Rape

Lord Laming Excerpts

Tuesday 21st October 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bates]

In fact, that was one of the things highlighted in an excellent report into rape carried out by the noble Baroness, Lady Stern, back in 2010. She also made the point that, as well as focusing on increasing the conviction rate, which it is absolutely right to do, we also needed to make sure that we provided enough support and care to the victims of crime. That is one reason why we have ring-fenced £40 million to provide that kind of care to the victims of crime.

[Lord Laming (CB)]

My Lords, will the Minister assure the House that everything is being done to encourage young people to understand that relationships are best conducted not through the use of power but, rather, through the use of respect for each other?

[Lord Bates]

The noble Lord is absolutely right in this respect, and education has a key role to play in this. The Home Office has been sponsoring a programme called This is Abuse, which goes through the schools programme. It makes it absolutely clear that young people need to understand that consent is critical to sexual relations and that, when it is absent, a serious crime has been committed.