police performance and it identifies police failures. Police leaders can and should work to address HMIC’s findings because that can and must make a difference to victims’ lives.

Some senior police officers have said in response to the findings that they cannot deliver better standards without more resource. Indeed, the hon. Member for Warrington North suggested likewise. I want to be clear: this is not about extra resource for the police service. This is about the police changing their culture and getting basic policing right, such as collecting evidence that ought to be collected and dealing with victims as they ought to deal with them. Improving how they listen to victims and getting the basics of investigation right are not to do with resources.

[Helen Jones]

The Minister is absolutely right that there have to be changes in culture, but does he not accept that to achieve that—the understanding among front-line officers about some of the realities of domestic violence and the improvement of call handling—there must also be an investment in training and equipment?

[Norman Baker]

I will come on to training, but the issue is too serious to digress into—dare I say it—a normal debate about resources for the police. The reality, to deal with that quickly, is that we have seen a reduction in crime of around 10% since 2010, which means that fewer crimes are being committed and the police have more time to investigate those that have been committed, even with fewer police officers than previously. Also, significant investment under my colleague, the Policing Minister, such as digitalisation in the police service, is freeing up a great deal of officer time by removing paperwork. Opposition or Government Members may think that this is a matter of resources, but I genuinely believe that it is not; it is about attitudes and practice in the police—as well as training, to pick up on the hon. Lady’s point.

--- Later in debate ---

[Helen Jones]

I am sorry, but I cannot allow that to go by without comment. Changing a call-handling system to enable call handlers to identify repeat victims, for example, is not a question of attitude; it is a question of having the right system in place, so that they can immediately check whether they have a repeat victim calling.

[Norman Baker]

It is a question of both, because if people are not taking domestic abuse seriously, they are not interested in tracking repeat matters, which was the point made by my hon. Friend the Member for Braintree (Mr Newmark).

--- Later in debate ---

[Helen Jones]

For clarity, before the Minister sits down, I said that it was a moral disgrace. I do not want him to attribute to me something that I clearly have not said, even if accidentally.

[Norman Baker]

I do not wish to have a dispute about that particular point, but the impression I gained from the hon. Lady’s contribution was that she was suggesting that a motivation for the Government to do more might be that we might save money. I want to put it plainly on the record that that is not a consideration in taking forward the agenda. Our consideration in taking forward the agenda is to do the right thing by those who are victims of this appalling crime.

I think we have made a good start and that the Home Secretary has made a good start following the HMIC report, to add on to all her previous work. We will take the matter very seriously and it will be subject to very close scrutiny by myself and by the Home Secretary. We are determined to do all we can to eliminate this appalling crime.

Question put and agreed to.