Jess Phillips MP: speeches 2024

Speeches

• 18 Dec 2024 · Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls · Hansard source

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  As somebody who went into the Home Office and found a load of things that were said at this Dispatch Box dwindling and left undone for three years, I take umbrage. The Government will do exactly what we said we will do and will ban deepfakes in this Session. As a victim of it myself, I understand the importance.

• 18 Dec 2024 · Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls · Hansard source

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  At these questions I always end up halfway around the country, but I would be delighted to come. Having worked in this sector, I know that we will not tackle violence against women and girls without a strong and sustainable model that ensures our specialist services are protected. That is what we will work on in the long term, rather than what has always been a short-termist approach.

• 18 Dec 2024 · Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls · Hansard source

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  Funnily enough, I am meeting Cabinet Office colleagues later today to talk exactly about how we ensure the violence against women and girls strategy is across different Departments. Without doubt, one of the most important pillars of that strategy is how we will deal with the online harms. We all wait with bated breath to see how the legislation and the new regulations play out, but we will not draw the line at the legislation that already exists, and where we need to adapt, we will.

• 18 Dec 2024 · Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls · Hansard source

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  Merry Christmas, Mr Speaker. The Government are relentless in our efforts to halve violence against women and girls. In just five and a half months in office, we have launched domestic abuse protection orders in selected areas, outlined new measures enhancing our response to stalking, and announced £30 million in extra funding for victims of domestic abuse and their families in safe accommodation services—and that is simply the beginning. We will continue at that pace.

• 3 Dec 2024 · Tackling Stalking · Hansard source

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  First of all, I must pay tribute to Rhianon. If Members of the House are not aware of her case, what she has been through is harrowing and she continues to campaign. We pay such tribute to all those who speak up to try to make things better for other women, even if in their cases that ship has sailed. That is an amazing thing. I want to assure the right hon. Lady that there should be nothing stopping the same multi-agency situations happening in Wales any more than anywhere else where local health authorities give out funding. We will never solve the issue of violence against women and girls unless every part of Government, including at delegated, local level, takes responsibility. That is certainly a postcode lottery at the moment.

• 3 Dec 2024 · Tackling Stalking · Hansard source

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  Speaking as someone who is local to North Warwickshire and Bedworth—well, local by the standards of the House—it is very pleasant to hear my hon. Friend’s accent, which is not too dissimilar to mine. I look forward to working with police forces across the country to ensure that the right service is available to all victims of stalking the first time they come forward, whether they are male or female, as the shadow Minister pointed out. I look forward to working with my hon. Friend and any Member of the House who also wishes to take part.

• 3 Dec 2024 · Tackling Stalking · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for the opportunity to once again say, “I am not sure where that has come from,” but I am always happy to dispel it—I love the idea that anybody could question our commitment, or certainly my commitment. Not that I think the shadow Minister was doing that. On the multi-agency statutory guidance, local areas will have a duty to bear it in mind. Some Members here today have visited the amazing services in Cheshire. What we need to do is to show the absolute benefits of that approach to local areas and to local health service providers specifically with regard to the psychological services that are required in the system. Properly run multi-agency services in this space always make a difference. But, as somebody who has sat on many multi-agency services over the past 14 years, as my hon. Friend has, I have seen many partners leave the table as a result of the years of austerity.

• 3 Dec 2024 · Tackling Stalking · Hansard source

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  First and foremost, Madam Deputy Speaker, I must apologise, for myself and on behalf of the Government, and I am sure that your words, spoken on behalf of Mr Speaker, have been heard by all. With permission, I will make a statement on the action that this Government will take to improve the response to stalking. Depression, anxiety, fear, trouble sleeping and loss of confidence. These are just some of the ways that stalking can ruin lives. Victims are subjected to an onslaught of psychological and emotional terror that can go on for months or years. And even if the perpetrator is caught and the stalking comes to an end, the impact of being tormented day after day and night after night persists. For many victims, it never leaves them. I am sure the whole House will agree that it is unacceptable for anyone to suffer in this way. This is a serious threat, and one that affects a substantial proportion of the population. According to the latest statistics, in England and Wales, one in seven people over 16 has been a victim of stalking at least once in their lifetime. Alas, I think that the statistics would be even higher in this House. Given the scale and impact of these crimes, it is right that we ask ourselves whether enough is being done to stop them and, when they occur, whether we are responding effectively. I am afraid that the answer on both counts is no. In September, following a joint investigation, His Majesty’s chief inspector of constabulary, the Independent Office for Police Conduct and the College of Policing published a report in response to a super-complaint on stalking made by the Suzy Lamplugh Trust. The report found “significant changes are needed to improve the police response”. I have heard first-hand accounts of stalking victims who have not been listened to, or who have even been told that they should be “flattered” by their stalker’s actions. This is totally unacceptable, and it has to change. The report on the super-complaint made nine recommendations to the Government, and today I will update the House on the actions we intend to take in response. We will introduce a power to issue multi-agency statutory guidance on stalking, which will set out for the first time a robust framework for how frontline professionals should define stalking and better work together. We will review stalking legislation to determine whether and how the law can be changed. And we will improve our understanding of the operation of the current law by publishing more data on stalking offences. We will also make good on our manifesto commitment to give victims the right to know who their online stalker is. The House may be surprised to hear that victims do not already have this right. The broadcaster and activist Nicola Thorp told me about how she was stalked and abused online by a stranger whose identity she did not know. Her stalker set up almost 30 social media accounts to send her a constant stream of violent and misogynistic messages. Her ordeal was made worse when she was told by the police that, although they knew who her stalker was, they could not tell her, even after he was arrested. Nicola had to continue living with that fear, looking over her shoulder and not knowing whether the person near her was her stalker, until she finally saw him in court. That is not right, and she is not the only victim to have endured this. Nicola is with us today, and I pay tribute to her activism for change. I take this opportunity to pay tribute to my right hon. Friend the Member for Islington South and Finsbury (Emily Thornberry) who, unfortunately, is busy chairing the Foreign Affairs Committee. She heard about Nicola’s story when we were in opposition, and she worked with her to develop a new policy that is coming to fruition today. Inspired by Nicola, and with thanks to my right hon. Friend, the Government will introduce statutory “right to know” guidance that will set out the process by which the police should release identifying information about anonymous stalking perpetrators to victims. We are also acting to ensure that the risk posed by perpetrators is managed, and that the causes of their behaviour are addressed. We will legislate to enable the courts to impose stalking protection orders, of their own volition, which can impose restrictions and positive requirements on those who pose a risk, on conviction and on acquittal. These orders are currently available only where the police make an application to the magistrates court. And we will publish national standards for stalking perpetrator programmes that seek to engage with perpetrators to address the behaviours that are leading to stalking offences. This will help to ensure these programmes are evidence-based and consistent. Taken together, our package will strengthen the system so that victims have the protection they need and the support they deserve. I have seen at first hand the good work being done in some forces. I recently visited Cheshire constabulary, which has a multidisciplinary team of police, psychologists and probation officers working effectively together. We need to see all forces taking this sort of action. We will ensure that stalkers are robustly targeted, with effective arrangements in place to address the root causes of their behaviour, like in Cheshire. And we will respond to concerns that frontline professionals’ understanding of stalking is still not where it needs to be, and that stalking legislation may not be working as intended. These are important first steps, but I emphasise to the House that we are in this for the duration, because only through a sustained effort will we achieve the change that is so badly needed. Before I finish, I pay tribute to organisations such as the Suzy Lamplugh Trust and the wider National Stalking Consortium, and to brave victims like Nicola who have spoken out and campaigned for change. Their tenacity and persistence have been instrumental in getting us to this point, and I am grateful to them for all that they have done and continue to do. We will work closely with them and other key partners as we progress our mission to halve violence against women and girls in a decade. Through that mission, we will show stalkers and other offenders that they have nowhere to hide. We will stand with victims and survivors so that they know that they are not alone. We will work relentlessly to give everyone the peace of mind they deserve as they go about their lives, whether they are at home, online or anywhere else. Our streets belong to the law-abiding majority, and under this Government they always will. I commend this statement to the House.

• 3 Dec 2024 · Tackling Stalking · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for his question. I give him credit for the sensitivity that he showed in dealing with that case in his constituency. It is very important that we always seek the consent of a victim or a victim’s family. That does not always happen in this place. On his first point, I am not sure about the case that he cites, but the I am happy to talk to him about it. In the case of a death of an intimate partner or a previous intimate partner, there would normally be a domestic homicide review, but that would not necessarily happen in the case of a murder by a stranger, where stalking was involved, although it could. This is about how we deal with the findings of a domestic homicide review or a serious case review. Like many people, I am a bit sick of hearing the words “lessons will be learned” over and again, and then find that the same lesson has to be learned by the same local area just three years later. How we use the findings of those reviews to change things is definitely something that we will focus on. I will use all of my weight—however diminished it might be—to ensure that our online tech companies are on board with the safeguarding that we require.

• 3 Dec 2024 · Tackling Stalking · Hansard source

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  I am mindful that sat here on the Front Bench with me now is the Under-Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, my hon. Friend the Member for Bethnal Green and Stepney (Rushanara Ali). She has frequently attended meetings alongside us in the Home Office to discuss how local authorities and housing interact with the lives of victims of domestic abuse and those fleeing other forms of abuse and violence. Government Departments working together on this issue should no longer just be about a piece of paper that gets written. There has to be firm commitment, and it has to come from the very top. In the last urgent question today, we heard about a previous Prime Minister’s commitment to tackling modern slavery, which led to a world-leading change in that space. That was because it came from the centre. I can assure my hon. Friend that, from the very centre of this Government, there is a desire to make sure that we get this into the mainstream of every Government Department—although I am struggling to make this about fish and fisheries, but I will find a way.

• 3 Dec 2024 · Tackling Stalking · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Gentleman for his support and the tone in which he has approached the issue. I do not know where the idea that the Government have dropped their mission to halve violence against women and girls has come from, so I will say as clearly as I can: it is still the mission of the Government to halve violence against women and girls within a decade. That mission is not something that only the Home Secretary and I fought for, with people rolling their eyes at us; it comes right from the top, from the Prime Minister. The subject is an obsession of his, so the mission has not gone away and the hon. Gentleman need not worry. On how we will measure the success of our mission, the prevalence of violence against women and girls is currently measured by the crime survey for England and Wales. That will be our key headline metric for measuring the ambition to halve VAWG. The Office for National Statistics is producing a combined violence against women and girls prevalence measure that will include domestic abuse, sexual assault and stalking, because the data is not necessarily collected like that at the moment. There will be not just a headline metric but many metrics and tests sitting underneath it, such as for female homicide, femicide, repeat domestic abuse victims and the prevalence of sexual harassment, which will inform a suite of measures. The hon. Gentleman is right that the previous Government’s efforts in the House and on the statute book were not without care or attention to violence against women and girls, but the difference that that made on the streets is questionable. We need robust measures to ensure that the nice words that we write on goatskin actually mean something.

• 3 Dec 2024 · Tackling Stalking · Hansard source

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  I suspect the truth lies somewhere in between. In Nicola’s case, the police were able to find out information about the stalker from a series of anonymous accounts, some of which were pretending to be women, but the problem arose because of privacy, as the right hon. Gentleman suggests. Police forces are worried about being bogged down in red tape, so what we will put on the statute book, in statutory guidance, is essentially a power flowing from the Home Secretary to tell police forces that they can provide information, because in such circumstances safeguarding is a perfectly legitimate reason to override privacy.

• 3 Dec 2024 · Tackling Stalking · Hansard source

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  From speaking to many victims, I know that stalking causes a lack of peace of mind. Other forms of violence against women and girls are all equally bad, but there is something deeply psychological about being stalked and feeling as if you have to change your behaviour and go to different places. The right to know who a stalker is, first and foremost, is about being able to rule out people a victim knows. Most women in our country know that they are more likely to be abused by somebody they know, so they would be second-guessing all the time and being driven further mad by the anonymity of that stalker. Even without any justice outcome, therefore, empowering those women and giving them back power and control over the situation is a gift of something that has been taken from them.

• 3 Dec 2024 · Tackling Stalking · Hansard source

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  I agree with the hon. Gentleman. The thrust of the super-complaint was not dissimilar to what he suggests. He is absolutely right about the confusion between a 2A and 4A offence and the element of proof that a victim has to provide, often in front of the perpetrator, who can find it quite delicious to hear how awful things have been for the victim. We will work with all the stalking organisations and the brilliant Victims’ Commissioner in London to make sure that, when we look at the legislation, those things are all taken into account.

• 3 Dec 2024 · Tackling Stalking · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Member for her question. First, let me pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Pontypridd (Alex Davies-Jones), who is my equivalent in the Ministry of Justice, which leads on the family courts. All I can say about the family courts, which came up in the very first mission board with regard to violence against women and girls, is that we will not solve the issues of domestic abuse or child abuse in our country—we will not go anywhere near to solving them—unless we look at those family courts.

• 3 Dec 2024 · Tackling Stalking · Hansard source

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  To be completely clear, what is illegal offline is also illegal online. Today, the Government are announcing how we will make stalking protection orders more robust. Such orders can be used to tackle online stalking as much as any other type of stalking. The Online Safety Act includes stalking offences in the list of specified priority offences. As my hon. Friend says, in Nicola Thorp’s case, her stalker thought the cloak of anonymity would protect him. The tech companies have the capability to identify such people, but we need to ensure that they are working with the police, and that the police are working with the victim, so that everybody can be kept safe.

• 3 Dec 2024 · Tackling Stalking · Hansard source

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  The hon. Lady is exactly right about a lack of faith in resources, which is exactly what led to the super-complaint being made. She is right that there is a 60:40 split between non-stranger stalking, including after previous domestic abuse or a relationship, and other stalking. We have to get it right for people who have experienced either type of stalking, because the experience is the same. The National Police Chiefs’ Council is engaging with 43 police forces to co-ordinate the response to the recommendations of the super-complaint. Police chiefs are required to publish an action plan setting out how they will respond; some have already done so. I pay massive tribute to Cheshire and to the Met, which has an amazing multi-agency system. I will be monitoring forces’ progress to ensure they respond. We will be reviewing the offences in sections 2A and 4A of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997. As the hon. Lady rightly points out, those offences sit within harassment legislation. As somebody who has brought a number of harassment charges, I know that sometimes the charge that appears on the sheet does not feel like the one of which I have been the victim.

• 3 Dec 2024 · Tackling Stalking · Hansard source

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  I absolutely will meet my hon. Friend. I have dealt with many extraterritorial cases in the space of violence against women and girls in my time as a Member of Parliament, so I am more than happy to try to help in any way that I can on that case. On borders, under the Online Safety Act, if it is illegal here but is not happening here, it is still illegal. It does not matter where in the world it is happening.

• 3 Dec 2024 · Tackling Stalking · Hansard source

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  The hon. Lady points out something very pertinent. I often like dealing with Scotland because there is one police force. I am not suggesting that for England, and nor are the Government, just to be clear—I worry that civil servants might be writing down some of the things I say. The hon. Lady makes a very good point. Having really good police forces and really good sexual violence responses in Avon and Somerset is no good to the people of Birmingham, is it? It cannot carry on in that way. One thing that has to be done, as part of the Government’s mission to end violence against women and girls and halve it within a decade, is to look at how we deal with police standards and monitor exactly what police forces are doing. It feels a little bit like the centre has taken its eye off the ball on that in the past number of years. We will not solve the problem if we start having a great service in urban areas but people are still left wanting in Chichester and other places.

• 3 Dec 2024 · Tackling Stalking · Hansard source

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  I would be absolutely delighted to do so. I consider Nicola to be my friend now, but the first time that I had ever heard of her was on the Petitions Committee in this House. It was my late, dear friend, Jo Cox, who had called me up to say, “We all have to come to work wearing flat shoes,” not recognising that I always wear flat shoes. This was because Nicola had started a protest about being forced, as a woman, to wear high heels in her temporary job. This was not Nicola’s first endeavour in activism, and I am absolutely certain that it will not be her last. She inspired Jo Cox, who inspired many of us, and so I pay absolute tribute to her.

• 29 Nov 2024 · Men’s Violence against Women and Girls · Hansard source

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  I absolutely agree. I think everybody sat in this debate could probably refer to a case in their own constituency with similar delays. In my role, I work very closely with both the police and the CPS to try to bottom out the issues causing some of those delays—other than the general degradation of our justice system—and to try to make improvements where we can. The attrition rate of victims dropping out is currently one of the biggest barriers to us holding people to account. And who could blame a person for dropping out after being made to wait? I totally agree with the hon. Lady. As part of our mission to halve violence against women and girls in a decade, we will ask police to relentlessly pursue those perpetrators who pose the greatest risk to women, and to use all the tools at their disposal to protect victims and get dangerous offenders off our streets. We will work with police to develop a national framework that uses data-driven tools and algorithms to track and target high-harm offenders involved in domestic abuse, sexual assault, harassment and stalking. In addition to the relentless pursuing of perpetrators, it is also essential that we prevent reoffending and, with that, have a truly comprehensive approach to deal with perpetration. Many hon. Members in interventions mentioned brilliant organisations in their constituencies. I am delighted to hear that people have those—time was, there were not brilliant organisations all across the country. We must ensure that we maintain those brilliant services, which are so vital for helping keep victims safe. I turn to the attitudes that my hon. Friend the Member for Milton Keynes Central talked about, and specifically the attitudes of young men. I am the mother of two teenage boys. One is about to be not a teenager but an actual real adult—I mean, he’s not paying me any rent yet. [ Laughter. ] The data that she read out does not surprise me. I think we always felt that there would be progress, with the “It’s just a domestic” attitudes gradually getting better with time. But I have been alarmed by what we see in the attitudes, perpetration and victimisation data, which is that currently this crime is trending young: the biggest growth area is those aged 16 to 19. All of us would think that that is a tragedy we had not seen coming; we thought that with the younger generation we would be able to program it out. I am afraid to say that that has not been done, so prevention and education will be fundamental to our approach. We will tackle the root causes of these crimes, including supporting our education system to teach children about respectful and healthy relationships and consent. The idea that just because someone matched with somebody else on an online app meant they were owed something is the weakest idea of consent that I have ever heard. We know that domestic abuse is one of the main reasons why children come into contact with children’s social care, and it is a feature in more than half the serious incidents reported to the child safeguarding practice review panel. We know that those who experience abuse before the age of 16 are more likely to go on to be victims or perpetrators in adulthood. That is why prevention has to be the absolute cornerstone of the Government’s actions going forward. The Government are currently reviewing the content of the relationships, sex and health education curriculum. The Secretary of State for Education has been clear that children’s wellbeing must be at the heart of guidance for schools. As such, the Government will look carefully at the consultation responses and discuss with stakeholders and consider the relevant evidence before setting out the next steps. I express my gratitude once again to my hon. Friend for securing the debate and to all other hon. Members who are here on a Friday. Our mission is to halve violence against women and girls in a decade. It is ambitious but essential, and we will not do it without everybody in the House—as well as everybody in this country—doing it together. The points raised in the debate have once more reaffirmed how vital this work is and reminded us of the responsibility that we bear to women and girls across the country. The Government remain steadfast in that commitment and will tackle these issues head-on. I look forward to collaborating with all colleagues, as I always have. Question put and agreed to.

• 29 Nov 2024 · Men’s Violence against Women and Girls · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Milton Keynes Central (Emily Darlington) for bringing forward this debate on such an important issue, and for what she has called the debate—it may not have been noted by anyone other than the eagle-eyed—which refers to “violence by men against women”. I noted it and appreciate it, because men’s violence against women and girls ruins lives on a truly terrible scale. It must be treated as a national emergency. It is a high-harm and high-volume crime which, because of the high volume, is difficult to grapple with, but we are absolutely determined to do that. The data tells us that crimes such as domestic abuse, stalking, rape and other sexual offences disproportionately affect women. We also know that these crimes are predominantly, though not exclusively, committed by men. We have committed to halving violence against women and girls in the next decade. I will refer to some of the steps we are taking, although it is very nice for a Minister when all the steps we are going to take are mentioned in the preceding speech. I appreciate that. The steps include addressing the root causes, underlying behaviours and attitudes that cause violence against women and girls, and ensuring perpetrators are brought to justice. The femicides my hon. Friend highlighted when she began her speech tell the story better than any of us could. They are harrowing and each one a tragedy. To say a positive thing, this new Parliament behaved beautifully in the previous debate and I feel proud today to call myself a parliamentarian. Mr Speaker, I do not know how you do it, because I literally cannot identify half the new Members of Parliament! The amount of men, from all parties, I have heard speaking up on violence against women and girls since I have been in my ministerial position has been a real sea change. The theme of this year’s White Ribbon Day, referred to by my hon. Friend the Member for Calder Valley (Josh Fenton-Glynn), is “It starts with men”. I have really, really felt that. I doff my cap to the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon), who has been in pretty much every debate I have been in on this subject. I really do feel like there has been quite a tide-turning in this regard, and it is really lovely to see here today men and women together speaking up on this issue. We all know that domestic abuse is often a hidden crime that is not reported to the police. That is not acceptable. Victims deserve to feel safe and for justice to be upheld. In addition to relentlessly pursing perpetrators, it is also essential that we prevent reoffending and ensure that there is a comprehensive approach to perpetrators, from early intervention to targeting the most prolific and repeat offenders. This is why, as I outlined earlier—actually, I did not outline them; my hon. Friend the Member for Milton Keynes Central outlined some of the things the Government are going to do—we have implemented a series of bold measures designed to strengthen the police response to violence against women and girls, and protect victims and hold perpetrators to account.

• 27 Nov 2024 · Violence against Women and Girls · Hansard source

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  Yes, I had heard that from the Chair, and I am very pleased about it. For the now finally formed Government of Northern Ireland—we were all delighted to see that happen—one of their top priorities, in not a long list for government, is violence against women and girls. I will go over in January to work with the devolved Government and the Police Service of Northern Ireland to see how we can help each other to make this issue better. Another point to make is about women’s experiences in post-conflict areas. Lots of people have mentioned conflict zones, but the women’s experience of violence in conflict zones, and then post conflict, does not get discussed when we talk about peace treaties and what needs to be put in place to rebuild infrastructure. We must not lose sight of that either. Staying on the theme of the international stage, my hon. Friend the Member for Norwich North (Alice Macdonald) said that this might not be my area to talk about with regard to Malala Yousafzai, so I will take this moment to shamelessly say that it is literally my area, because I am her Member of Parliament. I feel pretty proud that it was my city that took Malala in when she really needed refuge. I once had to lecture her school class about activism and how to be better activists, and this was after she had won the Nobel peace prize. That was a moment in my life that I felt slight shame in, but I hope they took something away from it. I met with Malala recently on the very issue, as touched on by the hon. Member for Rutland and Stamford and my hon. Friend the Member for Norwich North, of the experiences of women in Afghanistan and the regime they are—I cannot even say “living under”—under. In fact, I met some of her people yesterday and will be continuing those conversations, and when I met with Malala herself it was with Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office Ministers, so those conversations are ongoing. The issue of funding was mentioned by many, and my hon. Friend the Member for Lowestoft (Jess Asato) mentioned a statutory duty in her comments. This links to the point about Cheshire. When my hon. Friend the Member for Mid Cheshire (Andrew Cooper) and I visited Cheshire police, we saw NHS-funded posts, probation-funded posts, police-funded posts and police and crime commissioner-funded posts sitting in a room together working tirelessly, and this goes to the point from my hon. Friend about rolling this out, as it is in London with the Metropolitan police and only two other areas. It is all well and good the Government saying, “I’m gonna have this fund and that fund”, but we will never solve this issue unless violence against women and girls is specifically mainstreamed into funding programmes in every locality, in every Department. This cannot be just a nice-to-have on International Women’s Day, and the example in Cheshire is a fantastic one, so we know it can work elsewhere. This is about the Government seeing what levers we can pull to ensure that that can happen.

• 27 Nov 2024 · Violence against Women and Girls · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend makes a very important point, because trusting police officers comes up quite a lot, and the hon. Member for Poplar and Limehouse talked about how trust in police was at its lowest. What I would say is that the women who I have worked with over the years do not have the privilege of having an alternative to trusting the police; they have to trust them, because in most of their cases that is the only option they have. We also must work to ensure that, as my hon. Friend suggested, we do not demoralise the workforce with review after review, which sometimes demoralises people and makes this process a sort of check-box exercise of, “I did everything I should have”, rather than people’s response being, “Are you all right, love?” My hon. Friend is absolutely right—the Government will have a fierce regime for standards in policing, but we will always celebrate good practice. This morning, I was in the constituency of the hon. Member for Sutton and Cheam (Luke Taylor)—well, I was not in his constituency, but I was with his borough command, as Sutton and Cheam will be one of the first areas to have the roll-out of domestic abuse protection orders. I met dedicated staff from Sutton Council who work on domestic abuse and the police officers working in that borough command to make sure the roll-out happens. I could not have asked for better examples of police officers; they were totally dedicated. We need to do both things; celebrate the good and punish the bad. I say to my hon. Friend the Member for Scarborough and Whitby (Alison Hume) on Anna’s case that—I am sure my officials will get annoyed with me doing this every time—I am personally happy to help Anna. I cannot listen to that story and not think that something has to be done about Anna’s specific case. However, we cannot just change things for Anna; we have to change them for everybody. We have to make sure that such stories—I do not want to sit and listen to such stories for the next five years. However, changing things will take quite a lot of time. Several Members mentioned employment. I would be happy to have a conversation with the right hon. Member for Dwyfor Meirionnydd (Liz Saville Roberts), as I have already had many times, about exactly what she is seeking to achieve. The tackling violence against women and girls strategy is a cross-Government strategy and women will absolutely have a role in it. I mean, women do go to work; indeed, that feels like all I do. But women being safe at work was one of the things that she and I discussed while we were fighting for the domestic abuse protection orders to cover a woman’s workplace, when we served on the Domestic Abuse Bill Committee. As I say, I am more than happy to work with her, and workers’ rights and how we deal with people’s employment will absolutely be part of Government strategy. My hon. Friend the Member for Ilford South (Jas Athwal) talked about Zara Aleena’s family, who I know well and have worked with over the years. We absolutely must ensure that we do not hear such a story again. My hon. Friend told the story of Zara Aleena and her perpetrator. The failings in Zara’s case show exactly what I am saying about a crippled system; we could make better law, or better rules, but the system of probation had been so crippled that that was the outcome. I feel immensely upset about Zara’s case. Many Members mentioned education; indeed, somebody asked me directly if I speak to the Department for Education. My officials or I speak to the DFE daily. Apart from the Ministry of Justice and the Under-Secretary of State for Justice, my hon. Friend the Member for Pontypridd (Alex Davies-Jones), with whom I work very closely, this mission focuses most on the Department for Education, because prevention is vital. Many Members have spoken about boys. For example, as the mother of sons myself, I was affected by the harrowing stories that my hon. Friend the Member for Milton Keynes Central (Emily Darlington) told about boys’ attitudes. We have got to prevent this—I am sick of just putting bigger plasters on cuts. We have got to work very closely on prevention and on perpetrator work to prevent those who are already showing signs from escalating, and we will absolutely do that. To answer the hon. Member for Rutland and Stamford, Operation Soteria, having been rolled out, goes into a new phase in January where police forces have to tell us how exactly they are going to be doing it. There is no proposed end to Operation Soteria. I continue to see its benefits and work closely with the academics and police forces that undertook the work on it. On the point about measurements, the overarching measurements we will seek to use will be just one thing. I refuse to make a target and miss a point. It is quite easy to juke stats anyway, isn’t it? Many different metrics sit underneath the overarching measure. The exercise on exactly what that measure will be is currently ongoing. The measure currently used in this instance is the crime survey of England and Wales. But we have to look at many other metrics, whether they are attitudinal, about femicide, or about issues with delivery in schools. It is not just the Home Office working on that; every Department is currently busily working on what their metrics might be. When the measurements are properly announced, I am determined to make sure that they do not just hit a target and miss a point. On the flexible fund program, I am not going to commit to any funding anybody has asked me about today. I literally cannot, as that process is currently ongoing. However, I have seen the value of the flee fund over the years. The pornography review is due, I think, very early next year. It was started by the previous Government and we will be working on it. As the hon. Member for Rutland and Stamford said, the Online Safety Act only goes so far. I do not know how apocryphal this is, so I apologise if I am misleading the House, but I saw in a news article that Pornhub had said it had found some sort of workaround to the Online Safety Act. It was somehow going to make out like it was not a pornography site, so I assume we will all be going on Pornhub later to buy books. Is it that what they are offering? The use of graphic pornography in society has caused many of the things people have talked about today. I am meant to have said all these things the Government are going to do and are currently doing. I think I have said most of them in answer to the questions. I will finish by saying that I wanted to cry today when I was with the police force in south London and the first domestic abuse protection order, something we had waited so long for, was handed out. The police officer was so delighted, and I felt like a new dawn was coming.

• 27 Nov 2024 · Violence against Women and Girls · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Mark. I thank the hon. Member for Rutland and Stamford (Alicia Kearns) for her impassioned speech. However, I must give the biggest credit to my hon. Friend the Member for Poplar and Limehouse (Apsana Begum) for bringing forward a debate on such an important issue. I have handled a lot of cases in my life, and have seen almost every way that the systems that are meant to protect us, such as the courts system, are used against victims in a patriarchal system. However, I have never seen a case that compares to the one that my hon. Friend spoke so bravely about, where our very democracy is used to allow a perpetrator to control. As in the case of Gisèle Pelicot, whose name has been mentioned today, it takes a huge amount of bravery to try to shift the shame elsewhere and keep speaking up. It has been a pleasure to work with my hon. Friend over the years, and long may that continue. I am going to do something that did not always happen when I was on the other side in a debate: try to answer Members’ questions—that was not always my experience. Please bear with me if I jump around a bit. First, my hon. Friend is exactly right that we must make this issue everybody’s problem. By “everybody”—others mentioned the issue of silo Government—I mean every Government Department. I joked this morning that I was struggling to connect the issue to solar panels, but give me time. To the hon. Member for Rutland and Stamford, I say that the Conservative Government had a good track record of changing legislation, but what did not change at the same pace were the systematic processes that ensure that the legislation means something on the ground. Today we launched domestic abuse protection orders. The previous Government passed those into law, and three years after the fact, the first one was handed out this morning. It will take a huge amount—a lot of different Departments and people having the will—to make things happen, and my hon. Friend the Member for Poplar and Limehouse is exactly right about that. A cross-Government strategy must not be just a piece of paper that sits on a shelf, and we say, “We’ve ticked that box.” It has to be targeted, and it has to have the will of everybody. As she said, that is what we will do. That will be out next year. A number of people, including my hon. Friend, mentioned the concerning issue of non-contact sexual offences. Part 1 of the Angiolini review, which followed the death of Sarah Everard, made a huge number of recommendations with regard to how the police handle non-contact sexual offences. That was also mentioned by my hon. Friend the Member for Rugby (John Slinger). Frankly, it is not good enough, is it? It is woeful. I picked up a case just this morning, funnily enough, involving somebody sending naked images of themselves to someone—I will not use the colloquial term, even though I am sure everybody would expect me to; I am a Government Minister now. These things have to be taken seriously. The Home Office is looking into the evidence about the escalation of non-contact sexual violence to contact sexual violence, because that evidence base does not currently exist, even though common sense would lead us all to assume it does. We need to ensure that we are continuing to work on that. The issue of migrant women came up a number of times; my hon. Friend the Member for Folkestone and Hythe (Tony Vaughan) raised it, as did my hon. Friend the. Member for Poplar and Limehouse. Quite astutely, my hon. Friend the Member for Folkestone and Hythe reminded me of all the things I have said in the past on this issue. Although I now find myself in a different position, my heart is exactly in the same place. The issue of how migrant women are supported in our country is one that we are currently giving huge attention to. I do not care what stamp is in someone’s passport; if they have been abused on these shores, they deserve protection on these shores. That is what we will continue to strive for. The hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) is right to say that I have a special interest in Northern Ireland. That is not to say that I do not love Wales and Scotland as well, because I do, but my father, who also raised me to be a feminist, makes my loyalty to Northern Ireland a tiny bit stronger than to elsewhere.