The BBC Big Question Debate about the Domestic Abuse Bill
The Question: “Does the Domestic Abuse Bill Go Far Enough?”
I started off by saying that Prime Minister Theresa May promised a pioneering and landmark Domestic Abuse Bill to protect women. However, the current drafted Domestic Abuse (DA) Bill is neither a landmark Bill, nor is it pioneering. It is grossly watered down and contains mere tweaks around the edges of a broken system.
We need to do much more to protect women and proper investment is needed - money must be investment in mandatory specialist-led training on #CoerciveControl (that never happened), there needs to be ring fenced funding for specialist services including stalking, the Bill needs children, migrant women, homelessness and there needs to be a focus on those who cause the harm - we must focus on the perpetrators and the police must proactively identify serial domestic violence perpetrators and stalkers, risk assess them and manage them, just like sex offenders.
The current cost to society is £66 billion a year.
At least 3 women are murdered every fortnight and we are at a five year high of women being murdered by men.
One murder costs £1.54-2m to investigate.
We count the costs in women’s lives.
Put simply, what we are doing is not working.
We need a significant cultural shift, an investment of ring fenced money and priority given to domestic terrorism and stalking - and the register for serial perpetrators is urgently needed #DABill #VictimsMatter #WomenMatter #RegisterNeeded #PreventMurderInSlowMotion