Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill

I shall try to be a little briefer than the Minister—[Hon. Members: ““Hear, hear!””] I was about to say that I was going to make some preliminary remarks, but the last time I did that, they went on for three hours. I shall address my comments almost exclusively to amendment 74, which stands in my name. The Opposition also fully support amendment 23, tabled by the hon. Member for Brighton, Pavilion (Caroline Lucas), which deals with the related matter of domestic violence. I give notice that we hope to press amendment 74 to a vote later this evening. The Minister was slightly dismissive when he said that a number of the amendments on domestic violence had been dealt with in similar terms in Committee. They were indeed, and they were dealt with in some of the Committee's most heated sittings. He has again shown a rather dismissive manner today, although Labour Members gave him a very clear expression of what they think of the Government's attitude in the Bill to domestic violence. Perhaps he needs to get out more to see what is happening in the real world. At 1 o'clock today, for example, the Minister could have attended the launch in Committee Room 8 of ““Legal Aid is a Lifeline””, in which women speak out on the legal aid reforms. This report on domestic violence was produced jointly by the National Federation of Women's Institutes and Justice for All. He could have heard the stark, moving testimony of women such as Jenny Broomfield and Sam Taylor, who were—let us make no bones about it—the victims of attempted murder by violent partners who, in at least one case, continued to stalk and pursue them for many years. They find quite abhorrent the Government's attempt to restrict the criteria to 12 months, which amendment 74 seeks to change, and to restrict the terms of domestic violence. Those women relied on legal aid, in its current form, to get residence for their children, to find a safe place to live and to obtain a separation from their violent partners. They believe that, without it, their plight today would be much worse than it is. Earlier this afternoon, the Housing Minister launched a very good report by St Mungo's entitled ““Battered, broken, bereft””, one of the leading findings of which was that 35% of women who have slept rough left home to escape domestic violence. It shows double standards and hypocrisy for the Government to cut back on provisions to tackle domestic violence on the same day in the Commons Chamber. I urge the Minister to listen to voices such as that of the Mayor of London, whose briefing for this debate states:"““The Mayor would like assurances that women who have experienced domestic violence will not be barred from legal aid due to their having a lack of evidence.””" I would also like the Minister to listen to organisations such as Gingerbread, which states:"““Many individuals experiencing violence do not report that violence to the police or seek an injunction via the family courts. This is for a variety of reasons, including lack of faith in the justice system and fear that instigating proceedings would escalate violence. The evidential criteria in the Bill do not reflect the pathways that victims of domestic violence take to find help and support. The eligibility criteria must be broadened to include other forms of evidence such as evidence from a specialist domestic violence support organisation, health or social services.””" Those are the voices that the Minister should be listening to, as well as those that he hears in the Chamber today. So far, he has not done so.