Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls: Funding

Baroness Burt of Solihull Excerpts

Monday 28th April 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

I recognise the issues that the noble Baroness has raised. We have met outside the Chamber to discuss those issues and I am happy to reflect upon what she said as a whole. She will know that the Home Office has increased the funding on violence against women and girls by some 36% in this current year over what the previous Government were funding, to over £102 million. We will look at a strategy to tackle violence against women and girls in the summer as part of the Government’s plan for change to ensure that we halve domestic violence and violence against women and girls over the next 10 years. The target issues that she has mentioned are extremely important in that, and I hope that we can reflect on that and continue the dialogue that we have had.

[Baroness Burt of Solihull (LD)]

My Lords, the Government have clearly set themselves a very taxing target to halve violence against women and girls. Value and cost effectiveness are hugely important. The current short inquiry, whose invitation to submit evidence has just closed, will need a radical new approach, and not all organisations will get funding support, even though they have in the past. How do the Government plan to manage quality applications for funding and any transition for unsuccessful applicants and, even more importantly, the support services that women are able to access even now?

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

I am grateful to the noble Baroness. I should not repeat myself, but the Government are currently developing a strategy on violence against women and girls. We are hoping to produce that during the summer at the very latest. We have increased the funding overall by some 36% to £102 million. We are looking at how that resource is allocated. No decisions were made this year because of the issues around the spending review to ensure that we can do exactly what the noble Baroness wants; that is, to ensure that organisations have stability, know what expenditures are coming downstream over a longer period, and are not left in the lurch in relation to a loss of services. We are in a period of flux, but the Government’s intention is extremely clear: to halve the level of violence against women and girls over a 10-year period, and the funding has been put in to begin that process this year.

Domestic Abusers: Reoffending

Baroness Burt of Solihull Excerpts

Monday 24th February 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

I cannot specifically say today that I have that information for my noble friend, but I will certainly investigate. My noble friend Lord Hendy, the Transport Minister, is sat next to me on the Bench today and will have heard the question. We will negotiate and discuss between us whether there are lessons to be learned and how that programme is of value. I will look into that for my noble friend.

[Baroness Burt of Solihull (LD)]

It seems to me that victims, even when the perpetrators have been caught and convicted, feel that they are the ones responsible for keeping themselves safe from the behaviour of perpetrators. There seems so little evidence of successful programmes. Would the Minister agree with me that, despite the £20 million-odd that he has already talked about, we need to invest more in research for programmes that actually work.

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

We do need to ensure that the programmes work. I hope I can reassure the noble Baroness that in 2025-26 we in the Home Office are providing an additional £90 million to police and crime commissioners to look at the very issue that she has mentioned, through the domestic abuse and stalking perpetrator intervention fund. This will be not just for when someone is convicted of a domestic violence offence but when they are released, when there may be a need for greater support for the victim to make sure that they do not feel intimidated, stalked or damaged by the relationship that has already caused them damage.

King’s Speech

Baroness Burt of Solihull Excerpts

Wednesday 24th July 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Burt of Solihull (LD)]

My Lords, there is very little time to say all the things that I want to say today. Nevertheless, here I am, casting my own small pearls of wisdom before your Lordships. I still hope that they will somehow make a contribution to the workings of this House.

I repeat my welcome to the Minister. Just for a moment, I shall continue on the theme of prisoners. I belong to a small, doughty cross-party group determined to rectify the most terrible of injustices still being perpetrated on the suffering, lonely rump of 3,700 indeterminate-sentence prisoners. Can the Minister at least give some hope that he has not totally ruled out a resentencing exercise? It could be combined with some of the innovative alternatives mentioned by many noble Lords, including the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Gloucester and the noble Lord, Lord Macdonald of River Glaven.

The noble Lord, Lord Blunkett, spoke about small local remand centres. Not a lot of people know this, but it was at one of those centres—which then rejoiced in the name of Pucklechurch remand centre—that I began my training as an assistant governor in the Prison Service. However, there is no time to go into that fascinating aspect of my career here.

I will leave the subject of prisons and turn to the area that I mainly speak on: equalities. There is much to welcome on equalities in the King’s Speech. I look forward to working constructively with the Government to make the lives of women, ethnic minorities, disabled people and members of the LGBT+ community more just and more free. During the last Government, I and the then Labour MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle brought forward Private Members’ Bills to ban conversion practices, and I am absolutely delighted to see that return as a government Bill.

The employment rights Bill also includes many things that I strongly back, including greater entitlement to flexible-hours working, employee protections from day one and banning zero-hour contracts and the egregious practice of fire and rehire. We look forward to working with the Government on all these issues.

The draft equality race and disability requirement for pay-gap reporting for disabled and ethnic minority workers for larger businesses is most welcome. We have fought for that for a long time and we wish it every speed on its way.

I believe that the most challenging problem in the field of equalities facing the Government is the scourge of violence against women and girls. Only yesterday, as a noble Lord said, we saw in the news a sharp increase in the reporting of violence and a sharp decrease in prosecutions. The Government have committed to halving violence against women and girls. The Minister has given us a flavour of the coming measures and we all look forward to learning more.

There are many things that I would love to have seen in this King’s Speech—for example, equal marriage for humanists and the equal and inclusive treatment of children from religious and non-religious families in schools: I am hoping for a favourable wind for the return of my inclusive assemblies Private Member’s Bill.

Many challenges face this Government. My party will work constructively with them to make the new equality laws the most effective that they can possibly be.