Violence Against Women and Girls

Lord Cameron of Lochiel Excerpts

Monday 17th March 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Cameron of Lochiel (Con)]

My Lords, one of the principal examples of violence against women and girls in recent years was the grooming gangs scandal. While we are disappointed that the Government chose not to establish a full statutory inquiry into this issue, Ministers have now commissioned a rapid three-month audit led by the noble Baroness, Lady Casey. Can the noble and learned Baroness confirm when the audit’s findings will be published and when we can expect to see the Government’s formal response to it?

[Baroness Smith of Cluny (Lab)]

I regret to tell the noble Lord that I do not have the date when it will be published, but he can be assured that the utmost attention will be paid to it, in line with our attitude towards all these issues, which, as I described, are a national emergency. The bigger issue that the noble Lord raises is a crisis of confidence in policing; that will be central to the strategy that we write, because we know that the police response to violence against women and girls has not been good enough to date. Victims must feel confident in the police’s ability to handle their case. That is why we have already taken steps by embedding domestic abuse specialists in 999 control rooms and by also seeking to create dedicated domestic abuse teams within every police force, so that these things never happen again.