My Lords, I have laid Amendment 214A and I thank the noble Lord, Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede, and the noble Baroness, Lady Newlove, for also signing it.
The home detention curfew is a valuable and worthwhile scheme, allowing offenders to be released from prison to a suitable address and allowing for a smoother transition back into society. There are, however, a number of violent and sexual offences which rightly cannot be considered under this scheme, due to the risk the offender poses to the victim. This amendment seeks to expand the list of ineligible offences to include those which relate to ongoing harm or risk to a particular individual and which are not already excluded from the scheme. These offences include stalking, harassment, coercive control and domestic abuse.
The Minister knows from the many amendments that were tabled during the passage of the Domestic Abuse Bill and other Bills before it that in cases where perpetrators are fixated and obsessed, by the time they are convicted, many will have either a restraining order or another protective order in place. This amendment says that the home detention curfew should also not be considered in cases where such a restraining order or other protective order has already been breached.
The Government have described a key objective of this Bill as follows:
“We are changing release arrangements for serious violent and sex offenders, as well as for those whose risk to the public increases during their time in custody, so that they serve longer in prison.
These changes have the protection of the public at their core and ensure a firm but fair justice system.”
The victims of stalking, harassment, coercive control and domestic abuse, where the perpetrator has had a protective order made against them, often report that
their perpetrator continues to try to control them, whether directly or indirectly, including from prison, sometimes without prison officials being aware.
One example is not untypical of the kind of perpetrator we believe should not be eligible for HDCs. The woman, who wishes to be anonymous, has been a victim of domestic abuse by her ex-husband and has been granted multiple restraining orders for her own protection since divorcing him. He was convicted in 2017 for breaching an order and in 2019 for two breaches of another order, and then faced trial for eight breaches of a third order as well as numerous counts of stalking against her, her partner and her family. This shows a clear history of breaching protective orders—over 10 times—and the victim is currently on her fourth restraining order.
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In 2020 the ex-husband was convicted of stalking and sentenced to a two-year custodial sentence. However, the victim was shocked to find out that he could apply for a home detention curfew in January 2022, having served only six months of his sentence—that is, just under one-quarter. Understandably, given the history, she has been very concerned about her safety. Given the perpetrator’s history of breaching orders, she has little faith in his compliance with home detention curfews or in the police responding if he does fail to comply. There is no way of blocking his application despite his record.
The Minister said in reply to the last amendment that risk and safety were critical. Ministers have made it clear that tackling violence against women and girls is very much at the heart of this government strategy. We know that some of these particularly fixated perpetrators are highly likely to go on to reoffend, are likely to already have had protective orders and, the amendment says, must have already breached those orders—so, frankly, HDC is not an appropriate choice here. By not excluding stalking and the other offences that I have outlined, those most at risk—their victims—are most at risk of further harm.
I want to be clear that it is the obsessive behaviours demonstrated by breaching protective orders given by the courts that would act as the trigger to exclude from the HDC. The amendment seeks to ensure that, in the Government’s own words on this Bill:
“These changes have the protection of the public at their core and ensure a firm but fair justice system.”