Criminal Justice Committee 21 May 2025
Thank you. I will explore that issue further. Any anecdotal evidence would suggest that it is not even specific to men or women, but I have not seen the data for that. I agree with Fiona Drouet that a deeper issue is the impact of pornography, but I am not certain that it is gender specific; I just do not know. Even though women are agreeing to it, we do not know why they think that it is okay. I am clear that public awareness is really important, and I thank you for the work that you have done on it.
I turn to the question of legislation, which Liam Kerr also asked about. It seems to me, from a cursory look at the English legislation, that it is flawed. If there is a defence of consent, one can see that the cases will fall. I would have thought that it would be more important, initially, to do a lot of high-profile campaigning around the idea that, whether or not someone consents, harm is caused. Putting to one side whether you think that strangulation should be a stand-alone offence, it is currently against the law, but clearly many people do not think that it already is.
I see flaws in the English legislation, and I wonder if you agree. If we were going to create a new offence, before we made any decisions about passing a law, we would have to deal with people who think that it is currently lawful to do it. Anything that you want to say in response is fine.