I suspect that it is harder for a murder victim to report that crime—so clearly not. My hon. Friend is absolutely right that that statistic cannot be explained away by increased reporting of crime. I think it is fair to say that murders are known to the public authorities.
10.15 am
Given the considerable increase in murders the year after Austria ratified the convention, I hope all the hon. Members who claim that the convention will lead to a miraculous reduction in violence against women will now change their minds. Perhaps they will be persuaded to vote for new clause 11, so that all the statistics would be available to us and we could produce our own analysis, whatever it might be. What does anyone have to fear from knowing the facts about all the countries that have ratified the convention? I do not see what anyone has to fear from asking the Government to source that information.
New clause 12 is similar to new clause 11, but it asks for quarterly statistics:
“The Government must use its best endeavours to obtain statistics on the levels of violence against men, women and all domestic violence victims…published quarterly”.
I will not dwell on new clause 12. The arguments for it are the same as for new clause 11, but it asks the Government to publish statistics quarterly rather than annually. Hon. Members can choose which of the new clauses they prefer; they are not really compatible with each other, but I tabled them both to give the House a choice about when to see the figures published. New clause 17 relates to compensation
“awarded to those who have sustained serious bodily injury or impairment of health”.
We now come to the reservations allowed within the Istanbul convention. My hon. Friend the Member for Christchurch knows much more about the subject than I do, and I am sure that he will want to speak on his new clauses and amendments that cover it. Unusually, he and I seem to be coming at the Bill from different angles: I want the Government to retain as many reservations as is allowed under the ratification of the convention, while he seeks to reduce the number of—indeed, eliminate—the reservations that they would be allowed to retain under it. He will make his case in his speech; I want to make the case for giving the Government as much freedom as possible within the convention. I would be interested to know from the Minister where she stands on the issue.
Article 30, paragraph 2, of the convention states:
“Adequate State compensation shall be awarded to those who have sustained serious bodily injury or impairment of health, to the extent that the damage is not covered by other sources such as the perpetrator, insurance or State-funded health and social provisions. This does not preclude Parties from claiming redress for compensation awarded from the perpetrator, as long as due regard is paid to the victim’s safety.”
I am a bit nervous about that. Obviously I believe as much as—perhaps more than—any hon. Member present that victims should be treated much fairer in the criminal justice system, and that that has to include proper
compensation for being a victim of crime. However, my fear is that adopting article 30 would open the Government up to large claims for compensation from the state when those claims might more appropriately be pursued through other avenues. It might lead people not to pursue such claims through other avenues because they thought it much easier to go to the state.
I hope that the Minister will give us an estimate of how much the Government think it would cost to adopt article 30. I genuinely do not know what additional cost, if any, there would be to the UK taxpayer from signing up to article 30. Perhaps the Minister does not know—I would not blame her if she did not, because obviously any figure would be an estimate—but if we do not know, rather than signing the UK taxpayer up to an unknown cost, it would be more sensible for the UK to reserve the right not to sign up to the article. We can make our own arrangements in the House. Not signing up to that part of the Istanbul convention does not mean we cannot do it ourselves. We should leave it for us in the UK to decide these matters, rather than signing ourselves up to something of which we do not know the full consequences or cost to the UK taxpayer. That is the point of the new clause.