§ Lord Stoddart of Swindonasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they can con firm press reports that they intend to introduce a major programme to tackle violence against women by men; and whether it is also intended that identical measures will be introduced at the same time to tackle violence against men by women. [HL1254]
§ Lord Bassam of BrightonThe Government condemn unequivocally all forms of violence. The law treats equally violence whether committed by men or women.
According to the British Crime Survey, domestic violence by women against men is statistically as common as violence by men against women (both are 4.2 per cent in the last year). But women are more likely to have been assaulted three or more times; are twice as likely to have been injured by a partner in the last year; and are three times as likely to have suffered frightening threats.
Soon after coming into office, the Government launched a campaign against domestic violence, Break the Chain, and that campaign treated violence by men against women equally with violence by women against men.
Last summer, the Government published a paper, Living Without Fear: an integrated approach to tackling violence against women, which set out their initiatives and commitments in this area. That work naturally includes our campaign against domestic violence. But this does not mean to say that the Government see domestic violence as only about men as perpetrators and women as victims.