It is a pleasure to follow the Chair of the Select Committee.
This Bill presented the Government with an opportunity to enact measures that would end violence against women and girls, but I am afraid that they blew it, instead filling the Bill with divisive nonsense such as locking up protestors who cause “annoyance.” Today the Government have a final opportunity to support Labour’s proposals—to show the public it cares about violence against women and girls, and wants to create a criminal justice system that works for them.
7.15 pm
I turn first to new clause 89. In Committee, my hon. Friend the Member for Stockton North (Alex Cunningham) told the harrowing story of a woman who was viciously raped in February last year. It is impossible to comprehend the physical and mental pain caused by such a despicable act; the trauma of that day will remain with that woman for the rest of her life. I am sure that all Members of the House will agree it is a scandal that her attacker and violator was sentenced to just five years and three months for his crime that night.
Although the maximum sentence for rape is life imprisonment, there is no statutory minimum. Instead, the sentencing guidelines set a starting point of just five years, which in some cases can be reduced to four.