Asked by Baroness Royall of Blaisdon To ask Her Majesty’s
Government whether they intend to introduce a register of serial
stalkers, including perpetrators of domestic abuse. The Minister of
State, Home Office (Baroness Williams of Trafford) (Con) My
Lords, the Government are fully committed to tackling domestic
abuse and stalking and are doing all...Request free trial
Asked by
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To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they intend to
introduce a register of serial stalkers, including
perpetrators of domestic abuse.
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The Minister of State, Home Office (Baroness Williams of
Trafford) (Con)
My Lords, the Government are fully committed to tackling
domestic abuse and stalking and are doing all that we can
to protect victims and robustly target perpetrators.
Domestic abuse and stalking perpetrators can already be
captured on the dangerous persons database and managed by
police and probation under multiagency public protection
arrangements, or MAPPA. The domestic violence disclosure
scheme has also been rolled out nationally to inform and
alert new partners about a perpetrator’s previous
offending.
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(Lab)
My Lords, I am grateful for that Answer and I know the
Government are doing what they can. Does the Minister agree
that lives would be saved if serial stalking perpetrators
were indeed managed in exactly the same way as sex
offenders by including them on ViSOR and MAPPA? I also ask
her to assure me that the forthcoming consultation on the
DV Bill will include something on this register, as
promised by the Minister to my colleagues Laura Richards
and Zoe Dronfield from Paladin at a meeting held several
weeks ago.
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Perhaps I may first pay tribute to the noble Baroness for all
that she does with Paladin. I really valued being able to go
to the Paladin evening, although we only just crossed paths
because the noble Baroness was delayed. We are certainly
working across Government to develop measures that are both
legislative and non-legislative to ensure that we are able to
do all we can to protect and support victims, and to bring
the perpetrators of stalking and domestic violence to
justice. Later this year we will consult voluntary sector
partners, experts and parliamentarians on the proposals and
we will bring forward a Bill following that consultation. I
look forward to the submission by both the noble Baroness and
by Paladin, whose representatives I know have had a meeting
at the Home Office as well.
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(LD)
In the light of that answer, would the Government consider
putting the register to which the noble Baroness has alluded
into the much-anticipated domestic abuse Bill? When is that
Bill likely to be published, so that offenders can be
punished?
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We have signalled our intention to bring forward a Bill in
this Session. On the register, of course, we have the
domestic violence disclosure scheme, which is also known as
Clare’s law. It provides a way of disclosing information
about a partner’s previous convictions in this area. Also,
perpetrators can be put on the ViSOR register for violent and
sex offenders. It is important in this space to ensure that
we have a register that is simple to use for those who need
to use it, and not to over-complicate things by issuing too
many registers, with cases potentially falling between the
cracks. However, I will be very happy to work with noble
Lords on this as we progress towards the Bill.
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(Lab)
My Lords, does the noble Baroness agree that cultural change
is urgently needed to ensure that the serial perpetrators,
rather than the victims, are placed at the centre of
investigations and risk management plans? Paladin’s evidence
and research show that this is not happening and that women
are paying for that with their lives. What actions are the
Government taking to ensure that such a cultural change takes
place?
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The noble Baroness is absolutely right to make the point that
cultural change is essential in this area. Often, it is the
women who are fleeing their homes and running away from often
quite violent and wicked men. I pay tribute to the various
groups such as SafeLives, which are providing perpetrator
programmes to ensure that women actually remain safe in their
homes and, where possible, men can be rehabilitated. I do
talk about women and men here because women are most likely
to be the victims of these offences.
Perhaps I may also talk about the police’s approach to
vulnerability, which was brought up in a previous Question
about training. We have awarded nearly £2 million to the
College of Policing to transform the police’s approach. This
will include a much-enhanced programme of training. I
referred earlier to getting the voluntary sector to engage,
as well, which would be all to the good since cultural change
is sought across all agencies. Unfortunately, we are quite
new to this process, although we have been trying to tackle
this issue for decades. The noble Baroness has raised a very
valid point.
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(CB)
My Lords, as the thinking develops about a register, will the
Minister consider having a section devoted to highlighting
families with vulnerable young children, who are also the
victims of abuse?
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I am glad to be able to answer the noble Lord’s question. Of
course, we have a register, but one of the things we are
looking to acknowledge is that a child who experiences or
witnesses just one episode of domestic abuse can be scarred
for life. That should be reflected in sentencing. Hopefully,
I will be leading on the Bill and I look forward in
particular to discussing measures in that area with noble
Lords.
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