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Women, Justice and Gender Equality

First, may I apologise for leaving during the speech of the hon. Member for Epping Forest (Mrs. Laing)? That was no reflection on her speech, but I needed to attend a Committee sitting upstairs. Moreover, I apologise to hon. Members of all parties for missing what I am sure were important contributions. I am pleased to be called to speak on international women’s day, especially as its theme is ““Ending Impunity For Violence Against Women And Girls””. I am also proud to support the cross-party early-day motion tabled by the hon. Member for Solihull (Lorely Burt), which highlights the fact that violence against women is the most common, but least punished, crime across the world. Domestic violence is the most common form of abuse of women worldwide. It does not respect country, race, education, class or religion, and it is a problem that I want to highlight further. We have heard already that domestic violence affects one women in four in the UK, and that an average of two women every week die at the hands of violent partners. Much has been done to address the problem over the past 10 years, through improving the criminal justice system and raising awareness. Tackling domestic violence is truly an equality issue, for how will women ever achieve equality when 25 per cent. of women living in the UK suffer violence at home? The perpetrators of domestic violence take control of their victims. They rob a woman of her dignity, self-respect and confidence. Sometimes they take away her friends or children and, in extreme cases, her life. It affects every part of a woman’s life—her children, her physical and mental health, and her prospects. For some women who suffer domestic violence, often on a daily basis, finding the strength to report the abuse can take years. Some estimates indicate that a woman will suffer up to 34 attacks before making an official report. With the lack of stability in their lives and the constant threat of violence, it becomes impossible for women even to think about a career structure for themselves or to plan a stable future for their children. Domestic violence prevents millions of women from achieving equality; it robs them of their independence and of control over their own lives. The economic arguments are compelling. Research by Sylvia Walby of the university of Leeds into the cost of domestic violence shows that the total cost to services amounts to £3.1 billion, while the loss to the economy is £2.7 billion. The human and emotional cost is estimated at more than £17 billion a year. I do not deny that definite progress on dealing with the issue has been made over the past 10 years. Domestic violence accounts for 15 per cent. of violent crime in the UK—down from 25 per cent. Although I welcome that progress, Members will agree that the statistic is still too high. I welcomed the announcement on Monday of a cash boost of nearly £2 million to double the number of local multi-agency domestic violence action teams— MARACs—which involve key agencies. The police, the probation, education, health and housing services and the voluntary sector work together on cases, which means that they can build up a comprehensive picture of the abuse and develop the programme of action that best supports and protects a domestic violence victim and their family. That multi-agency initiative is fantastic, and is at last an example of real joined-up work across departments. I hope that it will give victims much more comprehensive support than the rather piecemeal help that some women have received. As my hon. and learned Friend the Under-Secretary said earlier, the Government have provided £3 million to seed-fund independent domestic violence advisers—IDVAs. In effect, such advisers walk beside the victim throughout the process, providing a single point of contact both inside and outside the criminal justice system for the duration of the case, and sometimes afterwards. Such services are the key to providing continuing support for the victim to make sure that she does not drop out halfway through the process. Although I welcome both those initiatives, they need to be rolled out on a larger scale if they are to have a significant effect on domestic violence. It is no good planning excellent initiatives unless we put them into practice, so I welcome my Government’s focus on those programmes. The introduction of specialist domestic violence courts, one of which serves my constituency and sits every week, is a great step forward. Such courts play an important role in reducing reoffending and in decreasing the number of victims who drop out of the process, to which I referred earlier. As it is so hard for women to report domestic violence initially, it is vital that they trust and believe in our criminal justice system. They must be able to feel that if they come forward justice will be done and they will be properly supported throughout the process. Early evidence shows that in some areas of the country reoffending rates have been cut by between 50 and 90 per cent. and, importantly, that the drop-out rate of victims during the prosecution process has gone down significantly. A further important aspect of the issue is support for children of victims of domestic violence. In a survey of mothers who had experienced domestic violence, 99 per cent. said that their children had seen them crying because of the violence, 73 per cent. said that their children had witnessed violent incidents and 10 per cent. had been sexually abused in front of their children. Unfortunately, domestic violence in families does not stop with the mother; 27 per cent. of mothers said their violent partner had also physically assaulted their children. Indeed, that is often the trigger for many women to report the abuse. There can be wide-reaching short and long-term effects on the children—affecting their health, their school work, their confidence and their future. A fantastic project in my constituency aims to deal with those after-effects and is already seeing positive results. The ““My Space, My Time”” project is supported by Barnardo’s and run by a dynamic young woman, Michele Clark. She provides a service in the Dudley borough to children and young people between the ages of five and 13 who have been affected by domestic violence. Her work to unpick what the children have seen is absolutely vital and helps to deal with any aggressive learned behaviour as a result of exposure to such violence. Michelle helps the children to express their feelings about what they experienced through play, drawings, talking and acting. If the learned behaviour is not challenged, it will obviously have a detrimental effect on the child’s development and will add to the possibility of social exclusion or of the cycle continuing. Michelle also provides advice to women who are suffering or have suffered domestic violence about safety planning for their children. She is having a lot of success with the children, but tells me that she is overwhelmed with work. So many women and children across the borough need the support that she can offer that she needs more staff, but sustained funding is not available. To return to my previous point, if we are to undo the damage caused to women and children by domestic violence, projects such as that must be funded—and funded well. The Sanctuary project recently announced by the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government—a scheme to install safe rooms in homes—can help in particular cases and has been used with success across the country. I would really like to see it rolled out in Dudley. The room features strong windows, door locks and anti-arson letter boxes so that the victim can stay in her home and does not have to move out, taking her children and her belongings in a plastic bag. She does not have to uproot the children from all that is stable in their lives. Although such safe rooms do not tackle the causes of domestic violence or punish the perpetrator, they can allow women to feel safer in their own homes—they do not have to upset their whole life. There are already examples of these safe rooms saving women’s lives. To complete the jigsaw, much more work must be done with young men and perpetrators of domestic violence. Punishing the perpetrators is not enough: their behaviour patterns need to be modified and their attitudes changed. They must acknowledge and be able to see the effect that their behaviour is having on their families. I welcome those innovative ideas, which have worked across the country, and I hope to see many more implemented in Dudley. I am saddened to say, however, that unless significant amounts of sustainable funding are ploughed into making these ideas a reality, they will remain just that—ideas. There are so many areas where we could be doing more work to tackle domestic violence that I cannot possibly go into them all. They range from finding more ways to reach and support pregnant women—30 per cent. of domestic violence starts during pregnancy and existing violence often escalates—to providing enough funding for hostels and refuges so that women who have to escape domestic violence have somewhere safe to go. Our commitment to tackling domestic violence must be far reaching and it must be sustained. It is no good simply acknowledging the scale of the problem and providing funding for projects only here and there. The Government and local authorities must continue to put their money where their mouths are and they really must continue to follow through. I am proud of how far we have come in tackling domestic violence over the past 10 years, but I am aware that we need to do a lot more. Domestic violence perpetuates inequality by degrading, isolating and controlling women, and until we eradicate it from our society we will never have true equality.