Vera Baird DBE KC

Chair Criminal Cases Review Commission. Member Women’s Justice Bd.
Ex Victims’ Commissioner, Solicitor Gen & PCC. Fellow St Hilda’s Oxford. Writer. Labour Party

Category: Media

  • Tackling domestic violence against women and girls

    PRESS RELEASE FROM VERA BAIRD
    Labour’s candidate for Police & Crime Commissioner for Northumbria

    Tuesday 17 July 2012
    For immediate use

    Vera Baird, Labour’s candidate for Police & Crime Commissioner for Northumbria has today (Tuesday 17 July 2012) pledged to bring in a new approach to tackling domestic violence against women and girls.

    In 2010/2011 over 28,000 incidences of domestic abuse were reported to police in the Northumbria Force area.

    In the same year, only 3,000 people were prosecuted by the authorities leading to just 2,264 convictions.

    Now Vera Baird has promised a step change in the way the police force will deal with the problem if she is elected in November. Ms Baird has announced plans to introduce a pilot project in Northumbria which will seek to prevent domestic abuse incidents occurring by using active monitoring and management of known serial perpetrators of domestic and sexual violence.

    The proposal is part of five priorities to address the problem of violence against women and girls, which will be adopted by Labour Police & Crime Commissioners across the UK:

    – Develop and roll out an integrated local action plan to tackle violence against women and girls – ensuring that VAWG is also prioritised in the local crime and policing plan and appointing a lead specialist, responsible for delivering the plan;

    – Ensure specialist domestic violence and public protection units within the police service continue to be supported – whilst also striving to maintain the important existing network of independent advisers and advocates to women survivors of violence;

    – Deliver specialist training in dealing with domestic and sexual violence, and stalking – as well as other forms of violence against women and girls, for neighbourhood police officers, for those in specialist protection units and for those involved in commissioning services for the survivors of violence;

    -Support early intervention to tackle violence against women and girls – valuing the importance of working with schools, local authorities and community-based organisations to change attitudes and behaviour;

    – Pilot preventative policing projects in areas including Northumbria– to promote the active monitoring and management of serial perpetrators of domestic and sexual violence, and stalking.

    Vera Baird said:

    “Domestic abuse is still a hidden crime that occurs behind front doors on every street and in every town and city. Though Northumbria Police have worked hard to change this culture and prosecute offenders we have to redouble our work. It’s inadequate that out of 28,000 incidences reported, just 10 percent of perpetrators are prosecuted so that many are able to abuse again. As a society we need to understand this issue and use creative means to tackle it.

    “I’m announcing today that if elected I will make tackling violence against women and girls a priority. Police forces in other areas of the country have brought in preventive measures to monitor and deter repeat perpetrators which we in Northumbria can adapt and improve.

    “I know from speaking to women\’s group and refuges the challenge they face in dealing with this problem, especially in light of the cuts in funding from the Tory-led government. As Police & Crime Commissioner I would ensure an absolute commitment to increasing convictions and driving down incidences of violence against women and children.”

    The announcement was made as Labour launched its policy review document “From detection to prevention”. The Labour Party\’s policy review will draw on the work of the party’s Women’s Safety Commission, which is chaired by Vera Baird QC.

    ENDS

    Notes to editors:
    1. A copy of the Labour Policy Review document “From detection to prevention” is attached.
    2. Elections for Police & Crime Commissioners will be held on Thursday 15 November. Police & Crime Commissioners will replace Police Authorities which are being abolished.

    For more information please contact Neil Fleming, Regional Communications Officer, Labour North on 07843 344 315 Neil_Fleming@labour.org.uk

  • The falsely retracted rape claim: how the justice system failed

    It has been a catastrophic case for both \’Sarah\’ the victim and the public. Here are the key questions that need answering.
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    There are big questions for the justice professionals in the saga of \”Sarah\”, whose conviction for perverting the course of justice by wrongly retracting a rape allegation was upheld on Tuesday by Lord Judge, the lord chief justice. Read the rest of Vera\’s piece in \’Comment is free\’ in the Guardian on March 14th, 2012

  • Checking the blind spot – Examining violence against women

    This piece appeared in Next Left on Friday, 10th February 2012:

    This is a guest post by Vera Baird. Vera is a member of the Fabian Society Executive Committee and Chair of the new Labour Commission on Women\’s Safety, commissioned by shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper.

    Yvette Cooper described this Government, whose first budget took 70% of its cuts from women and 30% from men, as having “a blind spot” about women. She seems to be right when one considers, not only economics, but also plans such as the deletion of 17,000 rape suspects from the DNA database, as it becomes ever clearer to police that rape is often a serial offence.

    Women’s organisations now fear that cumulatively, the Coalition’s policy, legislation and cuts are having a worrying impact on those services that work to protect women. We have found from our visits so far that these concerns are being backed up by facts from the frontline and illustrated by the experiences of the individuals we meet.

    Last week Professor Sylvia Walby, UNESCO Chair in Gender Research at Lancaster, published a report showing the “dramatic and uneven” impact of a national reduction of 31% in funding for local gender violence services last year. Smaller organizations have suffered on average 70% cuts, whilst those receiving over £100,000 lost 29%.

    Consequently, Women’s Aid have reported that up to 230 women fleeing domestic violence were turned away because of a lack of accommodation on a typical day in 2011. Eaves, which also provides refuges, has been forced to advise woman on how to minimise risk while sleeping on the streets or at Occupy camps.

    Research by the Women’s Institute shows that women will be disproportionately harmed by cuts to legal aid, while Rights of Women demonstrate that 49% of current service users would not be eligible at all under the new rules, despite Justice Minister Kenneth Clarke repeating that such women will still get legal help. Violent men will not get legal aid either and, by handling their own cases at court, will get a state-sponsored opportunity to abuse their victim further by cross-examining them face to face.

    A poll from training specialists, CAADA shows that, in 2011, 2 of the 8 major providers of Independent Domestic Violence Advisers, who are widely credited with saving lives, faced cuts of 100%. 3 lost 40% and 2 more will lose a quarter. IMKAAN, with six specialist refuges for Black Asian and Minority Ethnic women, is being forced to close two and reduce capacity in two more.

    In Coventry, there is a 30% loss of floating support for survivors of violence. Cuts to housing benefit mean that a single woman under 35 who flees domestic abuse will only get the rent for a room in a shared property. A correspondent to our website says, “The Suzie Project in my home town has lost its funding, so we’ve had to end our group. Cutting funding to projects which support survivors of rape leave people like me feeling all alone.”

    In one East Midlands ward, police identified domestic violence perpetrators and knocked on their doors on the nights when they were typically violent, to reassure their partners and deter these men. This preventive policing measure stopped because of officer shortages. Professor Walby found that 78% of perpetrator programmes had cut the numbers of clients they could assist.

    Half of councils who responded to a Labour Party survey in November were reducing their street lighting to save cash. Local Government Secretary, Eric Pickles calls this “sensible,” while, on the other hand, the Police Federation said “the lighter an area is, the safer it is.”

    Lighting cuts affect everyone in our communities, but Netta e mailed our website to say that it is women who are often left feeling more insecure:

    “Cuts to street lighting – imposed by Suffolk Country Council – are happening here in Ipswich. Female friends … tell me [and I can confirm from having looked at a few] that it is quite scary. If you don\’t have a car, can\’t afford taxis and are used to walking around your own town in safety, it does make quite a difference having this \”curfew\” imposed.”

    A national non-political women’s group told us that violence is the pre-occupation of its website traffic and women say that, as resources are cut back, they would not know how to leave a violent home if they needed to do so. Professor Walby writes: “These cuts to provision are expected to lead to increases in this violence.”

    Half way through the Commission’s inquiry, we are beginning to understand her fears.

    Professor Walby’s report, Measuring the impact of cuts in public expenditure on the provision of services to prevent violence against women and girls (February 2012), can be found here.

  • Women’s Safety Commission seems to be spooking Lib Dem Minister for Women

    A local report of Vera’s role in the Women’s Safety Commission seems to be spooking Lib Dem Minister for Women Lynne Featherstone! Read the article in the Tottenham Journal here.

  • Tory ‘sisterhood’? What a joke

    Vera and Kate Green MP replied to an article in last week\’s Observer alleging that some women Tory MPs might be concerned about the Coalition\’s impact on women.

    Here is the text of the letter, which appeared in the publication on 15th January 2012:

    Tory \’sisterhood\’? What a joke

    Conservative women\’s proclaimed support for equality (“The new blue sisterhood“, Review) fails to convince when their own government\’s track record is examined.

    Female unemployment is at a 23-year high as a result of government policies, while cuts to tax credits hit women\’s purses twice as hard as men’s wallets. Across the country, Sure Start services face the axe, while cuts to police numbers, and councils turning out the street lights to save money, threaten everyone\’s safety, but make women, in particular, more fearful. Access to legal aid for victims of domestic violence is to be massively restricted under this government. Many of those who currently get legal help will have to fight their own cases alone in future, face to face with their abuser. Women\’s refuge services are under threat from a combination of cuts, commissioning chaos and the removal of the part of local housing allowance that pays for the support women and children need when they have to move far from their former home for their safety. And single parents (nine out of 10 of whom are women) will be forced to pay a fee to the Child Support Agency to get an absent partner to hand over child-maintenance.

    This is the record of the Tory-led government that the “true blue sisterhood” should be speaking out about, yet they have stayed silent.

    Kate Green MP, shadow minister for women and equalities

    Vera Baird QC, chair, Women\’s Safety Commission

  • The AAFDA Annual Conference 2012

    Vera spoke at the AAFDA Annual Conference in January 2012. View some local press coverage.

  • Women turned away from refuge shelters told to sleep in Occupy camps

    The Labour Commission on Women’s Safety began gathering evidence just before Christmas. My colleagues, MPs Kate Green, Stella Creasy and I, met in London with twelve leading national women’s organisations to scope out what our inquiry needs to cover.

    The shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, has asked us to produce a provisional report by International Women’s Day in March about whether, and if so how, coalition decisions, policies and legislation are impacting on women’s safety.

    Read the rest of Vera\’s piece in Left Foot Forward.

  • The coalition does not understand women\’s safety

    From changing the definition of domestic abuse to turning off street lights, recent policies are contradictory and harmful…
    Read Vera\’s piece in the Guardian\’s Comment is Free section

  • Legal aid bill threat to abused women

    Read Vera\’s letter to the Guardian

  • Decimating women\’s rights

    20th September 2011

    Vera\’s blog against the Government\’s attacks on Legal Aid in the Huffington Post

    Domestic Violence, Legal aid and the Tory Assault on Women