Tabled by Baroness Verma To ask Her Majesty’s
Government what steps they are taking to help men who seek support
in addressing their abusive behaviour. Baroness Jenkin of
Kennington (Con) My Lords, on behalf of my noble friend Lady
Verma and at her request, I beg leave to ask the Question...Request free trial
Tabled by
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To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking
to help men who seek support in addressing their abusive
behaviour.
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(Con)
My Lords, on behalf of my noble friend Lady Verma and at
her request, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in
her name on the Order Paper.
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The Minister of State, Home Office (Baroness Williams of
Trafford) (Con)
My Lords, the Government’s Ending Violence Against Women
and Girls strategy sets out our ambition both to support
victims and to improve early intervention measures to
prevent reoffending and to stop these crimes happening in
the first place. The Government are funding a number of new
approaches to manage perpetrators of domestic abuse,
including the Drive project, which helps perpetrators
change their behaviour. We also fund the national Respect
helpline, which offers perpetrators advice and support.
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My Lords, I know all noble Lords will welcome the
additional funding for the prevention of domestic violence
announced in today’s Budget. Does my noble friend the
Minister agree that to address what are often
intergenerational cycles of violence by men towards their
wives and partners, it is important to work with those
perpetrators, as she mentioned, by offering training
programmes such as the Domestic Violence Intervention
Project?
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My noble friend is absolutely right. Intergenerational
domestic violence is not only meted out on generations of
women but those behaviours are passed on to the children.
It is breaking those cycles through education and working
with perpetrators in those programmes that we hope will
break the mould.
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(LD)
My Lords, since it costs about £50,000 per annum to keep a
child in care, and roughly the same amount to keep a person
in jail, can the Minister tell the House what efforts are
made to ensure that police, local authorities and schools
work together to identify perpetrators and get them into
prevention programmes?
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The noble Baroness raises a very important issue about
those agencies that she talks about working together. When
I was at DCLG the troubled families programme unearthed an
awful lot of instances of domestic violence. Health
professionals have a role to play in identifying, for
example, a bruise as a result of violence. There are so
many things that our professionals can do in identifying
and reporting those issues. The police are now better
trained not only to take domestic violence seriously but to
issue domestic violence protection orders to give the
woman—usually—in the relationship some time away from the
perpetrator of violence.
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(Lab)
My Lords, the Minister will be aware that much of the work
that is being done now in relation to domestic abuse is
being done by my former honourable friend, Dame , who is the lead
for Police and Crime Commissioners. No doubt
she will accept that 92% of victims of domestic violence
are women and many seek help in women’s refuges. Is she
aware that Women’s Aid has said that the current funding
model proposed by the Government will lead to the
destruction of the women’s refuge programme? What are the
Government going to do about it?
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I pay tribute to because I know she does an
awful lot of work in this area. The first thing I looked at
when I was at DCLG was the whole area of domestic
violence—the refuges and the prevention models. The noble
Baroness is absolutely right: it is important to keep these
refuges open so that no woman is turned away. In fact,
there was a significant announcement in the Budget today
about underpinning our VAWG strategy, but those
interventions to stop domestic violence happening in the
first place are also very important.
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(CB)
My Lords, is it not important that violence against women
that is shown on the net should be dealt with?
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The noble and learned Baroness makes a very good point. It
is what children see—their experiences of what is
normal—that will shape the behaviour of young boys and
young girls. Young girls may lose the value in themselves
and young boys may not value girls as they grow up. The
noble and learned Baroness is absolutely right, and work
has been done in this sphere over the course of this
Government and the previous Government.
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The Lord
My Lords, does the Minister agree that there are certain
problems in the wording of this Question? Most men who
engage in abusive behaviour do not recognise it as abusive
and do not seek support, so there has to be a very
important balance between preventive and restorative
measures.
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The right reverend Prelate hits on a sad point: not only do
some men not recognise what they are doing as violence or
coercive control but, unfortunately, some women do not
realise that they are the victims of violence and coercive
control. That is a very sad thing in today’s society, so I
thank him for raising it.
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(Non-Afl)
My Lords—
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Earl (Con)
My Lords—
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The Lord Privy Seal (Baroness Evans of Bowes Park)
(Con)
My Lords, it is the turn of the Conservative Benches.
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Earl
My Lords, I was very surprised to learn that as many as one
in three victims of domestic violence are male. I have no
doubt that male victims feel ashamed and embarrassed, and
that they just will not be believed. Do male victims of abuse
receive the same help, support and refuge facilities as women
and if not, why not?
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My noble friend is right to point out that there are male
victims of domestic violence but I do not think the number is
as high as one in three. I think something like 7% or 8% of
victims are men. He raises a very important point, however:
for men, shame is a terrible thing, which often prevents
their coming forward and seeking help. Advice lines for men
are available—for example, the Men’s Advice Line. I am not
undermining the suffering that men go through.
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(Lab)
My Lords, I declare my interests in Changing Lives and the
Lloyds Bank Foundation. We are doing a lot of work with
perpetrators, but also in making sure that commissioners know
and understand what is needed in this area. May I remind the
Minister that it is becoming increasingly clear that
virtually 100% of those women who end up on the wrong side of
the criminal justice system or homeless have suffered abuse
as children and then again as adults? This is a real crisis
in our society and we have to take hold of it. When I first
got involved in one of the first refuges in the country
40-odd years ago, we simply had no idea of the extent of the
problem. Women are not here to be abused. We must have
equality; that is the basic thing that needs to be taken
through schools and every other way.
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If I have time to answer the noble Baroness, I completely
concur with her point: not only are these women victims of
homelessness, sometimes, but of drug abuse or depression,
which may have arisen from it or be a result it. The problems
arising from domestic violence are massive and the cost to
society is too.
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