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Ms Sally Keeble (Northampton, North) (Lab): Will my right hon. Friend give way?
Ms Keeble: Does my right hon. Friend agree that a key part of that culture change is accepting that perpetrators can change and control their behaviour? Is it not important to fund and develop perpetrators' programmes, such as the one in my town, if we are to change the culture and the general approach to domestic violence?
Mr. Blunkett: I know of my hon. Friend's interest in the subject and I know of the project she has mentioned. It is making a valuable contribution. In the end, of course, we must change the behaviour of those with whom we are dealing; otherwise, they are highly likely to become prolific repeat offenders who cause misery to others.
One of the tragedies of domestic violence, which is true of victims of violence more generally, is the way in which people move from one circumstance of tragedy to another. There is a wider desire, and a wider need, to ensure that we overcome the problem rather than merely enabling people to escape from their circumstances, crucial though that is. Being able to work with close colleagues who have battered away at this for many years sometimes makes the job of Home Secretary worthwhile, and I am proud to have been able to move the motion for Second Reading.
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Mrs. Cheryl Gillan (Chesham and Amersham) (Con): I am delighted to open for the Opposition. As the Home Secretary said, this subject is important to all parties in the House. I trust that it will show the House working at its best, and those who serve on the Committee doing the same.
It has taken nearly six months for the Bill to reach the House, and Conservative Members have awaited it with eager anticipation. As we finally welcome it, it seems to us that the gestation has lasted a long time. There is no doubt that the subject transcends party politics. We consider the Bill so important that both the shadow Minister for Women and the shadow Attorney-General will join me in Committee, and I understand that the Home Secretary considers it important enough to field three Ministers. We all look forward to constructive discussions.
I pay especial tribute to my colleague Baroness Anelay for the sterling work that she did in steering the Bill through the other place and for some of the reshaping that was achieved there. I was therefore sorry in some ways to hear that the Home Secretary intends to reverse all those changes, but his speech today gave me some hope. Rather than a reversal, I would call it a refinement. I hope that we will be able to work together. A reversal could reflect a wider intention to reject all the helpful suggestions from the Opposition, and indeed from Government Back Benchers and the numerous organisations that are deeply concerned about the Bill.
I hope that, in the light of the seriousness of the subject, my colleagues and I will be able to work very constructively on the issues in Committee and send an even better piece of legislation to the statute book than the one that we are starting with today.
In 2001, it was estimated that there were 12.9 million incidents of domestic violence against women in the United Kingdom, and 2.5 million against men. Currently, in the United Kingdom, two women are killed at the hands of current or former partners every week; 62 per cent. of domestic violence incidents are reported to end in injury; and in 81 per cent. the victim is a woman. Countless women and men experience the horror of domestic violence, and it is said that one in four women will experience it at some point in their lives. That means that there will undoubtedly be women known to each and every one of us, and perhaps men as well, who will have endured domestic violence without our ever knowing that it has happened to them.
Many live in a climate of fear and intimidation. The testimony of people who have endured systematic abuse at the hands of their partners over a long period is both harrowing and humbling. Domestic violence also has an impact on employment: among women suffering domestic violence last year, about 21 per cent. took time off work, and of the men and women suffering it, 2 per cent. lost their jobs.
Furthermore, tens of thousands of children experience the sheer horror of violence in the home. The trauma is incalculable. Many children who watch a parent being abused may go on to become abusers themselves. This makes tackling domestic violence an even greater priority, as the hon. Member for Cambridge (Mrs. Campbell) said.
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Domestic violence is like few other crimes. It is an emotional and psychological attack, as well as a physical one. On average, women are subject to physical attack on dozens of occasions before reporting it to the police. It is a crime that is kept secret from other family members and closest friends. It can take years to recover from it, and some people never do.
In a recent survey conducted for the British crime survey, 31 per cent. of female victims and 63 per cent. of male victims had told no one other than the survey about the worst incidents of domestic violence that they had suffered in the year before the survey was taken.
There can never be an excuse for domestic violence. We cannot allow alcohol, stress or poverty, or culture, to be used to excuse the use of violence as a means of domination or control. I hope that the Bill will help to redress the injustice that many now face. We support its objectives, but we should acknowledge at the outset, as the Secretary of State did, that tackling domestic violence is not simply about legislation: much of it is about changing attitudes.
Too many people still seem to think that domestic violence is in some circumstances acceptable. Too many seem to think that the victim may somehow have deserved it. Many who experience domestic violence also blame themselves. In fact, 64 per cent. of women and 94 per cent. of men who were subject to domestic violence last year did not even think that what had happened to them was a crime.
Too many people still think that the woman is responsible too, if she stays in the home despite being abused. How often have we heard people ask, "Why didn't she leave?" as if leaving one's home and children were an easy step to take. On the reverse side of the coin, some people think that a woman is deeply irresponsible if she leaves children at home and flees to a hostel to escape violence. She is damned if she does and damned if she does not.
Those outdated attitudes need to be changed, but we cannot legislate to change minds; that requires more education and more public awareness. The more domestic violence is discussed in the open, the more light will be shed on an issue that has traditionally remained behind closed doors—one of the last great taboos in our society.
Tackling domestic violence effectively means involving the police. There are plenty of examples of good practice in today's police force, and I pay tribute particularly to the Metropolitan police and the Association of Chief Police Officers for their work in improving the training for police officers responding to domestic violence. I also pay tribute to my local Thames Valley police, who constantly face domestic incidents that require sensitive handling. The idea that violence in the home can be dismissed as "just a domestic" is coming to an end, and I hope that we will be able to find ways in the Bill to empower the police to deal with domestic violence even better.
Many of the organisations at the sharp end of domestic violence have welcomed part 1 of the Bill, but many issues need addressing, such as the concerns of the Women's National Commission that were referred to by the hon. Member for Birmingham, Selly Oak (Lynne Jones), who is no longer in her place, and the concerns of the Southall Black Sisters about ethnic minority women
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subject to immigration control, and their recourse to public funds. Issues have also been raised by Women's Aid, which has proposals to allow for the automatic granting of a non-molestation order where violence is being used or threatened, whenever an occupation order is being granted. We will want to examine that part of the Bill in detail, including exploring a potential definition of domestic violence.
Some of the most complex measures are in the provisions on familial homicide. There is near universal agreement that that subject needs to be addressed. Research undertaken over three years by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children found that every week no fewer than three children under 10 were killed or suffered serious injury. In 61 per cent. of the investigations that reached a conclusion there was no prosecution, and in the cases that resulted in a conviction for a criminal offence, only a fraction resulted in a conviction for homicide, wounding or causing grievous bodily harm.
Clearly, injustices are taking place and the need for reform is accepted throughout the legal profession. Indeed, the provisions in the Bill follow from the Law Commission's proposals published last year. Nobody doubts the Government's good intentions, but good intentions do not necessarily make fine laws, and we will want to examine the provisions more closely in Committee, especially where the Government's proposals diverge from those of the Law Commission. In particular, we shall need to be reassured that the Bill is compatible with human rights legislation.
The Government have made it clear that they intend to restore the provisions on multiple offending, but we made it clear during the passage of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 that we were prepared to accept the idea that a jury may try a sample of cases. We agree that sentencing should be possible on the basis of specimen counts, but we must be vigilant in ensuring that that is not an attempt to erode jury trial by the back door, after the failure to do that openly last year.
I understand that the Government also intend to restore the former clause 18 on fitness to plead, which was removed in the other place. The clause took away from the jury the decision whether the defendant was fit to be tried, leaving that decision for the judge alone. The Government seem determined to remove lay people from the administration of justice. Last week, they tried to do that with the asylum tribunals, for no apparent good reason, and last year they tried to do it with long complex fraud trials, but on every occasion we defeated them.
We remain unconvinced by the argument that judges should be able to decide unfitness to plead. The consequences of being declared unfit to plead could be a person being locked up under a hospital order without any time restriction, so we shall examine very carefully the Government's attempt to reinstate clause 18.
Let me move on to part 3. The victims charter was first published in 1990 under a Conservative Government and was widely recognised as a major step towards victims starting to get better treatment. Victim Support has been advocating the right for victims to be entitled to reliable support for some years, and it welcomes those
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measures in the Bill, as I do. However, confidence in the criminal justice system is low. Very few victims see their offender brought to justice, and victim satisfaction with the police went down from 68 per cent. in 1994 to 59 per cent. in 2002–03. Some people will not even report crime—as victim or witness—because of fear of reprisals, or because of disengagement from the system.
We will want to examine the effectiveness of the code of practice and the role of the commissioner, but I now understand that the Government intend to table a series of amendments on support for victims of crime, so we shall want in particular to examine the provisions relating to surcharges on criminal convictions.
As the court system cannot currently enforce the existing fine system, is there not a danger that the compensation orders will bite on the generally law-abiding, leaving the real criminals to escape? As I said, despite the new and improved figures from the Under-Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs, just 55 per cent. of fines were paid on time and collected in 2002–03—[Interruption.] He brushes that to one side, but it is obviously a pivotal part of this new policy.
It really was unacceptable for the Home Office to announce a truncated consultation period on these proposals after the Bill received its Second Reading in the other place. To be truthful, it beggars belief that the Home Office has only just decided how to proceed, and that we shall now receive a raft of amendments at such a late stage, some of which might well be controversial. I hope that the Minister can tell us in the wind-up exactly when we can expect sight of those amendments. That is an important issue, given that proceedings in Committee are due to start as soon as 22 June. This is not a sensible way to legislate, and the Secretary of State knows exactly what I mean.
As I made clear at the outset, we support the principle behind the Bill, and I do not intend to ask my colleagues to vote against Second Reading tonight. However, some valuable and constructive work could be done in Committee to improve it, so I reserve the Opposition's right to vote against the Bill on Third Reading if the Government do not listen to our sincerely held concerns during its legislative passage. So far, they appear to have listened a little, and we hope that the Secretary of State and his Ministers will listen a lot more. I am very pleased to support Second Reading of this Bill.
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