UK (Parliament Politics Magazine) – Women’s Aid CEO Farah Nazeer warns that 65% of women seeking shelter from domestic abuse are denied due to a severe shortage of refuge services.
The Women’s Aid chief executive has warned that only one in three women escaping domestic abuse can be accommodated, citing a sector nearing complete collapse.
What did Farah Nazeer say about the crisis in domestic abuse services?
In her testimony to the Common Public Accounts Committee, Farah Nazeer revealed that more domestic abuse services have shut down in the past seven months than in the previous four years.
She stated,
“We are in a real state of crisis, and we are now at a point where we have a 65 percent refusal rate for refugee admissions and a 50 percent refusal rate for community-based services.”
Ms Nazeer said,
“You have survivors desperate to access services, and people don’t go to services as a first resort, they go as a last resort – so they are at a point of crisis generally and [these services] are saying no,”
adding,
“So, in the current equation, we have no way of even beginning to address this issue.”
She described the problem facing services,
“Demand is as high as it ever was. Demand has become more complex since Covid – people have lived in circumstances that are very challenging for longer periods.”
Nicole Jacobs’s views about tackling violence against women
Nicole Jacobs, the domestic abuse commissioner for England and Wales, has raised worries over the country’s response to violence against women and girls. Speaking alongside Ms Nazeer, she stated, “We haven’t touched the sides of what we need to do,” underscoring the need for comprehensive reforms.
She warned that significant gaps remain while acknowledging the reforms to tackle violence against women, “There are still chronic, unresolved issues,” she said, highlighting the need for urgent reforms.
What concerns did Babarinde raise about domestic abuse laws?
Liberal Democrats home affairs spokesman Josh Babarinde has stressed the need for a law that explicitly criminalizes domestic abuse.
During a parliamentary adjournment debate, he insisted lawmakers introduce a specific domestic abuse law within the Crime and Policing Bill, currently under review.
Mr Babarinde stated,
“It is extraordinary that it is impossible to say how many people in prison are guilty of domestic abuse. How on earth can the government commit to halving violence against women and girls over the next decade (a very good aim) if the MoJ isn’t even measuring domestic abuse?”
He added,
“And how can we know what interventions are successful at reducing reoffending among domestic abusers if the government is not able to measure their reoffending rate? It is a scandal.”
Domestic abuse cases in England and Wales
- 2.3 million individuals (aged 16 and above) were victims of domestic violence in YE March 2024.
- 1.6 million were women.
- 712,000 were men.
- 851,062 domestic abuse-related crimes were recorded in March 2024.
911,248 domestic abuse-related crimes were recorded in the previous year.