Domestic Abuse Bill

As the daughter of a social worker who spent her entire career working alongside children and fam...

I am grateful to my hon. Friend, who is right to remind us at the get-go of the importance of a c...

Domestic abuse is a leading cause of homelessness, and some of the most harrowing cases I have de...

I am grateful to the hon. Lady for raising that issue, and the Bill provides an opportunity to de...

May I make a little progress? As I have said, I will be as generous as I can.

Can I take th...

I will give way in a moment. I have not yet finished this part of my speech.

I believe that...

Another aspect highlighted by the Secretary of State’s incredibly moving story is just how long t...

I pay warm tribute to the hon. Gentleman, who has been an assiduous campaigner on this issue. Dom...

I only wish that the right hon. and learned Gentleman’s very moving story was an exception, but s...

I am grateful to the right hon. Lady. On her second point, I will meet her. On her first point, t...

I give way to the Chair of the Select Committee on Justice.

I thank my right hon. and learned Friend for giving way. I, too, have seen examples like the one ...

My hon. Friend is absolutely right to talk about his experience, the issues that we can tease out...

I will give way again in a moment, but I would like to make some progress.

Abuse has not on...

My right hon. and learned Friend is making a powerful speech and giving some amazing examples. I ...

I pay tribute to my hon. Friend for her continuing commitment to reform and improvement in this a...

I commend the Secretary of State and, in particular, the Under-Secretary of State for the Home De...

On the hon. Gentleman’s last point, the business managers will have heard him loud and clear. I a...

I have just returned from the Council of Europe, where members across parties, especially in the ...

The hon. Lady makes an important point about the Istanbul convention, and of course we passed dom...

rose—

I give way to the Chair of the Home Affairs Committee.

I urge the Secretary of State to reconsider this point. We have a Bill before us and the opportun...

Of course, and the right hon. Lady makes an important point. She will know that my decision to ex...

rose—

I will give way to the Chair of the Health Committee.

The Secretary of State may know that I took the Stalking Protection Act 2019 through the House an...

I pay tribute to the hon. Lady for her work on this important issue and on getting that legislati...

May I say how much I welcome the Secretary of State’s commitment to taking a zero-tolerance appro...

Yes, I can. People convicted of offences with a domestic element will often be convicted of the m...

Sexual exploitation is one of the most heinous forms of abuse that can be perpetrated in domestic...

The hon. Gentleman is right, and the definition does that. I look forward to more detailed debate...

The Secretary of State will recognise that there is an interesting situation between England and ...

The right hon. Lady was of course part of the Joint Committee and has an impressive track record ...

My right hon. and learned Friend has been characteristically generous in giving way. I welcome th...

My hon. Friend is right to hail the appointment of the first Domestic Abuse Commissioner. We thou...

I am sure all hon. Members welcome the Government’s commitment to end economic abuse and to enabl...

The hon. Lady rightly upbraids me, and I apologise. It is important and good that we now have dom...

I hope the Secretary of State has seen the work that has been done in Drake Hall women’s prison, ...

The hon. Gentleman makes a powerful point—one with which I am familiar—about the cycle of abuse a...

May I just move on to deal with the provisions in the Bill? I will be as generous as possible in ...

I commend the right hon. and learned Gentleman on his passionate commitment and speech. The Bill ...

I am grateful to the hon. Lady for raising that matter. Of course that issue is subject to a curr...

I thank the right hon. and learned Gentleman for making such a passionate speech. Does he agree t...

The hon. Lady is right about that. I am very hopeful that this Bill will allow us to tease out th...

May I move on to deal with some other provisions in the Bill? I want to talk about the concept of...

I, too, served on the pre-legislative scrutiny Committee. One of our recommendations was that the...

Yes, the hon. Lady makes a very proper point. We wanted to get this moving now and get it in plac...

Let me say how powerful it is in this place to have such strong consensus on this important Bill,...

I am grateful to my hon. Friend, who makes a new and important point in this debate, which I read...

May I just press on for a moment? Victims of domestic abuse just want it to stop. They do not wan...

rose—

I will give way in a moment.

My hon. Friend has been waiting for 15 minutes.

Mr Speaker, I think I have been very generous. I respect all hon. Members, and I will give way to...

I had better make a good point now! The Minister has been making a powerful speech, and I welcome...

I am grateful for the hon. Lady’s persistence, because it has resulted in an important point. I a...

May I make some progress? With the greatest respect to my colleagues, I shall finish the point ab...

I take the opportunity to welcome the tone that is being struck this afternoon. That is incredibl...

The hon. Lady has given a powerful illustration of the importance of this order, because it can b...

rose—

I give way to the hon. Member for Islwyn (Chris Evans), which I unsuccessfully contested 25 years...

I do not want to remind the Minister, but in that by-election he actually lost his deposit, so I ...

I am grateful. I do not know whether that was a compliment, but I will take it as such. I am very...

I am so grateful to the Secretary of State for giving way. I congratulate him on making a powerfu...

My hon. Friend has coined a very powerful phrase—psychological hostage—which is the right charact...

rose—

I will give way to my right hon. and learned Friend, the former Attorney General.

I am very grateful to my right hon. and learned Friend and I congratulate him on the way in which...

My right hon. and learned Friend speaks with immense experience. He is absolutely right about wha...

I thank the Minister for giving way and welcome his speech. He talks about extraterritorial power...

I am incredibly grateful to the hon. Lady for mentioning honour crime, which, of course, takes ma...

I thank the right hon. and learned Gentleman for giving way. The Istanbul convention is not just ...

The hon. Lady is right to remind us of the wider implications of the Istanbul convention. Much of...

I thank the right hon. and learned Gentleman for giving way. I welcome both his comments and the ...

The hon. Lady makes a very powerful case for making sure that we use this Bill as an opportunity ...

I thank my right hon. and learned Friend very much for giving way. It was a huge pleasure and pri...

My hon. Friend is absolutely right to remind us of the economic as well as the moral cost of dome...

I am very grateful to the Lord Chancellor for giving way. We have in Lambeth among the highest ra...

I am very interested in the hon. Gentleman’s contribution, because he makes an important point ab...

rose—

The hon. Member for York Central (Rachael Maskell) has been very persistent, so I shall give way ...

Services such as Survive in York, which provides trauma support to victims of domestic violence, ...

The hon. Lady draws together all the issues in her local community. The various agencies, includi...

Let me take this opportunity to thank the Lord Chancellor and the Under-Secretary of State for th...

My hon. Friend is making an excellent speech. A constituent of mine came to me having left her ab...

I will talk about housing later in my speech, as it is an issue that is very important to the Lab...

I thank my hon. Friend for the amazing work that she has been doing in this field; she is one of ...

I could not agree more. This is something that we all see every day when we talk to people who ha...

Will my hon. Friend give way?

I just want to make a little progress.

We have volumes of data relating to victims of domes...

My hon. Friend will be aware of the vital work that the Domestic Abuse Safety Unit in Shotton has...

My right hon. Friend makes a very good point; I wholeheartedly agree with his sentiments.

T...

Women’s Aid organisations, such as Lighthouse Women’s Aid in my constituency, are doing good work...

I do agree. I also join my hon. Friend in congratulating those organisations. I have yet to meet ...

My hon. Friend is making an important and powerful speech. Does she believe that the Bill will do...

My hon. Friend is absolutely right and later I will talk about a scheme that helps in that situat...

Does the hon. Lady agree that we need to protect those survivors of domestic abuse not just when ...

It certainly does and I think we all recognise, as I said previously, that experience and learnt ...

rose—

I am going to make progress.

Operation Encompass, which is an excellent example of what we ...

I thank my hon. Friend for the passionate case that she is outlining. One of my local forces, Gwe...

I am delighted to congratulate Gwent police. On Monday, my hon. Friend the Member for Gower (Toni...

Will my hon. Friend give way?

I am going to make progress.

We need to secure better outcomes for child victims of domesti...

A constituent of mine is desperately trying to prepare her child after a court order stated, agai...

I thank my hon. Friend. We have worked closely on many cases where children have been put at risk...

I am going to make progress.

I thank my hon. Friend very much for giving way. She mentioned the family courts. A prominent cam...

Never not give way to a Whip—I have learnt that much since I have been here, and it always helps ...

Will the hon. Lady give way to someone with a non-Welsh accent?

indicated assent.

Does she agree that, in order to protect children, we need to include them in the statutory defin...

I agree that we need to look at the definition and the impact on children. That is something that...

My hon. Friend is making an important point, which I welcome. I have had a couple of cases in sur...

My hon. Friend makes a powerful point about housing. We have grave concerns about the housing of ...

I thank my hon. Friend. Does she agree that the victim should be central to making decisions abou...

Without question, the victim is central and we need to look closely at that.

We also need t...

My hon. Friend is making an incredibly important point. Is it not also worth putting on record th...

That was a very powerful point from a well-known champion on such issues who has now taken the op...

I am pleased to hear my hon. Friend talk about migrant women. I represent a very diverse constitu...

I have no problem in congratulating Welsh Women’s Aid. I thank my hon. Friend for her interventio...

I thank the hon. Lady for giving way; she is making a powerful speech. I would like to go back to...

The hon. Lady will know of my commitment to legislation in Northern Ireland—I spoke this week on ...

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak in this debate. I am pleased that my first speech on m...

I thank the right hon. Lady—I am awfully sorry, but I am still tempted to refer to her as the Pri...

I absolutely agree with the hon. Lady. That is why I trust that we will pass this legislation. We...

My right hon. Friend is making an important point about perpetrator programmes. I think she would...

My right hon. and learned Friend has made a very valid and important point. That is why I say thi...

I am grateful for the chance to follow the right hon. Member for Maidenhead (Mrs May). May I take...

On that very point, as the right hon. Member for Maidenhead (Mrs May) has said, this is landmark ...

Absolutely. Perhaps I should use this opportunity to say that should a future Government of any c...

The hon. Lady is making a very good case. There is another dimension, because we very often get w...

I wholeheartedly agree, and I will come on to that later in my speech.

In 2017, my colleagu...

I am extremely grateful to the hon. Lady, as the House will be, for being commendably succinct. M...

It is an honour to follow the spokesperson for the SNP, the hon. Member for Lanark and Hamilton E...

Does the right hon. Lady agree that the other thing police do so often is to look at each inciden...

The right hon. Gentleman is absolutely right. It is so important that we look not just at a patte...

The right hon. Lady mentions something that a lot of people will be interested in: often, because...

The hon. Gentleman is right on all counts, and he takes me to my next point. One of the challenge...

Will the right hon. Lady give way?

I will not, if the hon. Lady will forgive me, only because I have run out of interventions. Now t...

I hesitate to take up my right hon. Friend’s time, but would she accept that the medical professi...

My right hon. Friend speaks with personal experience and great authority on this matter. He is ab...

So what is domestic violence or abuse, and where do we get our ideas about it from? Often we see ...

I thank the hon. Lady for that speech, which was simultaneously as horrifying and as moving a con...

I echo your words, Mr Speaker. The hon. Member for Canterbury (Rosie Duffield) is an extraordinar...

Does the hon. Lady agree that, as well as educating every child, we need to support children who ...

I completely agree with the hon. Lady that, in addition to education, every child must be support...

I am extremely grateful to the hon. Lady, and I think the whole House will be, both for what she ...

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Truro and Falmouth (Sarah Newton). I absolutely ag...

On the subject of responsibilities, does the right hon. and learned Lady recognise that the way i...

Absolutely. I completely agree. Men are using the narrative of women’s sexual enjoyment of being ...

I am extremely grateful to the Mother of the House. A five-minute limit now applies. I call the C...

It is a great pleasure to follow the right hon. and learned Member for Camberwell and Peckham (Ms...

I take the point that the right hon. Lady makes about time, but we should look at making the Bill...

I have a huge amount of respect for the hon. Lady, but we run the risk of derailing a Bill that i...

Will my right hon. Friend give way?

I am afraid I cannot take any more interventions.

I want briefly to turn to the Government’...

Will my right hon. Friend give way?

I cannot give way; I have only 20 seconds left.

The Committee was also concerned about the ...

I too want to begin by paying a huge tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Canterbury (Rosie D...

My right hon. Friend is so right about why we are here today to discuss the Bill. I, too, pay tri...

My hon. Friend is right. Refuge, for example, has faced funding cuts of some 80% of its services ...

It is always a privilege to follow the right hon. Member for Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford...

I just wonder whether we should be looking at one other Department, the Department for Digital, C...

I welcome the comments that the hon. Gentleman makes and those that my right hon. Friend the Memb...

My right hon. Friend is making a valid point about the breadth of this issue and the need for Dep...

My right hon. Friend is absolutely right; we must work across Government and we must consider all...

It is a pleasure to follow the right hon. Member for Romsey and Southampton North (Caroline Nokes...

It is a great pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Bristol West (Thangam Debbonaire), chair of ...

My hon. Friend is making an incredibly important point, and I think it is imperative that he is a...

I am very grateful to my right hon. Friend.

There are two points. The first is that “she wa...

There have been many days recently when I have not been particularly proud to be a Member of this...

I very much agree that children are often massive victims themselves, which can often have lifelo...

I do not know whether I agree with that or not, but this issue needs to be examined in great deta...

I understand the point that the right hon. Member for North Norfolk (Norman Lamb) made, but does ...

I completely agree, but relationship education is not enough, because I am afraid that the horse ...

It is a pleasure to speak in this debate. We have heard two of the most powerful speeches I have ...

My hon. Friend needs to accept the fact that women are more affected by domestic violence than an...

I want all victims to get the services that they need, but we have just been hearing on our Women...

After the terrible scenes in the House last week, it is reassuring that this House can also be a ...

It is a pleasure to follow the many fantastic and powerful speeches that we have had today. When ...

North Somerset.

My hon. Friend could have intervened and given me an extra minute, by the way.

My right hon...

May I start by saying how much I and many others present appreciate the consensual nature of the ...

Does my hon. Friend share my concerns about how this place can scrutinise the new commissioner? I...

My hon. Friend raises an incredibly important point. The Home Affairs Committee, after much delib...

I am delighted to follow my constituency neighbour, the hon. Member for Hove (Peter Kyle), but I ...

I pay tribute to my hon. Friend. He was an excellent Children’s Minister and speaks with great au...

As with so much to do with child safeguarding, getting it wrong is the most expensive thing.

I am pleased to follow the hon. Member for East Worthing and Shoreham (Tim Loughton), who concent...

Does the hon. Lady agree—and Claire’s case speaks to this more loudly than almost any that I have...

I completely agree. Indeed, I was about to say exactly that.

We need to extend the ban on c...

It is very difficult to follow the speech of the hon. Member for Penistone and Stocksbridge (Ange...

I am pleased to be able to speak in this important debate. It is really pleasing that the atmosph...

I have sat here listening to this debate and been taken to thoughts and memories of my own, which...

I would like to put my thanks on record for the leadership shown by both Front Benches on this im...

Does my hon. Friend agree that the recent case of Sally Challen has given voice to the issue? Hop...

I agree with my hon. Friend and thank her for that timely intervention.

Twenty-seven years ...

I am extremely grateful to my hon. Friend for her speech, which is very wide ranging. She is cram...

I thank my hon. Friend for his comment. I absolutely agree with it, which is why I am so passiona...

It is a privilege to follow the hon. Member for Bradford West (Naz Shah) and to take part in this...

This has been a very hard debate to listen to, with some truly remarkable speeches.

When I ...

It is a real privilege to speak in this debate. Over the past few weeks, the House has been criti...

It has been a privilege even to sit and listen to the debate, never mind to contribute to it, par...

rose—

Order. From now on, if we have interventions, it will mean that other people will not get in, whi...

We heard in both Committees about the dangers that single payments were creating. We know that sp...

I welcome this Bill. Having sat through the whole of this debate, I want to pay tribute to the ma...

It has been an absolute honour and privilege to be part of this debate. Certainly, no one was unm...

It is always a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Batley and Spen (Tracy Brabin). I echo all ...

May I take this opportunity to thank those on both Front Benches for their work on this Bill? I w...

One of my frustrations with being in this place is that I am often harangued by constituents who ...

I pay massive tribute, as everybody has done, to those who have spoken, particularly my hon. Frie...

I am delighted to be able to confirm that. Indeed, the carry-over motion is on today’s Order Pape...

Super-duper. I am delighted to hear that.

As everybody else has said, it has been an honour...

It has been a true honour to listen to this historic debate. It is a landmark Bill and this needs...

It is a privilege to participate in this debate, and I congratulate all colleagues who have been ...

Let me add my congratulations and thanks to everyone who has been involved in the Bill’s introduc...

In my time as a GP and also as a forensic medical examiner, I learnt very quickly never to make a...

I am grateful for the opportunity to make a contribution to this important debate. It has been my...

I welcome the opportunity to take part in this debate and the spirit in which it has been conduct...

It is a pleasure to be the final contributor from the Back Benches in this amazing debate. It has...

My hon. Friend is making some extremely important points. Does she agree that there are two issue...

I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention. The right hon. Member for Maidenhead put it well in...

It is a privilege to reply to the debate this evening, which has shown the House of Commons at it...

I hope that colleagues will forgive me if I depart from what Ministers normally do in winding up—...

Thank you. What an excellent, thoughtful, constructive, calm debate. I sincerely hope that those ...