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Violence against Women and Children

My Lords, I, too, thank my noble friend Lady Gale for introducing this debate. She has been a great champion of this issue and I am grateful to her for the opportunity to review what has been taking place. I also congratulate the Government. The Attorney-General, who is here today, has been at the forefront of bringing about great change in this area. She has been supported, I know, by the Solicitor-General and other women Ministers, and we have seen a real step change in this issue over the past decade. Other parties have also been working hard at developing strategy and stepping up on this issue. I know that because I have recently seen some of the work in the policy document being produced by the Conservative Party. It, too, is now clear that this is an important issue which is central to our society because the costs to us all are so great. Like the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay, I come at this matter from a lifetime’s experience as a professional. I speak as a lawyer and she spoke as a doctor. When practising in the courts in my early years, I saw domestic violence at the front line. At that time, the taboos, which have already been mentioned, were considerable. Women felt ashamed and therefore often did not seek the help of the authorities. Their families felt shame, so women were surrounded by silence on this issue. We also contended with many myths, one of which was that women were battered only if they brought it on their own heads. It was an example of blaming the victim, as we have so often seen. Other myths were that somehow domestic violence existed only within certain classes within society or within certain ethnic minorities—for example, the Irish or Afro-Caribbeans. The assumptions that existed within our courts were extraordinary. Happily, we have seen a recognition that this issue cuts across all the social divides and is known within all families. Any of us who travel and speak on human rights issues know that, whichever country we visit in the world, there will be women activists, lawyers and judges who raise the fact that domestic violence is a serious problem within their communities. A lot has been done and I do not want in any way to sound displeased with the progress that has been made. No Government have done more than this one. We now have specialist courts and specialist prosecutors, and far more streamlined processes. We have also seen a great change in attitude among the judiciary and magistracy: because of good training, there is now a much wider understanding of the dynamics of violence. I have seen a remarkable difference in the approach of the courts towards domestic violence. However, I am afraid that I am going to raise an issue of concern. I do not want it to appear as ingratitude towards the Government but, in this worsening economic climate, I am fearful that women may feel under even greater pressure to stay with violent and abusive partners, and I am very concerned that many children within families will suffer in consequence. Today we have spoken about the consequences of domestic violence for children, but we need really good, supportive agencies and we need to ensure that the refuges that exist are maintained. I regret that the refuge movement is already seeing a diminution of its funding and of the support that it gets from donations, local authorities and others as a means of staying in existence. I am the patron of a national domestic violence charity, Refuge, and I have seen evidence of this erosion first hand. Every day, women and children are turned away from already overflowing refuges. The ones that exist operate on a hand-to-mouth basis. Some services, such as Refuge’s independent advocacy scheme in Kent and its psychological services, are facing closure. In the current recession, donor income is drying up and Refuge has had to make staff redundant in order to balance its budget and keep essential services going. That should be a source of real concern to us all. It was very interesting to hear how people, particularly babies, are damaged by being in a violent environment. We need good specialist services provided by well trained specialist individuals, but, unfortunately, I think that we are going to see a reduction in them unless we are alert to the problem. Service provision for victims of domestic violence is patchy. As it stands, local authorities can choose whether to provide domestic violence services, and one third of them around the country provide none. I ask the noble and learned Baroness the Attorney-General what can be done about local authorities that fail to make such provision. We need to have a stick or a carrot. There has to be some way of dealing with what is essentially a postcode lottery for those who need support. The chief executive of Refuge, Sandra Horley, is a remarkable woman. She was one of the people who managed to make this a mainstream issue. She has had input in policy over the 30 years that she has worked in the field. She tells me that early intervention is essential and that there must be specialist support services. The vital work to prevent domestic violence is underfunded. She says that, as one of the country's largest providers of domestic violence services, she is now seeing real problems with lack of funding. Refuge is now at risk of losing the first refuge, the Chiswick refuge, to other providers that have no specialist knowledge of domestic violence. That is a real regret, because this work cannot be done without expertise. It may shock the House to know that Refuge currently receives no statutory funding to support children who have been exposed to domestic violence. Sandra Horley has listened to pre-schoolers talking about how daddy and mummy locked them in the bathroom while they were involved in some extremely violent event, and to teenagers describing how their whole lives have been blighted by a violent father. Finding funds to provide psychologists who can address these children's suffering is like finding gold dust. Only recently, the Department of Health turned down Refuge's application for a head of psychological services. The Government and Comic Relief provide some funding for Refuge’s National Domestic Violence Helpline. I have sat in its office and watched it work. It is a revelation. Helpline staff provide vital, sometimes lifesaving, support, but they struggle to answer every call. The helpline is, effectively, a 999 service run on a shoestring budget. A combination of Refuge and Women’s Aid provide the service in partnership. More of Refuge's staff’s time is now being spent scrambling to find funds in an already impoverished sector, which is time that should be spent supporting women and children. Since Refuge opened the doors of its first refuge in 1971, three Home Affairs Select Committees have urged the Government to increase funding as a matter of urgency. If Refuge collapsed tomorrow, thousands of women and children would be left with nowhere to turn. We have just had a debate on the impact on families of the recession. It will be vital that there is proper funding of support services for women and children. We should not be seeing a diminution of such services but an increase. I hope that the noble and learned Baroness will come to us with good news on that front.