My Lords, there appears to be no reasonable argument for limiting the number of members of the advisory board. Surely there should be as many as the commissioner believes to be reasonably necessary, as suggested by our Amendment 37. As my noble friend Lady Hamwee has explained, it should not be that at least one member of the board must represent the interests of victims of domestic abuse, but that they should have expertise and experience with regard to the victims of domestic abuse. I thank the noble Lord, Lord Hunt of Kings Heath, for his support on this point.
It is quite clear that different victims will have different needs, in particular, those from minority groups, including black, Asian and other ethnic minorities, those with disabilities, male victims and those from sexually and gender-diverse groups. Were there to be a representative from each of these groups, it would be a very large advisory board indeed. Someone could have expertise in and experience of dealing with more than one minority group, hence Amendment 38.
Amendment 40 suggests that at least one member of the advisory board should have
“experience of or expertise in both”
policing and criminal justice, and not, as Clause 12(4)(e) suggests, that they
“represent the interests of … policing or criminal justice.”
As my noble friend Lady Hamwee has explained, it is essential that the police, the CPS, the courts and the prison and probation services all work together to tackle domestic abuse. Therefore, it should not be, as the Bill currently suggests, someone representing either the police or other parts of the criminal justice system.
Again, as my noble friend Lady Hamwee has said, having included children as victims in Clause 3, it seems necessary to have someone with expertise and experience in children’s health and well-being on the advisory board. The lifelong impact of adverse childhood experiences on the health, well-being and propensity of young people to engage in criminality is well documented. Witnessing domestic abuse is but one of these ACEs.
7.45 pm
I thank my noble friends Lord Dholakia and Lady Featherstone for their support for my Amendment 39, which, as my noble friend Lady Featherstone said, is small, important, but not uncontroversial. We will come on to a fuller discussion of whether domestic abuse is a gendered issue in subsequent groups but, according to the Office for National Statistics, one-third of victims of domestic abuse are male, as my noble friend Lord Dholakia said. Of the two-thirds of victims who are female, some of that abuse will have occurred in same-sex relationships. It is therefore important that the advisory board includes at least one person who appears to the commissioner to have expertise and experience with regard to all victims of domestic abuse—not only women victims of male domestic abuse but male victims and those from sexually and gender-diverse groups.
In her letter dated yesterday, the Minister offers some reassurance in respect of male victims but the issue is wider than that. I am reassured by what she says, in that the statutory guidance provided for in Clause 73, the draft of which I have yet to fully consider, will, among other things, include types of abuse that are experienced by specific communities or groups such as male victims. The Minister goes on to say that the Government are determined to support victims and survivors, regardless of gender, but the Government must specifically ensure that support is available for female victims and survivors in same-sex relationships, and gender non-conforming victims and survivors, as well as male victims. Having someone with experience and expertise in dealing with all these issues on the advisory board will go some way towards ensuring that that is the case.
I completely accept that the majority of domestic abuse is the result of male violence against women but that is not exclusively, or even overwhelmingly, the case, and every victim, every survivor of domestic abuse, deserves to have a voice on the advisory board.