The Lord Bishop of Newcastle
To ask His Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to reduce domestic violence against children, and prevent such behaviour being learned and repeated by those under 16.
The Minister of State, Home Office (Lord Hanson of Flint) (Lab)
Tackling abuse in teenage relationships and preventing abuse before it happens is a priority for the Government. The recently published violence against women and girls strategy commits to ensuring that all children learn about healthy relationships and consent in school, provides a helpline for young people concerned about their own behaviour to provide support and guidance, and delivers interventions for young people which challenge and change harmful attitudes and behaviours.
The Lord Bishop of Newcastle
I thank the Minister for his Answer. Can he give an update on the Government’s response to calls to lower the statutory age at which individuals can be seen as victims of domestic abuse? This is otherwise known as Holly’s law, named after the Northumberland teenager, Holly Newton, who was murdered by her ex-partner.
Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)
I am very aware of the murder of Holly Newton, and my thoughts are with her family and friends. As the right reverend Prelate may know, the Home Office is undertaking a scoping review into the legal framework of domestic abuse to ensure that it captures the experience of adolescents in particular. This includes—the point that the right reverend Prelate mentioned—reviewing the age limit in the Domestic Abuse Act 2021. The review will conclude during the course of this year, and I will be able to report back in due course.
Baroness Chisholm of Owlpen (Non-Afl)
My Lords, there is always, quite rightly, multi-agency involvement in these distressing cases, but there can be a problem when victims fall through the cracks and the joined-up approach fails. How can we be assured that this is being improved? This is difficult for the Minister to answer, but it is an important point to air because we see, over and over again, how there are problems with the joined-up approach with one agency talking to another. I wondered if the Minister might have some views on that.
Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)
All agencies have a responsibility to provide safeguarding for young people. Co-operation between agencies—by that I mean schools, social services and, potentially, the police—is extremely important. In the violence against women and girls strategy, we are trying to look at how we can do this better. I would refer the noble Baroness to that document, because there are potential steps in there that we are seeking to achieve, but it will be not an easy or quick solution.
Baroness Brinton (LD)
My Lords, the VAWG action plan proposes increasing the number of family help lead protection practitioners—that is a senior social worker—but children’s services teams across the country are severely stretched now. Can the Minister say how many more children’s social workers will be needed to deliver family support? Will the Government guarantee that funding for it will be ring-fenced inside local authorities?
Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)
The noble Baroness will know that I cannot give a figure on that today. We have put an extra £20 million into the violence against women and girls strategy to deal with the particular issues that are the focus of this Question. There is a need—to go back to an earlier point made by the previous noble Baroness—to have co-ordination between local authorities, education and, in some cases, the devolved Administrations. I cannot give a definitive answer, but I will take the point back to my right honourable friend Jess Phillips, the Minister with direct responsibilities, and ensure that the noble Baroness receives an answer.
Baroness Winterton of Doncaster (Lab)
My Lords, does my noble friend the Minister agree that one of the issues to be solved by the points that have already been raised is information sharing between the police, social workers and teachers? We could also make better use of school nurses and educational psychologists in getting support to vulnerable young people at risk. Could my noble friend’s department really drill down on this, find out what the best practice is and share it with others so that we can all learn from it?
Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)
My noble friend makes a very good point. She will know that the Home Office has invested £13.1 million to fund and launch a new National Centre for Violence Against Women and Girls and Public Protection to improve the response, particularly in relation to child sexual abuse. That goes to the heart of the point that both the noble Baroness and my noble friend have mentioned about co-ordination, and it is important that we try to resolve this. The strategy was published just before Christmas; it is a 10-year strategy; there is a lot of stuff in it, but the objective is one that my noble friend has pointed to and one that we share.
Baroness Finlay of Llandaff (CB)
My Lords, will the Government undertake to work with the AFRUCA organisation? Often, a problem for girls with skin of colour is that bruises do not show. Therefore, the people who may encounter these girls with early signs of abuse, which then escalates, do not easily have the triggers to open the conversation and allow the girls to express that they are at risk.
Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)
The noble Baroness makes a very good point. Again, one of the areas that the violence against women and girls strategy is looking at is how we can improve training for professionals who come into contact with people who may be involved in that type of abuse. The particular point she mentions related to people of colour is extremely important, and I will take it away.
Lord Sandhurst (Con)
My Lords, a Guardian article last week said, in reference to the Sentencing Bill, that the Victims’ Commissioner feared that
“plans to radically change sentencing could leave victims of domestic abuse in danger”.
Is the Victims’ Commissioner wrong?
Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)
The Victims’ Commissioner has a statutory duty to comment on any issues that she wishes. She made representations regarding the Sentencing Bill. This House has completed its proceedings on that Bill, and the Minister for Justice, the noble Lord, Lord Timpson, has reflected on the comments that the Victims’ Commissioner made at that time. That point is self-evident but one that I do not wish to comment on further.
Lord Meston (CB)
My Lords, it is a particularly sad feature of domestic violence cases that adults are doing what was done to them as children. Indeed, their children are in turn exposed to similar violence and come to see it as normal and acceptable. This difficult problem is recognised in the Government’s strategy, but can the Minister indicate what more specifically they hope to do to address these cycles of intergenerational violence?
Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)
One of the key areas is ensuring that, through the education system, we strengthen relationship education, personal relationship education and, in particular, respect for young girls. That is a very difficult job, because there is a mass of social media that has an exact opposite approach to the type of things that we wish to see within the education system, so we are also, through the Online Safety Act, looking at what we need to do with online harm, because the world has moved on, even in the past 10 to 15 years, and will continue to do so. That is a very important point and one that the Government are very much apprised of and trying to find some resolution to.
Lord Watts (Lab)
My Lords, the Minister is quite correct to say that social media has much more impact than government policy in this area, but is he confident that the regulator, which has continued to fail to do anything about this, will be up for the job that it now has, with the changes in the policy direction, and that it will do the job that it is supposed to do to protect the public?
Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)
Ofcom, which is the appropriate regulatory body, is determined to ensure that the existing Online Safety Act legislation is implemented and, in particular, that social media companies are held to account for their performance on it. Again, on the violence against women and girls strategy and other matters such as fraud, which is within my direct remit, we are looking at whether we need to give additional powers and support to Ofcom to ensure that it performs those tasks properly.
The Lord Bishop of Manchester
My Lords, the Question was about domestic violence, and it seems we have strayed slightly off the subject. Does the Minister agree that most harm that comes to children is within the home? We hear an awful lot about social media and other forms of harm, but children are usually most at risk from a relative or a close friend of the family.
Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)
It is. The Question was phrased in relation to teenage-on-teenage violence, but it is important that parental responsibility is also managed effectively. In the violence against women and girls strategy, that is certainly recognised, and I hope that the right reverend Prelate will be able to support us over the 10-year period to try and do so.
Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)
Female genital mutilation is outlawed. The Government are taking steps, through the Home Office in particular, to give advice and support and to look at issues to do with individuals and sentencing as well. There is a programme to deal with female genital mutilation, including spotting the signs of abuse. We have recently taken steps at the border to ensure that checks are made on individuals who may be going in or out of the country for the purposes of being impacted by female genital mutilation. It is an abhorrent practice and one that we will continue to crack down on.