B

Baroness Boycott (CB)

Speaking in the House of Lords on 26 November 2025

Debate

Domestic Abuse: Emergency Accommodation

Contribution

My Lords, it is just over 50 years since Erin Pizzey opened the first women’s refuge in Chiswick. I went there myself. At the time, about 1.5 women a week were being killed. That number has stayed remarkably consistent, despite government efforts of every stripe. If all those women in a year were killed on the same day in Trafalgar Square, there would be a national outcry. But there is a drip feed of women consistently suffering from domestic abuse, which is not taken seriously enough by the police or the authorities, and they are dying. It is truly shocking that 50 years later we have the same statistics. Are the Government building enough houses, is there enough police support and is there enough public awareness that it is not the woman’s fault?

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