CHILDREN living with a perpetrator of domestic abuse live “with bated breath for their next verbal or physical assault, with psychological problems such as anxiety, regressive behaviour, anger, and other symptoms of depression, leading well into adulthood”, the non-affiliated Baroness Chisholm told the Lords in a take-note debate on eliminating domestic abuse and supporting victims and survivors.

“All of us, I am sure, can remember watching Punch and Judy on the beach, or reading Andy Capp, where domestic violence was seen as humour. Thank goodness, to most of us, that is not the case today,” she said. It was “a heinous, devastating crime”. There had been a reported 2.4 million victims last year.

Baroness Hazarika, a Labour peer, observed: “At the moment, it feels like the whole system, from the family courts to the police, the criminal justice system and the child maintenance service, exists to grind women down and exhaust them with all the bureaucracy and expense, and to punish them again and again.”

The Bishop of Newcastle, Dr Helen-Ann Hartley, commended a Northumbria Police project that had been placing domestic-abuse specialists in its emergency-call rooms since 2022. She also raised the case of Holly Newton, a 15-year-old stalked and murdered by her ex-boyfriend in Hexham, which had been deemed not to be domestic abuse, as both victim and perpetrator had been under-16s.

“What consideration have the Government given to lowering the age limit to include those under 16 in the definition of domestic abuse?” she asked. “What steps are the Government taking to ensure that teenagers receive high-quality education on healthy relationships and spotting signs of violence and covert coercion?”

The Bishop of St Albans, Dr Alan Smith, suggested: “Upstream prevention is much better than helping victims and survivors downstream. Although men can be victims, as we have noted, it is mainly women who suffer from this crime; so how can we tackle the misogynistic and sexist views that can lead to these horrific crimes?”

Lord Hanson of Flint, Minister of State at the Home Office, responded: “We are still, sadly, nowhere near where we need to be.” Access to housing was a real priority for the Government, he said. “Victims also need holistic, wraparound services.”