Following the announcement that the Government would treat domestic violence as a national threat, Seema Malhotra, the Member of Parliament for Feltham and Heston, has said:
“The Government’s commitment to treat violence against women and girls as a national threat is clearly needed.
“But while Tories say one thing, they do another. We are at a time when incidents of violence against women and girls are the highest on record, when the charge rate in rape cases has dropped to a historic low of 1.5%, and when rape survivors are in many cases having to wait more than 1,000 days to have their cases completed in court.
“The Government’s Policing Requirements commit to making use of the existing legislative framework, when it is clear that the current framework is failing so many victims of rape and domestic violence.
“As the former Shadow Minister for Preventing Violence against Women and Girls I am proud that a Labour government would make tackling and eliminating violence against women and girls a national priority. We would put specialist domestic abuse workers and a specialist rape unit in every police force, to make sure victims have access to support and trained investigators.
“We would fast-track rape cases to bring down the unacceptable and traumatic waiting times and delays, and introduce a new statutory minimum sentence for rape of seven years. We will introduce a new Domestic Violence Register to track offenders and protect victims.”