Domestic Abuse Bill Second Reading House of Lords, Tuesday 5 January 2021

The Domestic Abuse Bill introduces important measures which will help to raise awareness of domestic abuse and will go some way to providing additional support to domestic abuse victims, whilst also helping to challenge perpetrator’s behaviour. It is a positive step in the right direction.

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Key messages

  • The Domestic Abuse Bill introduces important measures which will help to raise awareness of domestic abuse and will go some way to providing additional support to domestic abuse victims, whilst also helping to challenge perpetrator’s behaviour. It is a positive step in the right direction.
  • We support the creation of a statutory definition of domestic abuse, and the inclusion of economic abuse within this. We are also pleased to see that the Bill will place the role of Domestic Abuse Commissioner on a statutory footing.
  • Alongside the Bill’s focus on crisis interventions and criminal justice, tackling domestic abuse requires a cross-government response incorporating health, housing and education. We need an equal focus on, and funding for, prevention and early intervention measures that aims to prevent domestic abuse happening in the first place.
  • In addition to the measures in the Bill, the Government should provide long-term and sustained investment in early intervention and prevention programmes and wider community-based support. This should include investment in perpetrator programmes, which is why we are calling on the Government to introduce a National Domestic Abuse Perpetrator Strategy. We are also calling for the key learning and best practice from Domestic Homicide Reviews (DHRs) to be shared on a national level.
  • This legislation comes at a time when, even prior to the eventual long-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, local government’s services, particularly children’s services, were already facing unprecedented demand.
  • The Spending Review announcement of £125 million funding to help enable local authorities to deliver the proposed new duty to support domestic abuse victims and their children in safe accommodation is welcome. We now need further detail on this funding as it is not yet clear how the figure has been calculated and whether it will meet the full costs of the new proposed duty.
  • The new funding needs to fully account for any increases in demand for services, and any additional burdens identified by local needs assessments when the duty comes into force in April 2021. Children have been added into the statutory definition of domestic abuse, so it will be important to assess whether additional provision is required and therefore whether councils need additional funding to meet the new proposed duty.
  • One-off, short term grants do not allow for long-term planning or consistency in service, which is why long-term and sustained investment is needed. Transitional funding is also required to provide support for current domestic abuse services due to close at the end of the next financial year, April 1 2021.

About the bill

  • The measures in the Domestic Abuse Bill seek to raise awareness of domestic abuse, including by legislating for the first time for a statutory definition of domestic abuse.
  • The Bill aims to protect and support victims by introducing a new Domestic Abuse Protection Notice and Order (DAPO).
  • Measures in the Bill seek to transform the justice response, for example by preventing the cross-examination of victims in family court proceedings by the abuser.
  • The Bill also creates the new Domestic Abuse Commissioner role to help drive consistency and better performance in the response to domestic abuse across all local areas and agencies.

Victim support and housing (Part 4 of the Bill, Clauses 55-59)

  • The Bill proposes a new statutory duty on local authorities to deliver accommodation-based support to victims of domestic abuse (Tier 1 to deliver services, Tier 2 to collaborate). We welcome the Government’s commitment to fund this type of support, as safe accommodation and support clearly plays a critical and necessary role in how we respond to domestic abuse.
  • However, support for victims of domestic abuse must be viewed within the wider context of community-based support for domestic abuse victims. Where possible, victims of domestic abuse should be supported to remain in their own home if it is safe to do so.  We have some concern that a legal duty on local authorities to provide domestic abuse accommodation-based services may come at the expense of other domestic abuse initiatives or create a perverse incentive to enter accommodation-based services if that is the main route to accessing support.
  • Wherever it is appropriate and safe to do so we should avoid the double injustice of uprooting the lives of adults and children subject to domestic abuse by moving them from their family home and focus on disrupting the life and lifestyle of the perpetrators of abuse.
  • It is vital that there is a coordinated and comprehensive approach taken across the whole of Government and through the Domestic Abuse Bill, rather than a piecemeal approach focusing on specific aspects of the response to domestic abuse.

Domestic Abuse Commissioner (Part 2 of the Bill)

  • The LGA supports the creation of the Domestic Abuse Commissioner post and welcomes the appointment of Nicole Jacobs. The Commissioner has played a leading role during the COVID-19 pandemic, hosting weekly calls with domestic abuse services, Government departments and the wider sector to help support domestic abuse victims. The Commissioner’s office continues to make the case for long-term and sustainable support for community-based domestic abuse support services, which the LGA also supports.
  • Within the Bill, it is vital that the Commissioner is able to operate fully independently, and that there is sufficient parliamentary time to consider the reports submitted by the Commissioner. We would support consideration of the Commissioner’s findings by a select committee, so that there is added weight to any recommendations.
  • We are also calling for the key learning and best practice from Domestic Homicide Reviews (DHRs) to be shared at a national level. Any findings or recommendations should contribute towards the Commissioner’s Annual Report. This isn’t being done currently and it could help identify key areas of improvement that could help to save lives and protect domestic abuse victims.
  • The Commissioner should be the ‘ultimate critical friend’ to the Government, councils, local agencies and all our partners. This should be done through a supportive and collaborative relationship, which isn’t overly prescriptive; as there is no one size fits all approach to tackling this issue.

Early intervention and prevention

  • Alongside the proposed new duty and the Bill’s focus on criminal justice measures, there is a pressing need to focus on early intervention and prevention. We need to intervene in cases of domestic abuse before the point of a crisis response and implement programmes and approaches that seek to minimise and eradicate domestic abuse in the long term.
  • It will be important to invest in key frontline professionals to enable them to spot the warning signs and work closely with schools to inform them when a child has witnessed a domestic abuse incident.
  • It also means speaking to children earlier and consistently about what a healthy relationship looks like. We welcome the new requirement for schools to teach Relationships and Sex Education (RSE), which will help children to understand healthy relationships. The Government should also invest in the necessary resources and training to make this effective. 
  • To stop domestic abuse from occurring we need to take co-ordinated and urgent action against the perpetrators of abuse. Unfortunately, there is currently limited analysis that enables agencies to select and deploy interventions it is believed are most effective in changing the behaviour of perpetrators. Councils have also found that perpetrator programmes which aim to change offenders' behaviour and stop reoffending have often lacked funding or are only commissioned as part of temporary pilot schemes.
  • There needs to be a focused effort across agencies to develop and test interventions. Once interventions are identified, they need to be made available for all levels of risk and need, particularly at the stage of early intervention. More needs to be done to develop an evidence base that is extensive and rigorous enough to justify investment

Coronavirus pandemic:

  • The coronavirus outbreak has been a particularly worrying time for victims of domestic abuse. In particular, the social-distancing measures required have had and will continue to have a serious effect on domestic abuse victims by increasing exposure to those perpetrating the crime. It is vitally important this is recognised, and we do everything possible to help tackle domestic abuse
  • Many councils have been working with their partners in the police, health services and wider domestic abuse sector, to reassure people at risk and provide support and guidance. For example, some good case studies include Devon and Cornwall, Southwark and other London boroughs, St Helens, Sutton, Middlesbrough and South Yorkshire Police.
  • We have produced guidance ‘Tackling domestic abuse during the COVID-19 pandemic’. This document aims to provide a range of resources which offer help, guidance and support to tackle domestic abuse. It provides a brief overview of domestic abuse and how councils can provide help and support to domestic abuse victims during the COVID-19 pandemic, and tackle perpetrators’ abusive behaviour.
  • The Government’s campaign #YouAreNotAlone is positive. It helps to provide consistent messaging across the entire domestic abuse sector, including national and local government, the police and healthcare services to emphasise that, regardless of the coronavirus restrictions, help is available for domestic abuse victims and the police will respond to any emergency calls.
  • The COVID-19 Government funding to bolster domestic abuse helplines and online support has been positive. It will be vital that the funding made available for domestic abuse services matches and keeps pace with the level of need identified by the wider domestic abuse sector. Much of the funding made available to domestic abuse services is due to come to an end by April 2021, so additional investment will be needed to ensure services continue past the end of the financial year.
  • We continue to work closely with the Domestic Abuse Commissioner, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, the Home Office and the wider domestic abuse sector and partners to help tackle this important issue.  It will be important that the long-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on levels of domestic abuse, children who have been exposed to it and the funding available to councils to respond to these impacts are closely monitored.
  • High numbers of people with No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) have been approaching councils for support during the pandemic, including people who have been affected by domestic abuse.
  • We have called for a temporary suspension of the NRPF condition which would enable people to access welfare benefits and could prevent them from becoming homeless.

Local government funding

  • Councils want to do all that they can to work with partners to tackle and prevent domestic abuse, but pressures on local government funding and services create challenges for them in doing so. Local services face significant cost pressure due to demand and inflation alone, and many of these pressures fall on services - such as children’s services and housing - which are vital in terms of providing support to victims and their families and trying to prevent domestic abuse in the future.
  • The Spending Review announcement of £125 million funding to help enable local authorities to deliver the proposed new duty to support domestic abuse victims and their children in safe accommodation is welcome. However, it is not yet clear how this figure has been calculated and whether it will meet the full costs of the new proposed duty.
  • The new funding needs to fully account for any increases in demand for services, and any additional burdens identified by local needs assessments when the duty comes into force in April 2021. Children have been added into the statutory definition of domestic abuse, so it will be important to assess whether additional provision is required and therefore whether councils need additional funding to meet the new proposed duty.
  • One-off, short term grants do not allow for long-term planning or consistency in service, which is why long-term and sustained investment is needed. Transitional funding is also required to provide support for current domestic abuse services due to close at the end of the next financial year.
  • In order to support victims and tackle domestic abuse, we need adequate and sustainable long-term funding for key services, including the new accommodation-based support for victims, children’s and adult safeguarding services, the supply of housing, and wider community-based services.