Hansard

I begin where Robert Brown left off by saying how much I admire the work that Rhoda Grant has undertaken on the bill. It is not easy to take through any member’s bill, and some aspects of this bill were particularly difficult. We debated those aspects during the committee stages, although we did not come to an agreement. I am sure that Rhoda Grant is disappointed that some bits were removed, but I hope that she appreciates that the committee did its best to strike the right balance between the rights of all the individuals who are involved in such dreadful circumstances. I am sure that she knows that there was certainly no intention among committee members to side with the perpetrator in any way, shape or form in our views on the legal aid provision that was removed at stage 2.

I agree very much with previous speakers. As Bill Aitken said, in the latest year for which we have figures—2009-10—51,926 incidents of domestic abuse were recorded. That statistic is horrific on its own but, as we all know, such incidents are very much underreported—the actual number is much higher. I say that with confidence because, as the violence reduction unit has pointed out, it takes on average approximately 35 incidents of abuse before a victim reports the matter to the police. That shows that much domestic violence that is going on is not being reported, so we are—at least formally—unaware of it. There is no doubt that, although 51,926 is a tremendously awful figure, it shows only some of the problems that we face in our society.

Those of us who were at the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association event at lunch time saw some of the difficulties with gender-based violence in Malawi. To be frank, although the situation is dreadful here—I do not underplay it—we can be thankful that we do not face the difficulties that some countries around the world face.

The bill has been debated widely at the Justice Committee and in the chamber. I will not spend time on the technicalities, the finances, the legalities and all that, which many other members have mentioned and which the committee dealt with in depth. I will return to the principle behind why we are here in the first place—why Rhoda Grant introduced her worthwhile bill. It relates to the figures on domestic abuse. We know from evidence from the violence reduction unit on the British Medical Association board of science report of 2007 that about 30 per cent of domestic abuse cases start during pregnancy. When I first read that figure, I was utterly appalled—as I am sure other members were—that pregnancy was somehow involved in the beginnings of domestic abuse. Unfortunately, pregnant women who experience domestic abuse are twice as likely to have a miscarriage. That shows the seriousness of the issue, which involves not just violence against an individual but the repercussions of that violence.

It is shocking that nearly 40 per cent of all domestic abuse cases occur on a Saturday or a Sunday. We have had many debates and we have sometimes disagreed about how we tackle the problem of alcohol abuse in our society, but I hope that the fact that 40 per cent of cases occur at weekends will make us think that it is legitimate to link alcohol and domestic abuse. In the next parliamentary session, we must tackle the problem at its source, which means dealing with the alcohol abuse problem that unfortunately exists in some of our communities.

I will finish with one telling statistic. As Richard Baker said, the Christmas holidays are a particularly difficult time—they are a peak time for domestic abuse. On average, 142 domestic abuse cases occur each day during the year. Between Christmas eve and 1 January, the figure is 183 per day. On 1 January 2010, 395 cases of domestic abuse occurred. The connection between alcohol and domestic abuse is clear, and we will have to tackle it in some depth in the next session.

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