My Lords, I am glad to follow the noble Lord, Lord Dodds, and to endorse what he has said about the risks of abuse in relation to older people. We have two later groups of amendments where we will be able to debate these issues, so it is important to ensure that we do not miss out or fail to take seriously enough the very real risk of older people who can be the victims of many forms of abuse. However, little attention has been paid to them in past years.
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I support Amendment 176, for the reasons other noble Lords have given. We saw in our debate on the group beginning with Amendment 89 the strong support for the requirements on local authorities in Part 4 to ensure sufficient provision of specialist accommodation in relation to domestic abuse. There is no question that this is an important element in the Bill, but there will be a real problem if community services are excluded. We know from legislation passed over many years that the problem with listing one specific set of services and excluding others is that local authorities will inevitably give priority to those services listed in legislation. The charity SafeLives has set it out very well:
“We have very serious concerns that, while well intended, the Government’s duty will push Local Authorities into reducing, rather than sustaining, vital services, leaving more vulnerable people in abusive situations. We are not making an argument against refuge, which is the necessary response for some women.
However, mandating Local Authorities only to provide accommodation-based services runs the significant risk that the vast majority of adult and child victims who need a service will find that their options have narrowed.”
We heard the Minister say at Second Reading that we should await the expiration of the current community-based support landscape and that, following that, the Government would work with the commissioner to understand the needs and come back with options. However, we have heard tonight and on a number of occasions that the commissioner has said that the Government do not need to await the outcome of this exercise, because there is already strong evidence on the projected demand and actual provision. Will the Minister agree to amend the Bill to embrace community services? If she is not willing to do so, can she say how community services are to be protected?