Lords debates support for domestic abuse victims

Debate

Baroness Chisholm of Owlpen (Non-affiliated), put forward the debate.

This is a general debate. During debates, members put their experience to good use to discuss current issues and draw the government's attention to concerns.

Members speaking

Members speaking in the debate included:

• Baroness Barran (Conservative), former CEO of domestic abuse charity, Safe Lives
• Lord Loomba (Crossbench), former vice president of Safer London
• Baroness May of Maidenhead (Conservative), chair of the Global Commission on Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking.

Opening the debate, Baroness Chisholm said:

'If you know three women or seven men, statistics suggest that you know one who has experienced some kind of partner abuse or violence.

'Women should never feel that it is safer to stay with a man than to leave him but, according to the Femicide Census, 38% of women killed by an ex-partner were killed within the first month of separation and 89% within the first year.'

Baroness Doocey added:

'The scale of this problem is still not widely understood, and exposure to extreme porn and misogyny is pushing violence against women to epidemic proportions.'

Lord Hanson of Flint (Labour), Minister of State at the Home Office, responded on behalf of the government:

'This government have announced a funding increase of £30 million to a total investment of £160 million in the domestic abuse safe accommodation grant of 2025-26 to ensure that local councils can provide front-line accommodation services to help support victims.'

Catch up

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