My Lords, before I speak to the amendment in my name, as we enter the final day of Committee I want to thank everyone who has been involved in this marathon. By tabling more than 200 amendments, we have created a vast amount of work for the clerks, the Bill team and the Whips’ Office. I acknowledge their professionalism, time and effort. I also recognise and pay tribute to the different organisations and individuals who have worked so hard to brief us while also dealing with a huge surge in work because of the pandemic. In particular, I thank Drive and Veronica Oakeshott.
I thank all noble Lords who have put their names to Amendment 167, giving it cross-party support. It is a great honour to follow the noble Lord, Lord Hunt of Kings Heath. As he set out, this amendment would require the Government to provide a comprehensive perpetrator strategy for domestic abuse within one year of the Act being passed. I will not speak specifically to the other amendments in this group, but I pay
tribute to the noble Baroness, Lady Royall, for her tireless work against the insidious crime of stalking. I support the sentiment behind her amendment.
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With so much of the current discourse on domestic abuse rightly focusing on victims, the term “perpetrator strategy” can jar. For years perpetrators have barely been mentioned in political debate, as if domestic abuse simply appears from thin air. Only with robust action on perpetrators can we put an end to domestic abuse, which is why the Government urgently need to publish and fund a comprehensive strategy for England and Wales. As the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, pointed out, colleagues inside and outside this House are calling for it. More than 100 signatories, spanning domestic abuse charities, police and crime commissioners, police forces, children’s voluntary sector organisations, academics and survivors, have asked the Government to set out this comprehensive plan.
I will outline its five key points. First, it should drive significant improvements in the risk management of known perpetrators, many of whom are hiding in plain sight. It is unacceptable that the system, or lack of it, effectively allows perpetrators to offend time and again. This speaks to the amendment from the noble Baroness, Lady Royall. Just as we would watch someone who presents a terrorist risk, the eyes and ears of a whole range of agencies need to be on the people who make a lifetime habit of destroying lives. The best way to achieve this is through multiagency forums led by the police. As we have heard in many debates during Committee, training is vital to help professionals from a range of services exercise professional curiosity, even when they are assured that all is well. They need to spot the signs, share information and know what to do next.
Secondly, good quality behaviour-changing programmes need to be provided nationally to give offenders the best chance of ending their abusive behaviour. Such interventions could include structured group work, where perpetrators are challenged to recognise their abuse and their impact—although it is fair to say that this kind of intervention is more suitable for those who accept some responsibility for their actions. For more severe offenders, one-to-one, intensive case management is often more effective.
Disrupt approaches are also needed for high-level perpetrators who are not willing to co-operate and who continue to abuse. This is where multiagency work becomes vital through sharing information, being responsive to the dangers posed by perpetrators and being ready to react to changes or triggers that could increase aggressive behaviour, such as new child contact arrangements or new partners. The reorganisation of probation services must also form an important pillar of this strategy.
As the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, said, current provision for change programmes is extremely patchy. Nowhere is there a full range of programmes. For example, putting an LGBT perpetrator on a group work programme for heterosexual perpetrators will not work. Similarly, a perpetrator of honour-based abuse will need something very different from someone perpetrating
abuse against an intimate partner. This is the inconvenient reality of domestic abuse. There is no one-size-fits-all solution. The strategy must invest in developing a fuller range of programmes.
We already know that there are many proven programmes that should now be extended. A study by London Metropolitan and Durham universities of 12 domestic violence perpetrator programmes found a reduction from 54% to 2% in the number of women whose partners tried to punch, kick, burn or beat them. A random control trial evaluation of the Drive programme, which works with perpetrators who pose serious risk of murder or severe harm to their victims, found that it reduced physical abuse by 82% and controlling behaviours by 73%.
Successful provision of the programmes would be a triple win: for victims, who would be safer; for the public purse, which currently shells out billions of pounds each year addressing the impact of domestic abuse; and for perpetrators. Some want to stop their abusive behaviour. Many were themselves victims when growing up.
Thirdly, quality assurance and data systems must be put in place. Safe, quality perpetrator interventions will always include support for the victim. Badly managed perpetrator work can be worse than doing nothing. The charity Respect has published standards which the Government have endorsed, but there is currently no requirement for commissioners to follow them or any other standards in England. We need to ensure that, at best, the Government are not wasting their money and that, at worst, victims are not being put further in harm’s way.
Fourthly, this successful strategy needs a sustainable, reliable source of funding for intervention programmes. The perpetrator intervention fund was a very welcome first step, with its grants confirmed in September last year. However, these have to be spent by March, which means that commissioners, services and victims have no financial security from April this year. A report by SafeLives estimates that a full range of perpetrator interventions would cost £680 million a year. Such an amount could not be responsibly spent tomorrow but this is the scale of what is ultimately needed. Such investments in prevention should also be considered in relation to the estimated £66 billion cost of domestic violence in any given year.
Finally, the strategy should encourage leadership. I commend the Home Office’s engagement on this issue and the Chancellor’s launch of the first perpetrator fund. However, it is vital that other departments step up and play their part in the development of a strategy. That could be MHCLG thinking about new ways to support victims to stay safe in their own homes by removing perpetrators. As we heard in the previous debate, housing is a huge element in all this. It could be DCMS thinking about how it can encourage cultural shifts. How can we get away from “Why doesn’t he just leave?” to “Why doesn’t he stop?”? The Government should not underestimate the power they have to encourage and speed up culture change with public awareness campaigns. Let us not forget the lasting impact they have had over the years on issues such as drink-driving, and through anti-smoking laws.
A targeted campaign to drive down the acceptability of misogyny and macho attitudes among young men is also overdue. Many charities and police officers are voicing concerns about the growing problem of abusive sexual behaviour in intense teen relationships. Children as young as 13 or 14 are victims, but some are also perpetrators. If we do not address this urgently, the fight will be lost for another generation. Technology firms and internet giants—I refer noble Lords to my registered interest as an adviser to BT—have got to accept their share of the blame for this. But they must also step up and be part of the solution, whether by helping the Government far more proactively to, for example, prevent smartphones becoming an abuser’s weapon or by finding a workable solution to prevent such easy access to violent porn that degrades women and girls. I urge the Government to hold their feet to the fire.
So where do we go from here? The Government appeared to acknowledge in the other place that a more strategic approach to perpetrators is needed. That is good. Now we need a firm commitment that this approach will be laid out clearly and be truly comprehensive, not just an afterthought, as perpetrator work has so often been. That is why I am calling on the Government to incorporate a thoughtfully developed perpetrator strategy within one year after the passage of the Bill. We need the right balance between urgency and consultation, through something that reflects the ambition and the need. I feel one year should give the time for that.
This is the Government’s chance to turn the tide on domestic abuse and pave a route into a new era where perpetrators, not victims, are expected to make changes in their lives. The Bill is the foundation block to kick-start that rethink. Put simply, if we do not properly tackle the people who cause the harm, we will never see an end to it.