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Mr. Hilton Dawson (Lancaster and Wyre) (Lab): It is a privilege to have the opportunity to take part in the Second Reading of this very important Bill. I commend my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary for his focus on domestic violence and for expressing in the Bill the need to afford adequate protection to its victims.
As we have heard—it hardly needs restating—domestic violence accounts for a quarter of all recorded crime. One in four women experience violence from a partner during their lifetimes. It is a shocking fact that by the time we have begun to discuss the Bill in Committee, another two women may have died as a result of such violence.
We should therefore be pleased that the Government are investing more than £60 million per annum; introducing measures in the Bill to make the breach of non-molestation orders a criminal offence; extending the provisions of part 4 of the Family Law Act 1996 to same-sex or non-cohabiting couples; establishing procedures for holding and undertaking domestic homicide reviews; making common assault an arrestable offence; extending the availability of restraining orders; and supporting the victims of domestic violence—indeed, all victims and witnesses—by establishing a commissioner to serve their interests.
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I sincerely hope that during the passage of the Bill there will be no further debate on the relative roles of the commissioner for victims and witnesses and the commissioner for children. It would be hugely to misunderstand the role of the children's commissioner to fail to appreciate that that person will have a fundamentally important task in ensuring that children are able to access all the ordinary avenues of support that are available to them in society. However, to send child victims and witnesses to a children's commissioner, not to the commissioner set up for the purpose, would be to send them down a devalued and child-only cul-de-sac.
I am surprised that such a good Bill does not propose a statutory definition of domestic violence. I wonder how the proposal for a commissioner for victims and witnesses relates to the undoubted need for a national advocacy service for the victims of domestic violence. Like others, I am anxious about the funding and support for refuges. I hope that those important matters can be tackled during the Bill's passage.
We are considering an important measure for children. The Government recognise the appalling impact of their witnessing domestic violence because clause 120 of the Adoption and Children Act 2002 extended the definition of significant harm to include impairment from seeing or hearing the ill treatment of another. It is imperative that the provision is implemented and I understand that that is due to happen in January 2005. I sincerely hope that there will be no delay.
Clause 5 provides for joint liability in cases where a child has died but the prosecution is unable to determine exactly who killed him. That is crucial and I hope that the principles of parental responsibility and that of all adults in the household will be supported. However, it is a significant and serious anomaly that children under 16, who happen to bear responsibility because they are parents at a young age, could be criminally liable when, in so many other ways, they would be perceived as extremely needy children. As my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary acknowledged, many are surely supported by other adults in the house, who could well bear responsibility under the clause.
A great deal of emphasis has rightly been placed on the appalling number of women who are killed in this country as a result of domestic violence. Hon. Members should never forget that one or two children a week are killed by parents or care givers. Three quarters of children on child protection registers have experienced domestic violence. It has not been said in the debate that at least 28 children have been murdered during contact visits in recent years. On Wednesday at 12.45 pm in the Attlee Suite, I shall host an event organised by Women's Aid, which child victims of domestic violence will attend to give incredibly brave testimony about their experiences and to question my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary. I commend him for his willingness to listen to children and I hope that all other hon. Members will join him on that occasion. Listening to children and tackling their issues effectively is an important way in which to tackle fundamental aspects of domestic violence.
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In the past few decades, there has been a major cultural shift in our attitudes towards domestic violence. However, we need to be bolder and braver in the Bill if we are to make genuine progress and tackle some of the deepest roots of violence in our society. As I have already said twice, it makes no sense to deplore violence without having the courage to give children the same protection from assault as adults enjoy.
I predict that a change in legislation, which sweeps away the mid-19th century concept of reasonable chastisement, will come soon. I firmly believe that, in only a few years, people will look back on debates in the House and regard it as, at best, quaint that some people objected to removing an objectionable provision, failed to ensure the equal protection from assault of adults and children, and opposed introducing a crucial and significant plank of child protection.
I want to speak about contact. As a father myself, I support the right of children to have good contact with both parents throughout their childhood, but I am appalled by the actions of judges who have ordered and enforced unsupervised contact, and in some cases residence orders, to the benefit of violent, abusive and dangerous men. It seems to me essential that we bring about in this Bill a presumption of no contact unless it can be organised safely and the child wants it.
As a strong supporter of the Government's Green Paper, "Every Child Matters" and their statement to that effect, I cannot believe it appropriate that we should debate a Bill addressing violence, crime and victims without dealing with the national scandal and disgrace—a fact that shames every single Member of this House—of the deaths of 27 children in the custody of the state since 1997. This Bill should recognise the fact that children who commit criminal offences are troubled, needy children who need better looking after rather than locking up. In particular, we should use this opportunity to raise the age of criminal responsibility and to ensure that those few children from whom we actually need to be protected go into care rather than into custody. Those children who have, to our shame and disgrace, committed suicide in custody are some of the most tragic victims of whom one could possibly conceive.
Children are twice as likely as adults to be victims of crime, and this good Bill has the potential to be an excellent one if we really place them at the centre of our concerns. We should look to improve the Bill significantly in the ways that I have suggested, link it with the Children Bill that will be before us in a few weeks and ensure that the policies of the Home Office become firmly grounded in the principles of the Green Paper, "Every Child Matters". Let us, for goodness' sake, have some joined-up government.
We should listen to the children who have been through the devastating experience of domestic violence if we really want a perspective that will help us effectively to counter this dreadful and demeaning feature of our society. Some months ago, a young woman called Chloe came to see me and later sent me a letter and a song—although hon. Members will be relieved that I shall not attempt to perform her excellent song. Chloe perhaps in a preview of Wednesday for my hon. Friend the Minister asks:
"Why do the courts force children to see their dads when they are frightened of them? Why don't the courts make sure that it is safe for mums and children when they know the dads are violent?"
"Who tells the judge off when he don't listen to the children?"
9.8 pm
Miss Anne Begg (Aberdeen, South) (Lab): I feel at a bit of a disadvantage speaking in this debate because of the expertise that hon. Members on both sides have shown in this subject. Their expertise is wider and much more long standing than anything that I can bring to bear on the debate. I appreciate that the Bill does not apply to Scotland, because it concerns a devolved issue. It applies only to England, to Wales and, if the hon. Member for North Down (Lady Hermon) has her way, wholly to Northern Ireland.
However, I should like to raise one specific issue tonight, to ensure that it does not get lost in the Bill's passage through Committee. It relates to the particular needs and difficulties faced by women or men with physical disabilities, and the ways in which they can deal with suffering at the hands of a partner, husband or wife who is violent to them or neglects them.
The issue had not crossed my radar until a couple of weeks ago, when I was contacted by the Radio 4 programme, "Woman's Hour". It had picked up the fact that an area of policy might be being ignored—that, while domestic violence was being given an airing and this Bill was being dealt with in the House of Lords, the specific plight of disabled women was not being dealt with. Until I spoke to the programme's researchers, I was not aware of the issue. None of my constituents had come to my office to talk about it, and other Members to whom I have spoken say that it is not on their radar either. The researchers said that many people involved in women's aid and running refuges had not considered it.
There is a lack of knowledge about this. There is also the fear that what is already a hidden problem—for domestic violence happens in the privacy of people's homes—has an extra hidden dimension in the shape of what is happening to people with disabilities. I have some expertise in that I know what it is like to be a disabled person, but I can only imagine what it must be like to feel trapped in a violent or difficult relationship with no means of escape.
The aspects of domestic violence have been well covered today, and are well documented; but I found it difficult to discover any research on the incidence of domestic violence involving disabled women and disabled people in general. I know that a conference was held in the UK a few years ago, but I have not been able to establish whether any action has been taken as a result of the issues raised then. The only research I have been able to find comes from north America. A study conducted by Margaret Nosek and Carol Howland in the late 1990s concluded that abuse of women with disabilities was a problem of epidemic proportions. It is difficult to quantify because the research has not been done, and because victims of such domestic violence are probably less likely to speak out than victims of domestic violence who are not disabled. We know how difficult it is for any victim of domestic violence to find the courage to speak out; imagine how much more difficult it must be for someone with a physical disability.
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We should also bear it in mind that domestic violence is not always physical. It often starts psychologically. Sometimes a woman's partner undermines her self-worth, shaking her confidence and making her believe that without him she could not survive in society. Even the most confident women, who work or have their own sources of income, can be undermined by that psychological wearing away of their confidence.
Let us imagine a disabled person who, no matter how forward-looking or involved he or she may be, has found it difficult to establish his or her self-worth. Most people become disabled rather than being born disabled. Someone who has become disabled will be trying to cope with what that means, and with self-image and all that it involves. I was a teenager when it became clear to me that I would grow into a disabled adult. It was difficult enough to face that realisation. Imagine a woman in the same position whose partner cannot cope with the knowledge that he has a disabled wife or partner, and who therefore makes it harder for her to get to grips with her disability.
Disabled victims of domestic abuse face particular difficulties not only in trying to alert others but in getting help, even if they manage to do so. They may be living in relative isolation. I understand what others have said about women living in remote areas, but being a disabled person in any community can be isolating. In some cases, the abuser—who may also be the main carer—may restrict freedom and contact with others. If a disabled woman tried to escape the situation, where could she run to? The local women's refuge is unlikely to be wheelchair-friendly—although most disabled people are not necessarily in wheelchairs—and the aids and adaptations available in the home would be unlikely to be available elsewhere.
A disabled person with complex health needs may have built up a complex support network and in particular a relationship with their GP and the local health service providers which they would be reluctant to leave behind in order to escape the violence. If they are reliant on the abuser for the physical help that they need, it may be difficult for them to suggest that the abuser should be the one to leave the home.
We know that non-disabled women victims of domestic violence often have an emotional and perhaps a financial dependence on the perpetrator, but for someone with a disability that dependence may also be physical, which adds an extra dimension. The abuse may also be in the form of the withdrawal of help—not something that is done to someone, as is the case with most incidents of domestic violence, but something that has not been done. For example, someone may not have been washed or properly fed.
It is important to look beyond the definition in the Bill, which refers only to "vulnerable adults". I understand what my hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield, Heeley (Ms Munn) said about people with learning disabilities, who have particular problems, especially if they are in a care home, but most people with physical disabilities are in their own home and may have become disabled later in life, so they would not be classed as vulnerable adults unless their disability was exceptionally severe. A woman could be very able, and holding down a job, while happening to have a physical disability.
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The Bill will definitely provide better support for victims, and I welcome the appointment of an independent commissioner mentioned by the hon. Member for Somerton and Frome (Mr. Heath) and many others. It will be important to have someone responsible for victims' health care, housing and social security needs.
I am also attracted to the idea proposed by my hon. and learned Friend the Member for Redcar (Vera Baird) in an Adjournment debate in Westminster Hall on 18 May and again today, of an advocacy service for victims. Such a service could cater directly for the needs of a disabled person, and would be much more effective than the general help given to all victims. I know that Women's Aid and women's refuges try hard to deal with individuals, but I contend that there is an extra dimension for women with a disability. I wanted to speak in the debate so as to ensure that on Second Reading and in Committee those needs would be addressed and taken on board, and we would start to speak about this subject.
As I said, I am talking about double invisibility: domestic violence is invisible; and the violence that has been meted out to disabled women, and the difficulties that they are living with, are hidden problems that need to be addressed. That will happen only if we talk about the issue, if the Government are aware of it, and if Women's Aid and the women's refuges are aware that there is a group of women whom they need to deal with. That applies to all the other agencies as well. As we have heard, women are often passed from pillar to post, from agency to agency, and that too, can be doubly difficult if a person has a disability. I know that I have concentrated on disabled women—the hon. Member for Somerton and Frome pulled me up for that—but I have done so because women are predominantly the victims of such violence. However, that does not preclude men, and I suspect that there may be more men in that position than male victims in the general population, because in such cases the female partner is in a position to withdraw the help that the man so desperately needs.
I urge the Government to remember the group of people whom I do not believe are properly covered by the Bill, and to give due consideration to the suggestion made by my hon. and learned Friend the Member for Redcar about a victims' advocacy service. If they do, we might get properly tailored and directed help to the people who need it.
9.21 pm
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