My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Brinton. As International Women’s Day draws to a close, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Campbell of Surbiton, for introducing what is surely a practical, common sense set of amendments. She has identified a significant gap in protections for victims of domestic abuse. To her credit, through these amendments, she has also identified an expert and eminently sensible solution. I suggest that we are in her debt for her wisdom, her fortitude and her foresight.
I say that because this is as much about us here today in your Lordships’ House, and those noble Lords watching this debate and contributing to it virtually, as it is about anyone. One has only to consider the average age of noble Lords—well over 50% are aged 70 and above—to realise that we are in fact among those who most urgently need this reform. Lest we are inclined to tell ourselves that this is about “them”, “the other”, “over there”, those whom non-disabled people so often describe as “the disabled”, we should consider these simple facts. According to the World Health Organization, 15 million people have strokes each year worldwide. Of these, 5 million die and another 5 million are permanently disabled. According to the Stroke Association, here in the UK 100,000 people have strokes each year. Stroke strikes every five minutes. In other words, acquiring a severe, incapacitating disability can happen to any of us.
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I imagine that most of us would like to believe that this is an issue about which we can perhaps sympathise in a detached way but with which we do not need to concern ourselves too much. On the basis of personal experience and the incident statistics that I have referred to for strokes, I would say the opposite. Nearly three-quarters of strokes occur in people over the age of 65, as are many Members of your Lordships’ House. This amendment is about us.
I appreciate that some noble Lords might be concerned about people making vexatious claims as a result of these amendments. I simply put this question to those who harbour such doubts: if any of us had a stroke later today and in due course found ourselves not only dependent on a carer but also subject to abuse by that carer in our own home, how vexatious would we regard our claim? Surely we would instead be relieved that we had passed this amendment and ensured that essential and equal safeguards had thereby been written into law, for at its heart the reform that these amendments would bring about is rooted in equality.
I suggest to my noble friend the Minister that, with the much-heralded launch of the Prime Minister’s national strategy for disabled people due in the near future, this is a golden opportunity for the Government to show that they get equality. That means ensuring that disabled people are treated with dignity and thereby adequately and equally protected from abuse in the domestic setting. That equal treatment needs to be based on a simple recognition that disability, especially when an impairment makes a disabled person reliant on the carer or personal assistant, also makes them vulnerable to domestic abuse by their carer or personal assistant.
I close, as I began, by thanking the noble Baroness, Lady Campbell, for giving your Lordships’ House the opportunity to reflect on a simple truth. Yes, this is about equality, no more, no less, yet it is also about each of us, our families, our friends and those whom we love, all of whom I am sure we would wish to see adequately and equally protected in law. That is what this amendment would achieve and it is why I hope that noble Lords will join me in supporting it, should the noble Baroness divide the House, either today or subsequently at Third Reading.