What do we need to see in the King’s Speech?

The King’s Speech on Wednesday, July 17 will set out the government’s vision for the year ahead. It’s a key opportunity for the government to announce many vital and long overdue measures to tackle violence against women and girls.

Effectively tackling the prison overcrowding crisis while protecting survivors of domestic abuse

The prison overcrowding crisis will be an immediate priority for the Government. Refuge has held concerns over previous measures recommended and implemented to tackle the prison overcrowding crisis. In particular, the Early Release Scheme has raised significant concerns for the safety of survivors of domestic abuse whose perpetrators could be eligible for early release. We welcome the Government’s announcement that they will be exempting domestic abuse related offences from the new custodial rules which temporarily reduce the proportion of certain custodial sentences served in prison from 50% to 40%, including crimes such as stalking, controlling or coercive behaviour, non-fatal strangulation and the breach of protective orders. However, Refuge urges the Government to take this further and exempt offenders with any known history of domestic abuse offending, even if the crime they have committed is not domestic abuse related.

Custodial sentences provide momentary respite for survivors to plan their safety. Early release prevents this, we know that survivors already receive poor communication on the release of perpetrators, and early release makes the process even more precarious.  In addition, often when perpetrators are released from prison and suitable accommodation has not been secured, the perpetrator may return to a survivor’s home, either leading to continued abuse or forcing them to flee and rendering them homeless.

The Probation Service is over-stretched and under-funded. Due to this, alongside an often poor understanding of domestic abuse, probation officers  do not always adequately assess the risk that perpetrators of domestic abuse and other forms of VAWG pose to survivors and alongside the police, fail to implement measures to ensure a survivor’s safety. This has been evidenced through the Serious Further Offences review of Damien Bendall, and more recently the Inquest into the murder of Zara Aleena.   As a priority, the Government must improve the probation service’s supervision of domestic abuse perpetrators, alongside adequate funding and resourcing of the service. We are concerned that without these improvements, perpetrators will avoid a prison sentence or leave prison without proper supervision, monitoring and risk assessment.

Refuge is therefore urging the Government to exempt domestic abuse perpetrators from any other additional measures to tackle the prison overcrowding crisis, this must also include those convicted for other offences, but where there is a known history of domestic abuse.

Tackling police perpetrated domestic abuse

Refuge welcomes the Government’s commitment within its manifesto to improving policing standards, including mandatory professional standards on vetting, checks and misconduct, including the automatic suspension of police officers investigated for domestic abuse and sexual offences.

Any new legislation focused on addressing criminal justice responses to VAWG must focus on reforming policing suspension, misconduct and vetting processes to ensure women and girls are safe from police perpetrators of VAWG. Earlier in the year, over 25,000 people signed Refuge’s Open Letter to the Home Secretary calling for the immediate suspension of all police officers and staff accused of VAWG and a ‘root and branch’ reform of policing and over 48, 000 supporters supported our open letter to the former Home Secretary calling for police officers investigated for VAWG-related offences to be suspended.

We also welcome the Government’s commitment to improving police training on VAWG. For too long, survivors have been let down by the response to police perpetrated VAWG, and VAWG more generally. His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary’s inspection into improving the police response to domestic abuse found that overall, the police response to survivors of domestic abuse is not good enough⁷.

Refuge is calling on the Government to immediately implement essential changes to police vetting, professional standards, misconduct and suspensions.

Sustainably funding specialist domestic abuse services

Domestic abuse services are a lifeline for survivors, providing holistic, specialist support on both a short- and long-term basis. However, insufficient and short-term contracts, gaps in funding for specialist support, and recruitment and retention challenges exacerbated by the cost-of-living crisis mean that service provision is inconsistent across the country.

This is set against a backdrop of historical and chronic underfunding and increasing numbers of local authorities declaring bankruptcy. Survivors face a postcode lottery in accessing support. Refuge’s Local Lifelines Report found that 85% of frontline workers said their service is impacted by insufficient funding³. Without urgent funding uplifts, many services are at breaking point⁴. To ensure survivors can access the specialist support they need, adequate funding for domestic abuse services is desperately needed. This should include funding for child support workers who provide vital support to child survivors of domestic abuse.

Refuge urges the Government to sustainably fund specialist domestic abuse services by:

• Providing at least £238 million per year[1] for essential community-based services, which provide support to survivors in the community.
• Providing at least £189 million[2] per year for refuge services, which offer survivors safe temporary accommodation.
• Establishing a separate national ‘by and-for’ funding pot, which would provide long overdue investment in specialist services that support minoritised survivors, including disabled survivors, LGBTQ+, Black and minoritised women, and those with no recourse to public funds, who typically face additional barriers in accessing support.

Ensuring women and girls are safe online

Whilst the Online Safety Act has now become law, this cannot be the end of government action to protect women online. Women and girls have continued to experience an explosion of online misogyny and misogynistic influencers on social media platforms, whilst perpetrators of VAWG are increasingly using technology to carry out abuse. Abuse and harassment on social media is one of the more commonly reported forms of technology-facilitated abuse seen by Refuge’s expert and specialist technology facilitated abuse team. But perpetrators will use any form of technology to abuse. Tech-facilitated abuse is a growing form of domestic abuse, and the response to this threat must be prioritised by the government.

Refuge is therefore urging MPs to call on the Government to tackle online abuse by:

• Improving the response to technology-facilitated abuse by allocating sufficient resources, training and technology to the police to promptly investigate online offences. Training on tech-facilitated abuse should be mandated and led by the expertise of the specialist VAWG sector and rolled out to the wider criminal justice system.
• Legislating to ensure technology is safe by design and to address the threat that artificial intelligence poses to survivors. Upgrading VAWG Guidance in Online Safety Act to VAWG Code of Practice if uptake proves low/compliance is poor.
• Adequately funding specialist violence against women and girls’ services which provide support to victims of tech abuse and other forms of online VAWG. This could be achieved via a ‘Tech Tax’, ringfencing 10% of tax income from big tech companies to fund specialist VAWG sector efforts to effectively address online VAWG, or ringfencing fines collected by Ofcom as online safety regulator.
• Conduct a review of current legislation relevant to tech abuse to consider how the criminal justice system handles tech abuse cases, with a cross-government ministerial group convened to take forward actions.

1. [1] Women’s Aid. (2023) Investing to save: the economic case for funding specialist domestic abuse support. (https://www.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Investing-to-save-report-ResPublica-and-Womens-Aid.pdf)
2. [2] Women’s Aid. (2023) Investing to save: the economic case for funding specialist domestic abuse support. (https://www.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Investing-to-save-report-ResPublica-and-Womens-Aid.pdf)