Asked by Baroness Gale To ask Her Majesty’s Government
whether they will consult on establishing a register of serial
stalkers. The Minister of State, Home Office (Baroness Williams of
Trafford) (Con) My Lords, the Government are fully committed
to tackling stalking and we are working with partners to look at
ways to strengthen the management of...Request free trial
Asked by
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To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will consult
on establishing a register of serial stalkers.
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The Minister of State, Home Office (Baroness Williams of
Trafford) (Con)
My Lords, the Government are fully committed to tackling
stalking and we are working with partners to look at ways
to strengthen the management of serial offenders. Stalking
perpetrators can already be captured on the dangerous
persons database and can be managed by the police and the
probation service under the multi-agency public protection
arrangements. We are not convinced that a new register
would improve how serial perpetrators are managed and are
concerned that this approach may risk a disjointed police
and offender management response.
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(Lab)
My Lords, I thank the Minister for her response. Is she
saying that she does not see the need for a separate
register despite all the evidence from Paladin? Surely the
Minister would agree that serial stalkers and the
perpetrators of domestic violence should be subject to
orders that place a positive obligation on them to change
their behaviour. They should be included on the ViSOR
database and thus MAPPA to ensure that they are subject to
robust and proactive supervision, monitoring and tracking,
which would give better protection to victims.
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My Lords, I am fully supportive of a register for all the
purposes that the noble Baroness has set out. The point I
made in my first Answer was that running several registers
might lead to a fragmented approach by the police and the
probation service. One register capturing both violent and
serious sex offenders enables the police to deal more
effectively with the types of people that we all want to
capture.
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(LD)
My Lords, contrary to what I think the Minister was moving
towards saying, the House may know that currently there is
no existing framework which can track or monitor serial
stalkers. Might that be addressed in the domestic violence
Bill and will measures to tackle serial stalkers be
included in it?
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As I have said, we will be going out to consultation very
shortly on the domestic violence Bill. On stalkers, the
noble Baroness will know about Clare’s law, which enables
people to find out whether their partner has a past in this
area. I would recommend to the noble Baroness and to all
noble Lords who are interested in the Bill to take full
part in the consultation.
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(Con)
My Lords, I know that all noble Lords will welcome the
Government’s commitment to an additional £17 million fund
to tackle violence against women and girls. What impact
does my noble friend expect the proposed domestic violence
and abuse commissioner to have?
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I am pleased to be able to say to my noble friend that the
domestic violence and abuse commissioner will have a
significant impact on domestic violence. Certainly the
commissioner will stand up for victims and survivors, raise
public awareness of the issue, monitor the response of
statutory agencies and local authorities and, I hope, drive
further improvements in tackling domestic abuse.
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(Lab)
My Lord, aside from the risk of multiplication, what are the
difficulties in just expanding the sex offenders register?
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On expanding the sex offenders register, someone has to be
violent and a sex offender to go on to it. A stalker might be
neither violent nor a sex offender. However, if someone
becomes violent and a menace both to society and to their
victim, they would be captured on the sex offenders register.
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(Con)
My Lords, some ethnic minority women have got married under
the nikah ceremony and have subsequently found themselves in
a domestic violence situation, but they have no redress
because they have not had their marriage registered by a
registry office. Will this be tackled in some sort of
register too?
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I am so glad my noble friend brought up this issue because it
is one I have seen evidence of on many occasions: a woman
thinks she is married—she may have come from another country
to get married in this country—but she is not and her
marriage is not recognised in law. If she is a victim of
domestic violence she is in a very vulnerable position
indeed. I hope my noble friend brings this up in the course
of the consultation on the domestic abuse Bill.
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(Lab)
My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Baroness for her answer
to my letter of 23 October and for her suggestion that we
should meet again. However, I do not understand what has
changed between the meeting my colleagues from Paladin had
with the Minister on 11
September, when she said that a register would be part of the
consultation, and the statements given by the noble Baroness
today and in her letter to me saying that the register would
not be part of such a consultation. What has changed in the
last two months?
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My Lords, nothing has changed. There is every opportunity for
the noble Baroness to put that forward through the
consultation. At that point—I am sure she would agree—I was
loath to have a fragmented system of registration. Let us
continue to discuss it because we both want the same thing.
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(LD)
My Lords, women who have been stalked and have been victims
of domestic violence keep having to move. I had a case
recently of a woman who moved five times to get away from her
abuser. Several times information about where she had moved
to was not passed on to the relevant constabulary and she was
left vulnerable to her stalker. What safeguards are in place
to ensure this does not happen?
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Going back to the national statement of expectations, we need
a joined-up approach for local authorities and across police
forces so women are not found by their stalkers or abusers.
In fact, women should not have to flee at all and the
perpetrators should be brought to justice.
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