The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department
(Rachel Maclean) With permission, Mr Speaker, I wish to make a
statement on the recommendations of Her Majesty’s inspectorate of
constabulary and fire & rescue services. One in five women
experiences sexual assault or attempted assault. The same
proportion has been stalked. More than a quarter have endured
domestic abuse. Harassment, abuse, rape, female genital mutilation,
so-called revenge porn and...Request free trial
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home
Department ()
With permission, Mr Speaker, I wish to make a statement on the
recommendations of Her Majesty’s inspectorate of constabulary and
fire & rescue services.
One in five women experiences sexual assault or attempted
assault. The same proportion has been stalked. More than a
quarter have endured domestic abuse. Harassment, abuse, rape,
female genital mutilation, so-called revenge porn and upskirting
happen every day.
Last year, we received more than 180,000 responses to our
violence against women and girls call for evidence. The vast
majority were from members of the public and many responses made
for distressing reading, but their courage in speaking out has
shaped our work. It has also laid bare the scale of the problem.
Violence against women and girls is endemic. The major change in
society that we urgently need demands action from all of us. I am
absolutely determined that we will stamp out violence against
women and girls, ensure that victims get the support they need,
and bring perpetrators to justice.
We set out our plan in our tackling violence against women and
girls strategy last July, including committing to a
communications campaign, measures to ensure women’s safety in
public spaces, and strengthening the law—including by
criminalising so-called virginity testing and appointing an
independent reviewer to help ensure that the regime for managing
registered sex offenders is as robust as it can be.
Last year, the Home Secretary also commissioned Her Majesty’s
inspectorate of constabulary and fire & rescue services to
inspect the police response to violence against women and girls.
The inspectorate published its final findings and recommendations
in September. It found that progress has been made, but that
urgent and significant action was still needed to protect women
and girls. Today, I can confirm that we are accepting all the
recommendations.
In its first recommendation, the inspectorate called for the
response to VAWG offences to be an absolute priority for
Government, policing and beyond. We are wholeheartedly committed
to that. We took immediate action to strengthen national
co-ordination in the police response to these crimes through the
appointment of deputy chief constable Maggie Blyth as the
full-time national policing lead for VAWG last October.
DCC Blyth has since published a national framework so that police
forces have clear and consistent direction. The National Policing
Board, which the Home Secretary chairs and which I attend,
discussed VAWG last November. The Home Secretary and I underlined
the need to act swiftly to protect the public and address
confidence in policing. All the board members pledged to support
DCC Blyth with her plan to improve policing’s response to
VAWG-related crimes and hidden harms, and we will return to these
discussions later this year.
Continued national grip of these issues is vital. As I said, we
will be adding tackling violence against women and girls to the
strategic policing requirement. That sends the unequivocal
message that these crimes must be a priority for forces, taken as
seriously as homicide, serious and organised crime, and
terrorism. For women and girls, this means they can expect their
local force to work with others, including collaborating with
other agencies, using their local and regional capabilities to
tackle violence. We are also strengthening legislation, to make
it clear that domestic abuse and sexual offences can be part of
the serious violence duty being introduced via the Police, Crime,
Sentencing and Courts Bill.
In its second overarching recommendation, the inspectorate
rightly advocated the relentless pursuit and disruption of VAWG
perpetrators. That is why we have committed to expanding
Operation Soteria, an innovative pilot project to transform
approaches to rape cases, including through perpetrator-centric
investigations, to a further 14 police force areas. This year, we
have also invested £11 million in domestic abuse perpetrator
programmes across the country to stamp it out before it
escalates, and we are toughening up legislation to clamp down on
online abuse such as cyber-stalking and so-called revenge
porn.
Victims are right at the heart of everything we do, which is why
we fully accept the inspectorate’s third overarching
recommendation: to ensure tailored and consistent victim support.
In the tackling VAWG strategy, we committed to increase funding
for specialist services. This support comes from right across
Government. In the Home Office alone, we have allocated £43
million to tackling VAWG. Across Government more widely, we are
spending £300 million to support victims.
Mr Speaker, you will also be aware of the £5 million safety of
women at night fund, as well as the multiple rounds of safer
streets funding, amounting to £150 million. These schemes are
advocated for and delivered by local authorities, and they are
making a real, tangible and practical difference to women in the
night-time economy and as they go about their daily lives, going
to work, seeing their friends, going shopping, using public
transport and being in public spaces. The schemes include things
such as patrols, taxi marshals, additional security, training for
the night-time economy, and the better lighting of routes between
bars and nightclubs. We will also publish a victims’ Bill to
enshrine in law that the needs of victims are a priority for the
criminal justice system.
Individuals and communities need to have full confidence in
policing. That requires chief constables to demand consistently
high standards in responding to VAWG, as recommended in the
inspectorate’s fourth overarching recommendation. DCC Blyth is
supporting forces in doing that and holding them to account. Dame
Elish Angiolini’s inquiry will shine a light on the failings that
allowed the abuse of position by a then serving police officer
and those wider systematic issues within policing. The Home
Secretary has also asked the inspectorate to review vetting
procedures in policing across England and Wales, including
whether forces are equipped to deal with misogynistic and
predatory behaviour.
Lastly, as recommended by the inspectorate, we are also committed
to exploring the use of police outcome codes, particularly those
used to close cases where there are evidential difficulties or
victims do not support police action. All cases must be taken
seriously by the criminal justice system.
In addition to the inspectorate’s recommendations, last night we
launched a powerful multi-year national communications campaign,
to go live today, called “Enough”. It is designed to make clear
to perpetrators that their crimes will not be tolerated, to drive
rejection of those crimes throughout society and to help victims
to get all the support they need. I urge all hon. Members of this
House, whatever Bench they sit on, to share the campaign, to
ensure it reaches as many people as possible. They will find the
resources on the Home Office website.
We will soon publish a dedicated domestic abuse plan
complementing the VAWG strategy, as well as statutory guidance on
the definition of domestic abuse. We will publish a refreshed
national statement of expectations to provide guidance to local
areas on effective commissioning of support services for victims
and survivors. We will also refresh our male victims position
statement in recognition of the fact that, of course, men and
boys also experience these appalling crimes and need a tailored
response.
This Government will never accept that violence, harassment or
abuse are an inevitable feature of life. Changing things
radically for the better is everyone’s business, and I commend
this statement to the House.
12.45pm
(Croydon Central) (Lab)
I thank the Minister for her statement, a copy of which we
received 15 minutes before it was made. You might think, Mr
Speaker, that with the machinery of government at their disposal
Ministers could follow the normal practice and give the statement
to us a little sooner than that, but I thank her for the
statement in any case.
Mr Speaker
Order. Have I heard the shadow Minister correctly that she got
the statement only 15 minutes beforehand?
It was at 12.15 pm, and we thought the statement was starting at
12.30 pm.
Mr Speaker
That is not acceptable. I say to the Minister and to the
officials in the box: why has this happened? It totally goes
against the rule. Copies of statements should arrive at least 45
minutes before they are made. I cannot understand. If we were
told that this statement was due, there must have been enough
time to make sure that the Opposition could, quite rightly, hold
the Government to account. Back Benchers also need to hold the
Government to account, but the statement should be led equally by
both sides of the House.
Mr Speaker, may I offer my full and wholehearted apology for the
failure to follow those processes? There has been a failure. I
apologise to the shadow Minister, I apologise to you, Mr Speaker,
and I apologise to the whole House. I will personally take it
upon myself at the highest levels of the Department to find out
what went wrong in this instance, and I am very happy to answer
questions at any time.
May I say that that was an exercise in making a very good
apology? I appreciate it very much.
On so many measures around violence against women and girls, we
are sadly going in the wrong direction. Confidence in the police
to tackle violence against women and girls is falling; the rape
charge rate is staggeringly low and going backwards, at just
1.3%; the police recorded a total of 845,734 domestic
abuse-related crimes in 2021, and we know that domestic violence
skyrocketed during the pandemic, with 260,000 abuse offences
between March and June alone. More and more victims are dropping
out of the system, unable to cope with the intrusion and the
delays.
The damning report of Her Majesty’s inspectorate of constabulary
and fire & rescue services into the police response to
violence against women and girls should have been a wake-up call.
Zoë Billingham told us clearly that we cannot stand aside and let
violence against women and girls continue, and it must not be
left to women and girls to make that happen.
We welcome the Government’s saying today that they will make
tackling violence against women and girls a strategic police
requirement—but why on earth have they waited until now to do it?
They could have done it straight away when the report was
published. The scale of the response is still far too small.
Nothing the Government are saying does anything for offender
management. The Government must set out a plan for how exactly
perpetrators will be interrupted.
The inspectorate’s report was clear that far more needs to be
done to identify and manage high-harm and serial offenders
against women and girls. Some of the offenders in cases reviewed
by the inspectorate had offended against eight or nine different
victims. That is completely unacceptable. Far too many dangerous
perpetrators are being allowed to offend again and again;
criminals are being let off and the victims are being let down.
We welcome the expansion of Operation Soteria, but why not do
that for every force—why only 14?
Members across the House will have read about the tragic case of
a woman killed by her ex-husband in Maida Vale. She had reported
multiple incidents of domestic abuse and a stalking prevention
order had been put in place, but the lack of proper perpetrator
management meant that she lost her life. At least two fifths of
police forces in England and Wales do not have specialist
RASSO—rape and serious sexual offences—units, even though
specialist support and advice to victims is vital in reducing
victim drop-out. The Government are refusing to back Labour’s
calls to require RASSO units in every police force area. Will the
Government now commit to putting a RASSO unit in every police
force area, and if not, why not, when we know that they work?
The joint thematic inspection of the police and CPS’s response to
rape says that the provision of victims services varies wildly
throughout police forces and CPS areas. Rape victims should be
given a legal advocate who sees the victim through the whole
process so that fewer people drop out. What are the Government’s
plans to ensure that victim support is consistent across the
country? Will the Government commit to giving rape victims a
legal advocate? The Government should be doing everything at
their disposal to raise the priority of the police and CPS’s
response to violence against women and girls.
The Government have the power to act and make this period one of
profound change, and to lead a transformation to make our streets
safer for women and girls. My hon. Friend the Member for
Birmingham, Yardley () has repeatedly asked when
the Home Secretary will implement the recommendations of Zoë
Billingham’s report in full, so we welcome the fact that the
Government have finally committed to accepting the report’s
recommendations, but why did it need to take this long? Will the
Minister commit to coming back to this House to provide a
timeline for the report’s implementation?
The time for warm words has long passed. Now is the time for
Government to work together, across Departments, to tackle this
epidemic of violence wherever it arises, be it in the criminal
justice system, in schools, in our homes or on our streets.
I welcome the hon. Lady’s response to the fact that we have made
this momentous change and added the issue of violence against
women and girls to the strategic police requirement. I think she
has broadly welcomed this very important step. It is vital to
point out to the House how significant it is: it is putting
crimes of violence against women and girls on a par with
terrorism, serious violence and drug offences. That is an
enormous change to the policing operation in this country.
Members across the House will, I am sure, reflect on the fact
that policing in this country is independent from Government, so
it is vital that we work across the entire system to make sure
that the police have the funding, the resources and the legal
powers they need to do their job. This Government have put record
funding into the police, supporting them with an uplift programme
of £15.9 billion and recruiting additional officers to be able to
tackle these crimes wherever they occur. We are absolutely
focused on driving out these crimes from our society.
I noticed that the hon. Lady did not refer to the communications
campaign that we launched last night. That is a shame. I would be
grateful if she could confirm, as I think she is doing, that she
will share that widely with all her colleagues. In that room last
night, there were charities, campaigners, victims of extremely
serious crimes and people who have worked on the frontline, and
they told us that they have been calling for exactly such a
campaign for decades. Education is vital. We need to make it as
unacceptable to be calling out and harassing women and girls on
the streets as it is to drive without a seatbelt. Today we are
taking the first step to doing that, and I know that everybody in
the House will welcome it.
(East Worthing and Shoreham) (Con)
I welcome the seriousness with which the Minister is taking this
issue and the fact that the Government are adopting the
recommendations of the inspectorate. She will be aware that the
Home Affairs Committee is looking into violence against women and
girls and the low level of rape case convictions. Two of the key
findings that will improve the situation are, first, the quality
and appropriateness of the initial police reaction to reports,
particularly with certain cohorts of people such as deaf women
and those who do not have English as their first language; and
secondly, the delay between an initial investigation and its ever
coming to court, if it does—so many women drop out of that
process because of the continued hassle overhanging them of
having to go through the investigation. Does she agree that we
absolutely urgently have to get those two things right?
It is a pleasure to respond to the Chair of the Home Affairs
Committee, and of course it was a pleasure to appear before
him—[Interruption.] Oh, the interim Chair: my apologies to the
Chair, the right hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull North ( ), who is in her place. That
is mortifying; I do apologise. Nevertheless, I look forward to
appearing in front of the Committee, no doubt, in future.
The issues that my hon. Friend raised are vital. He is right to
point to the challenges faced by women and girls, and of course
men, who come from backgrounds of disability or other
circumstances that make it harder for them to engage with the
criminal justice system. That is exactly why we are expanding our
groundbreaking programme, Operation Soteria, which looks in
detail at the issues that he highlighted about the delays in rape
case prosecutions. These issues are systematic and actually go
back decades. This is a very important point. We are now
prosecuting rape and these crimes in a very different age—in a
digital age. People now have evidence on their phones. They have
gigabytes and terabytes of information in the cloud, all of
which, at times, needs to be introduced into an investigation.
That must be done in a proportionate and sensible way. That is
why I think my hon. Friend will welcome the work that we are
doing in Operation Soteria to tackle another issue that has often
been raised with us by victims—that of people having their phones
taken away from them.
Mr Speaker
Order. I understand we are trying to buy time. We do not need to
buy time, so let us do our normal routine.
(Kingston upon Hull North)
(Lab)
I am delighted to follow the hon. Member for East Worthing and
Shoreham ()—the longest-serving member of the Home Affairs
Committee and a very able acting Chair.
I welcome the fact that men’s violence against women and girls
will be a strategic policing requirement—that is absolutely
right. However, the joint thematic report on the police and CPS’s
response to rape, which was published at the end of last week,
had, again, the shocking statistic that for those cases that
actually get to court, over 700 days elapse from the report of
the incident to actually getting to court. There were nine
recommendations in the report, including the establishment of a
commissioner for adult rape and serious sexual offences, and
having specialist rape courts to deal with the backlog. Will the
Minister comment on whether those recommendations will be
accepted by the Government? Will she confirm which Home Office
Minister is responsible for the implementation of the rape
review?
It is a pleasure to respond to the Chair of the Select Committee.
The rape review is a cross-Government effort led by the deputy
Prime Minister. A number of Ministers are involved in it, most
notably myself and the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice,
the hon. Member for Louth and Horncastle (). We work together to make
sure that our two Departments co-ordinate on these very important
issues. We will be coming forward in due course with our response
to the report that was published last Friday, and we will be
happy to come back to the House or answer questions in the usual
way.
(Wycombe) (Con)
I welcome this statement very strongly. May I highlight to my
hon. Friend the case of the rape and murder of Libby Squire? Her
parents still live in my constituency; the case of course took
place in the constituency of the right hon. Member for Kingston
upon Hull North ( ). The case particularly
highlights how behaviours can escalate from non-contact sexual
offences to, as I say, rape and murder. What will my hon. Friend
do to make sure that those patterns of escalation are effectively
dealt with so that tragedies like that can be avoided in
future?
I thank my hon. Friend for bringing this atrocious case to the
House’s attention again and for all his work on behalf of the
victim’s family. He is right to highlight the trends of
escalating offences, which are an integral part of our Operation
Soteria work and which we are dealing with through the rape
review. The academics reviewing cases in which things have gone
wrong, or have not progressed as fast as they should, have come
forward with recommendations that are being implemented in forces
at pace. We are rolling out the model of best practice in
investigations to a further 14 forces and will stand it up
nationally to forces across the country, because we need these
patterns to be recognised and tackled as soon as they occur.
(Lewisham East) (Lab)
I thank the Minister for the positive initiative that she
mentions and for the enthusiastic way in which she is addressing
the Chamber. The inspectorate’s report found that a high number
of rape and domestic abuse victims are closing their cases and
dropping out of the process; in fact, more than 40% of rape
victims dropped out of the process last year. It is clear that
more specialist support is needed, so today will the Government
back Labour’s plan to increase the number of RASSO units?
I want to be clear that we completely support the need for
specialist RASSO training in all police forces. We are working
with our partners in policing through the National Policing
Board, through all the work taking place in the rape review and
through the additional funding resource that we have put into the
police to enable them to train officers to investigate and tackle
these crimes. Labour is right to say that this is a specialist
area; we need to get it right, so we agree that forces need that
specialism.
(Gloucester) (Con)
I agree with many things that the shadow Minister, the hon.
Member for Croydon Central (), said, especially her comment
that we cannot just leave it up to women and girls to resolve the
violence against them, but it was rather ironic that she made
that comment to a Chamber in which there were about 15 male
Conservative MPs and not a single male Labour MP behind her,
which was disappointing.
I congratulate the Minister on accepting all the recommendations
in the report, which builds on the good work already done on FGM
and particularly on spiking; last night’s announcement was very
important to me and to many in this House. At last night’s event,
Deputy Chief Constable Blyth and others, including Nick Gazzard
of the Hollie Gazzard Trust in Gloucester, brought together
people who really care about the issue. Does the Minister agree
that we must keep it high up the agenda?
My hon. Friend has been a consistent champion who has worked
tirelessly to bring the House’s attention to crimes such as
spiking. Because of his consistent advocacy, we will be making
enormous strides in the area.
I am absolutely delighted to see so many male colleagues behind
me. We are united in tackling this.
(Cardiff North) (Lab)
Without knowing the full scale of violence against women and
girls, we cannot hold all perpetrators to account, and victims
continue to see justice denied. Hundreds of suicides and deaths a
year could be linked to abuse at home.
#NotJustAnother is a campaign initiated by Professor Jane
Monckton Smith and supported by Advocacy After Fatal Domestic
Abuse, with which I happened to be on the phone just before I ran
into the Chamber for this statement, and by many organisations
and experts. It calls on the police to count all women who have
died in suspicious circumstances following abuse. That is
counting the real cost of male violence. Will the Government
pledge to do it?
I thank the hon. Lady for attending the event last night. It was
a real pleasure to see her there and speak to many of the
organisations with which she has been working on these vital
issues. We are looking at domestic homicides and suicide after
domestic abuse; I am very happy to meet her and update her in
more detail on the work we are doing.
(Loughborough) (Con)
I spent much of the morning talking online with Loughborough
College uniformed services students about prisons and reducing
reoffending, so this is a well-timed and welcome statement. I
really welcome today’s announcement.
Will my hon. Friend confirm that, following the recommendations,
her Department will improve collaboration between police and
prosecutors to improve rape prosecution rates? What steps will be
taken to identify and monitor that action and report back to the
House?
My hon. Friend is totally right: improving how the police, the
CPS and all parts of the system work together is vital to
improving victims’ experiences and bringing more rapists to
justice. Other measures that we have introduced, such as those in
the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, will bring in
stronger sentences to act as a deterrent. I am always happy to
update the House on the groundbreaking work of Operation Soteria,
which is led by the Deputy Prime Minister.
(Bath) (LD)
I welcome the Government’s intention to take violence against
women and girls seriously at last. I put on record my
disappointment that yesterday the Government did not agree to the
Lords amendment to make misogyny a hate crime, but there we
go.
Further to the question asked by the hon. Member for Loughborough
(), will the Minister support my
private Member’s Bill coming before Parliament next week? My Bill
would establish an independent review of rape conviction rates
and the effect on victims of rape, and it would make sure that
the Government act on the review’s requirements.
The hon. Lady will be aware that we already have independent
mechanisms in place to review exactly those issues. That is the
work of the rape review and of the many inspectorate bodies that
many hon. Members have referred to, such as HMICFRS and HM Crown
Prosecution Service inspectorate. I am not sure whether she
attended the launch last night, but I urge her to look at the
innovative, fantastic and well-received national communications
campaign, which directly addresses misogyny in society. That is
how we drive misogyny out of our society: by stopping men and
boys from acting in a misogynistic way.
(Truro and Falmouth)
(Con)
I welcome the Government’s position and their adoption of the
recommendations. I apologise for not attending the event last
night; I wanted to, but my diary did not allow it.
I particularly welcome the tailored and consistent victim support
that the Minister mentioned. I commend the work of , our police and crime
commissioner in Devon and Cornwall. May I draw the Minister’s
attention to the extra challenges that rural and coastal
communities face? If we are to get a genuine tailored commitment
to get victims from the offence to a successful prosecution, it
will take feet on the ground and extra resource. Will she expand
on what the Government expect to present in that space?
My hon. Friend is absolutely right to highlight the need for
specialist support, which is why we have put additional resources
into the system. We have expanded the essential independent
sexual violence adviser and independent domestic violence adviser
scheme, in which individuals are trained to work with victims in
a very specialised way and help them to navigate their way
through the system. We recognise that it is daunting, but we know
that putting those people in place can make an enormous
difference to the conviction rate.
(Luton North) (Lab)
The Minister asks us to support the new communications plan, as I
am sure everybody in the House will. She said in her statement
that the “Enough” campaign
“is designed to make it clear to perpetrators that their crimes
will not be tolerated”,
but it is hard to see how the communications plan is being
matched with action. More than 98% of reported rape cases go
unprosecuted. When can we expect prosecution rates to increase
under the new plans? Is it months, is it years or is it
decades?
The hon. Lady will recognise that this is a systemic change—an
enormous cultural change that will not happen overnight. In fact,
the issues go back decades under multiple Governments. Women and
girls and rape victims have been let down. That is why this
Government have taken the bull by the horns: we are the
Government who set up the rape review to work extensively with
the CPS and the police to find out what is going wrong and fix it
with cash, legislation and action.
(Buckingham) (Con)
I very much welcome my hon. Friend’s statement. The hon. Member
for Luton North () asked about the communications
campaign. I believe that the campaign is important, but the
long-term societal shift must start from a very early age. What
is the Minister doing in schools to ensure that young people
understand this important issue and come out of school well
educated and fully aware of the issues?
As I say, it is fantastic to see so many male colleagues behind
me. We are united, and we understand that the issues start in
schools. Conservative Members have consistently advocated for
education in primary and secondary schools on healthy
relationships and consent for sexual acts. We know that young
people are exposed to the internet these days, and to so many
other influences; we stand by them as we help them to grow up in
a healthy way.
(Vauxhall)
(Lab/Co-op)
In its second recommendation, the inspectorate rightly
advocated
“the relentless pursuit and disruption of perpetrators”
of violence against women and girls. The Minister may be aware
that one area about which I have grave concern is the number of
girls and young women who are coerced by gang members. Those
women sometimes do not come forward; they do not have voices to
report the sheer level of violence that they suffer. The
Minister’s predecessor, the hon. Member for Louth and Horncastle
(), made a commitment that
the violence against women and girls strategy would involve
looking at data on the gender-specific abuse that these women
face throughout the country. Will the Minister commit herself to
reviewing that, please?
Of course we are aware of the tragic involvement of girls, and
boys, in county lines. Our response to county lines has been
strengthened considerably, which has resulted in a huge number of
arrests and the taking out of criminal gangs. Our response is
very sensitive to the fact that these are hidden harms. We do
record the data on the victims, and that informs our response to
enable us to put more of these horrific perpetrators behind
bars.
(Strangford) (DUP)
I thank the Minister for her statement, and for the positive
action that she and the Government are taking. In respect of the
safeguarding of ladies and girls, as well as gentlemen and boys,
has the Minister had an opportunity to discuss this positive
statement with the devolved Administrations—for instance, the
Northern Ireland Assembly, and the relevant Minister in
particular—to ensure that back home we can follow the rules that
have been set here for the benefit of everyone in the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland? We can all gain
from what has been put forward here today.
I thank the hon. Gentleman for his advocacy of this issue. We
work very closely with all the devolved Administrations, and I
will be happy to set up further conversations in which he can be
involved.
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