Male Abusive Behaviour

Baroness Butler-Sloss Excerpts

Wednesday 8th March 2017 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

I pay tribute to Vera Baird because I know she does an awful lot of work in this area. The first thing I looked at when I was at DCLG was the whole area of domestic violence—the refuges and the prevention models. The noble Baroness is absolutely right: it is important to keep these refuges open so that no woman is turned away. In fact, there was a significant announcement in the Budget today about underpinning our VAWG strategy, but those interventions to stop domestic violence happening in the first place are also very important.

[Baroness Butler-Sloss (CB)]

My Lords, is it not important that violence against women that is shown on the net should be dealt with?

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

The noble and learned Baroness makes a very good point. It is what children see—their experiences of what is normal—that will shape the behaviour of young boys and young girls. Young girls may lose the value in themselves and young boys may not value girls as they grow up. The noble and learned Baroness is absolutely right, and work has been done in this sphere over the course of this Government and the previous Government.