My Lords, I am sympathetic to the amendments, with some caveats. I am grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Meyer, for her amendments, which are important for us to address. They may give us an insight into some of the broader issues of the Bill.
One point of emphasis in the legislation is the victim. Contemporary culture tells us that we should believe the victim. I understand that for those of us frustrated over the years that domestic abuse was not taken seriously as a heinous crime, and sometimes dismissed when reported, leading to tragic consequences, it seems reasonable to be victim-centred—to put the victim centre-stage. However, my concern is to ensure that due process is not neglected in this endeavour and that we have nuance when we discuss who is the victim.
We know from recent events, such as the egregious case of Carl Beech, that believing the victim per se can lead to false allegations with terrible consequences. In the context of domestic break-ups and family issues, sometimes when the bitterness of broken relationships centres, for example, on the custody of children—we have heard many examples here today—ironically, or sadly, accusations of domestic abuse itself can be deployed and weaponised to paint one party as a perpetrator and another as a victim, alienating the accused parent from their children, but without any proof of guilt; it is just an allegation.
However, that allegation or accusation of domestic abuse in that instance is a terrible stigma. Imagine that your mum or dad is labelled an abuser by the other parent. That can obviously lead to great pain and parental alienation, all without anyone’s guilt being proven. I just want to remind the Committee of the important principle of innocent until proven guilty and make sure that is not sidelined.
Ironically, the noble Baroness, Lady Brinton, claims that the very concept of parental alienation can be misused and lead to false allegations and, of course, she is right. But that is true of any piece of legislation, or any rule. Parental alienation can be falsely alleged but so can domestic abuse, but we do not suggest that we should not have legislation on that.
We might ask why in this debate we are so cynical and disbelieving of those who claim that they are victims of parental alienation. That seems very one-sided in a culture where we are told that we should believe the victims all the time. It is a reminder that claiming to be a victim is not proof and needs to be evidenced; that is not just in relation to the one issue of parental alienation.
The noble Baroness, Lady Helic, tells us that fathers are the majority who claim parental alienation, and then seemed to imply that this was proof of the misuse of the concept by perpetrators. To be fair, that seemed to suggest that fathers were perpetrators of domestic abuse, which, as I say, is an accusation that goes too far for me. It reinforces my worry that there is a bias against one parent—often gendered—based less on
evidence than on prejudice. I say that not as a men’s rights activist, as somebody accused me of being the other day when I made this point, but as a women’s rights activist who thinks that we should be fair in this discussion.
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Despite all that, I am unsure about whether the resolution to my concerns, or even to the concerns of the noble Baroness, Lady Meyer, is to give parental alienation the statutory label of domestic abuse. Another of my issues—which I think is understandable—is that, in an attempt to broaden what constitutes domestic abuse from physical violence to include the likes of coercive control, I get concerned and wary of overexpanding the definition, because that can relativise the harm of serious abuse by conflating it with a range of behaviours that might occur when interpersonal relationships turn toxic.
Throughout Committee, I will be wary of criminalising behaviours that are subjective or disputed and areas where the law is not best suited to resolve it, and I am not sure where I fit in relation to parental alienation. Putting too much under the label of domestic abuse can ironically weaken the opprobrium that we attach to it, by making it a category that is too thinly stretched—a catch-all and not as useful as we would want it to be. Justice might be compromised and it might make it easier to weaponise domestic abuse as an accusation and deploy it against others.
I feel ambivalent about putting parental alienation into that ever-expanding label of domestic abuse, but I am wholly sympathetic to the arguments that accusing a partner or a carer of something like domestic abuse can be used maliciously. It does happen for other ends, and it is at great cost to family relationships and especially to children. I hope that the Minister will give us some assurance that parental alienation is not a discredited category but one she takes seriously, and that we can consider how we make it part of the Bill without expanding domestic abuse too broadly.