My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Helic. I will speak to Amendments 131, 132, 133, and 136. I shall not go back to my time in the Commons, when I dealt with some cases in a personal way.
I have had the benefit of a briefing from someone who has sat as a court independent domestic violence adviser and has what I will call direct, hands-on street experience and remains involved in the wider processes. She has worked in the voluntary sector and in law enforcement, so her experience comes from both sides.
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Regarding Amendment 131, my briefer, as I will refer to her, said that confidentiality of refuge addresses should an absolute and non-negotiable issue. She has sat through many first appearances and trials and has seen that confidentiality breached a few times, but a few was too many. She said that many professionals do not seem to appreciate the hard work that is put into finding a safe refuge for women and children. It is not simply about finding accommodation for a person; there has to be safety planning and an intricate detailed risk assessment of whom the perpetrator might know or have links with in an area. There is also the schools aspect and the need to minimise the impact of the move for children while keeping the woman safe. As many others have said, giving out details of the refuge not only has safety implications for the case in hand but carries risks for the other refuge residents and, I might add, the staff. Therefore, the issue goes much wider, but non-disclosure of addresses ought to be non-negotiable.
On Amendment 132 and the duty to share information, my briefer points out that victims are often brought back to the family court over and over again by the same perpetrators, who often have restraining orders in place, so this is their only route. That, in a way, should be an offence on its own; otherwise, it simply makes the victim relive their abuse, despite having a court order in place for their safety. My briefer said that it is very hard for untrained professionals to pick up on that, as the perpetrator will often plead quite legitimate-sounding reasons to continue to bring the victim to the family court. So Amendment 132 is pretty crucial.
On Amendment 133, we have just heard an awful lot about the need for training. My briefer says that she used to dread family court attendances for domestic abuse cases, as the court did not quite seem to understand the safety planning issues involved in attending court. When working as a court independent domestic violence adviser, she would attend a criminal court and support victims through the family court as well. Criminal courts were well up to date with safety planning and would have dedicated advisers in court. In the family courts that she attended, more often than not my briefer would have to beg for the victim to be allowed in through the back entrance so as not to encounter the perpetrator. Mostly, she told me, they were denied that request. It was also hit and miss as to whether they would be allowed not to sit in an open waiting area outside the court entrance.
More training is required in the family courts so that professionals recognise that child contact is often a last-ditch attempt by a domestic abuse perpetrator to ascertain some level of control over their victim. My briefer had witnesses who had faced horrific domestic abuse and were then made to sit virtually next to the perpetrator to explain why they would feel unsafe if child contact were facilitated. So she supports the need for family courts to train all—I repeat: all—the staff involved in domestic abuse cases, so that they appreciate the true, long-lasting impact and effects of such abuse and are able to make attending court a lot less stressful, as well as implementing proper safety
planning and bringing that into the everyday structure. I will not repeat some of the points I just made on Amendment 132.
My noble friend said that Amendment 136 on child contact costs is a probing amendment. I quite understand that. It is difficult, however, to see why victims should have to pay towards contact arrangements between a child and the perpetrator in domestic abuse cases. As my briefer pointed out, the family court and child contact are often the last attempts to control the victim.
Victims of domestic abuse often have to leave jobs; they would have to pay for the refuge if they were working, and the cost can be several hundreds of pounds a week. They are left sometimes trying to fight for a small amount of maintenance from the perpetrators —if indeed they can manage this—but they are not left with the funds to pay for such contact. That can be damned expensive to finance, and can drain the rest of the finances, adding to the pressures. The victims will have sometimes used all available funds to leave the abuse and start life again. These costs should fall on the perpetrator, partly to prove that they genuinely wish to see the child, and not simply using this contact as an excuse to see the victim at contact centres.