Policing minister Kit Malthouse has faced backlash after stating that it would be up to individual areas to create their own strategies around tackling violence against women and girls.
Malthouse told BBC Radio 4 that the serious violence duty outlined in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill is “very widely drawn”, specifically to allow local areas to design their own strategies around the violence that particularly affects them.
He said that if there are areas that “particularly want” to focus on violence against women and girls and “feel they have a systemic problem” then the “duty allows them to do that”.
The serious violence duty will mean that local authorities, police and other public bodies will have a legal duty to share data and intelligence in cases concerning serious violence.
Host Mishal Husain interjected and asked why violence against women and girls isn’t being prioritised everywhere in the same way the Prevent strategy against terrorism is.
He said that the government published a violence against women and girls strategy during the summer and said there is a “suite of things happening out there in the public realm”, including topping up the Safe Streets fund and appointing a new police chief to spearhead the fight against violence towards women and girls.
Speaking earlier in the show, shadow minister for domestic violence and safeguarding Jess Phillips said that the government is “resisting” prioritising violence against women and girls in the same way other serious crimes such as knife crime, terrorism, and county lines are prioritised.
She said she wants to see violence against women and girls prioritised not just by the Metropolitan Police, but in every police force in the UK, as well as the Whitehall offices.
The Labour MP said: “For a start-off, the government are currently resisting in the bill on policing and sentencing making violence against women and girls a serious crime which would mean that it would get a cross-departmental [approach] in a local area and it would get a prevention plan that would have to to be worked on around those offenders like we have for knife crime, like we have for terrorism,” she said.
“I don’t want to hear about pieces of paper and strategies written, I want to see action where this actually changes.
She added: “If I was Sarah Everard that night I’d have got in the car, and almost anybody would have got in the car, and I know my rights better than most people and so the suggestion that somehow we have to change our behaviour once again is, I have to say, a bit tiring.”
People took to Twitter to share their thoughts on the Radio 4 discussion, with LabourList editor Sienna Rodgers saying Malthouse’s remarks show “no sense of urgency”.
Kit Malthouse, minister on #R4: “If there are areas that particularly want to focus on violence against women and girls, feel they have a systemic problem, then the [serious violence] duty allows them to do that”. No sense of urgency, no regard for the scale of it. Pathetic.
— Sienna Rodgers (@siennamarla) October 1, 2021
Kit Malthouse saying its up to local areas to decide if Violence Against Women and Girls is a "serious crime" is an insult. Imagine him saying that about Terrorism - do it if you want
— Jess Phillips MP (@jessphillips) October 1, 2021
I live in his constituency and it's good to know that if I and others are attacked it means absolutely nothing to him. Believe me when I say there have been violemce and murders against women in my town as well
— Lisa Tarrant (@Snoozlebear87) October 1, 2021
Bit tricky if you happen to live in an area where they don’t particularly want to focus on violence against women and girls then. Should we move house @kitmalthouse ?
— Kay Cook (@happinesskitbag) October 1, 2021
Just heard him.... he has no understanding of the fear women feel. We can't rely on men. Women have to learn to shout out and women have to come and support when they hear a shout out. That won't help violence in the home if course.
— Jennifer TINDLE (@TindleJennifer) October 1, 2021
Oh I know. Those silly women getting emotional again. Yes we're emotional - and that emotion is anger.
— Shelagh Murray (@sheelmurray) October 1, 2021
Utter complacency which typifies this government’s response to everything.
— Matthew Rees (@forensic_m) October 1, 2021
I'm listening to him - Jesus H Christ - I despair, they just don't get it do they ?
— Roger Winter (@rogw1) October 1, 2021
Speaking as a bloke, there’s a progressive feeling of shame that we are not all acknowledging this - defending deflecting and obfuscating must stop 🛑
— interestedbystander, FY37+, #ProEU (@interestedbys10) October 1, 2021
Yet we have Kit Malthouse on the Today programme saying that even tho the new serious violence duty in the Police Crime Sentencing and Courts Bill doesn't include VAWG police can CHOOSE to prioritise it IF its a problem in their area.
— Alexandra Topping (@LexyTopping) October 1, 2021
I hope @kitmalthouse will support @BertinGabby amendment to the #PolicingBill to explicitly include #DomesticAbuse + sexual violence as part of the defn of serious violence. This would put a duty on police + other bodies to prevent these heinous crimes. https://t.co/Os6J2hgBcy
— Domestic Abuse Commissioner (@CommissionerDA) October 1, 2021
Im afraid @kitmalthouse is being disingenuous about the new serious violence duty in the Police Crime Sentencing and Courts Bill. I had an amendment in committee to include violence against women and girls and the gov rejected it out of hand.
— Sarah Jones MP (@LabourSJ) October 1, 2021
Malthouse added: “I don’t think anyone can pretend that this case hasn’t dealt a devastating blow to people’s confidence in police and particularly to female confidence in the police.
“The fact that this monster used the cloak of being a police officer to perpetrate his crime is a dreadful, dreadful event and I think, as the commissioner said yesterday, one of the worst in the 192-year history of the Metropolitan police.”
Malthouse also appeared on Sky News this morning to defend Met Police commissioner Dame Cressida Dick amid calls for her resignation.
Crime and Policing Minister Kit Malthouse defends Metropolitan Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick, saying she possibly has "one of the top three most difficult jobs in the country"#KayBurley
— Sky News (@SkyNews) October 1, 2021
Read more: https://t.co/VN0T42RMhG pic.twitter.com/AI1JiLD61L
Following Wayne Couzens being handed a whole-life order for the kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah Everard, the Met has announced that they are investigating whether or not the former police officer may have committed more crimes before the attack on Everard.
Awareness has also been raised around what your rights are if you’re stopped by the police.
