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Violence against Women and Children

My Lords, other steps took a lot longer to come through. I use the opportunity of thanking and congratulating the noble Baroness, Lady Gale, to underline what we as Conservatives on this side of the House and what a future Conservative Government, which we hope to see fairly soon, would do. I am grateful for the topicality of the noble Baroness’s debate, because, only last December, my right honourable friend Theresa May, the shadow Minister for Women—she was then shadow Leader of the House and is now shadow Secretary of State of the Department for Work and Pensions but also still the shadow Minister for Women—published the Conservative document Ending Violence Against Women. I shall say a little about it because it sets out our strategy for and vision of what should be done. I quote briefly from the foreword, which starts by saying: "““Our vision is for a society in which no woman has to live in fear of violence””." In quoting that, one must emphasise that it is not just violence that we are talking about but, obviously, fear of violence as well. She goes on to say: "““Any approach that sees tackling violence against women simply as a matter for the criminal justice system misses the point. We are committed to implementing an integrated violence against women strategy in government””." One might not like the grammar of that, but the intent is perfectly clear. The point was made by the noble Baroness, Lady Miller of Chilthorne Domer, when she said how grateful she was that the Attorney-General was coming to wind up the debate but that any Minister could do it because it was a matter for an integrated policy. It is certainly one that we are committed to, which is why my right honourable friend Theresa May made that point about integration. I shall go on to say a little about that in due course. My right honourable friend went on to make it quite clear that: "““Central to this must be prevention. We are determined to work with schools, police, health care professionals and the voluntary sector on preventative measures that can stop violence occurring in the first place””." That is, it is not purely a matter for punishment in due course; it is a matter of prevention. In the time I have available, I do not feel that I will be able to go into the full detail of my right honourable friend’s report. I hope that the Government and the noble and learned Baroness have taken the trouble to read it. If they have not, I shall certainly make sure that copies are made available to them, and I hope that they will study it. There are one or two points that come up in the paper which it would be useful for me to underline. I hope that in due course we can have some response from the noble and learned Baroness. First, there is the need for an integrated strategy—and here I echo what the noble Baroness, Lady Miller of Chilthorne Domer, said. This is something that goes across all parts of the Government, and not only central but local government. The shadow Minister for Women, my right honourable friend, would be responsible for overseeing this. But all other departments would have to report on their progress every year. We would want to ensure that all departments adopt and work to the United Nations definition of violence against women, to which earlier speakers referred. Similarly, we would want to ensure that central government issued clear guidance to all local authorities to stress their responsibilities under gender equality duties in respect of violence against women. That is only guidance that can be issued to local authorities and it might still be that there are what people refer to as postcode lotteries. However, we would hope to ensure that we have the highest standards available to all. Secondly, on prevention, this is not just a matter for the criminal law. It is important to work with schools to encourage them to tackle violence and bullying as part of the culture of British education. We would want to issue further guidance on specific forms of violence against women, explaining clearly to teachers what they should do if they have suspicions and concerns about children. This brings me on to another aspect of domestic violence. The noble and learned Baroness will remember the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004. I imagine that it was the noble and learned Baroness who took it through this House, along with a very large number of other Bills that she has taken through the House over the years. We would certainly want to give a commitment to review that Act and consider what changes are necessary. I should be very grateful if she could tell us what studies into it the Government have done and are likely to do in future. I say that because one section is causing us some confusion: the noble and learned Baroness will remember Section 12 of the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004. We want to see that implemented. Why has it not been implemented? The noble and learned Baroness will remember that assurances were given by her right honourable friend Harriet Harman and by Gerry Sutcliffe in the Home Office in 2007 that Section 12 would be brought into effect. That was reversed by a statement from the Home Secretary some time later in 2007 when she stated that she did not think that it was necessary to introduce it but no reason was given. We are confused: we are entitled to an answer and I should be grateful if the noble and learned Baroness could cover that point. A range of other points are raised in the report. I am grateful for everything that has been said by noble Baronesses on forced marriage, female genital mutilation and rape and sexual violence. I will not be able to go into them in detail on this occasion. I want to end with a couple of further questions. First, on early release and the end of custody licence, we have a sneaking suspicion that a great deal of early release—this goes wider than the subject of violence against women—is a means of massaging the prison figures and getting them down. In the case of domestic violence, does the noble and learned Baroness agree that these are particular cases where early release is not suitable? We give a commitment to legislate to end the automatic release at the half-way point of an offender’s sentence and we will not be using early release as a means of reducing numbers in prisons. My final question is about the matter relating to the funding of rape crisis centres. I should be grateful if the noble Baroness could say a little more about the funding. At the moment, as I understand it, the funding is allocated on a year-on-year basis. We will give a commitment that a Conservative Government will end that process of short-term annual funding by introducing a stable three-year funding cycle for rape crisis centres. Will the noble and learned Baroness be able to match that commitment? We will give an assurance that we will fund a further expansion in rape crisis centres to ensure adequate and equitable provision for victims across England and Wales. We intend to allocate some £2.6 million over three years for 15 new rape crisis centres, growing the network by more than one third to ensure that more victims of rape and sexual violence have access to that vital support service where necessary. I end with one final question on costs. The noble Baroness, Lady Massey of Darwen, rightly referred to the costs of keeping young persons in youth offender institutions and said that the money spent there could be saved and spent on early intervention. Will the noble and learned Baroness be able to give some idea of the cost per annum of keeping a young person in such an institution? We have recently heard figures quoted of the order of £200,000 a year. I have a sneaking suspicion that most of us would agree that that money could be much better spent at an earlier stage. I look forward to hearing what the noble and learned Baroness has to say.