Speeches by Dixon.

“I had a particular case in my constituency of a woman with a physical disability, and we found it very difficult to find a refuge that could accommodate her, so those sorts of examples are very real.”

“You have mentioned the need for data. I would like to come back to this point about the evidence base. In particular, Nicole, you were suggesting that there has been some evaluation, but, on really critical issues such as rehabilitation, there is not a good evidence base. What do we know and should we be doing everywhe…”

“As somebody who dabbled as an academic for a while but was always about application, I really appreciate, as I am sure your fellow panellists do, your honesty about making sure that research is relevant and done in partnership. That is very helpful. Perhaps I can go to the other colleagues on the panel to come to this …”

“This new centre sounds like it might solve the problem in policing. I did not quite catch its full title. Obviously there is lots more, given we have just said that it needs to be cross-departmental, across health, education and so on. If it is not anybody’s job at the moment to do that, do you have any thoughts on who…”

“I would like to echo my colleague, Nesil’s, point, particularly about housing. I have had very similar cases. Speaking to the local refuge, it has long waiting lists, because it is simply not able to move the women and their children into social housing or accommodation following a period in the refuge. This is some of…”

“You mentioned this specifically in your earlier answer, and it relates to the MOJ. You were talking about having data about offenders. I have a case at the moment where there is some contact between a convicted perpetrator and victim, basically continuing coercion from inside prison. We have received evidence about thi…”

“We had a previous Committee hearing on some of the delays in the Crown Courts. Clearly, there is a big issue there about sexual offences and the large numbers of victims withdrawing, because of the long times. We will not go into that today, but it just underlines this whole session and how critical it is that this tim…”

“I would like to move on to research, evidence and evaluation. In your letter to this Committee in January, Sir Matthew, you said that you will base the new violence against women and girls strategy on what works and the best possible evidence both in the UK and internationally. You mentioned that you have done a six-mo…”

“We look forward to the publication of that, but thanks for giving us a heads-up. You mentioned that there are a number of areas where it would be nice to have had better evidence. Did you miss the opportunity by not evaluating the 2021 strategy or the 2022 domestic abuse plan?”

“In terms of those chunks that were evaluated as part of the 2021 and 2022 strategy and plans, have some of those reported and are they part of your sprint?”

“Just for context, I should probably put on the record that I previously worked as a chief analyst in a Government Department and indeed headed up one of the What Works centres. That is the context to me asking these questions. Will you be dedicating specific funding to evaluation as part of your bigger spending review …”

“In my own area, the West Yorkshire Mayor and West Yorkshire police have brought together a dedicated joint unit that has done a lot of innovations, such as supporting schools to deliver lessons around keeping safe and understanding the law on spiking. They are doing a lot on that. They also had a public-facing campaign…”

“That sounds excellent in terms of the College of Policing. On the Education Endowment Foundation, Early Intervention Foundation and the rest of the What Works network, how are we making sure the evidence base is there?”

“In terms of being mission-led, it may be sensible to get a group of What Works centres together to have a joined-up evaluation and evidence strategy around these different areas, given that it touches on so many of their remits.”

“That is very reassuring. There was one final question, Chair, which is about learning internationally, if we have time for that. We heard from the panel about the programme in Victoria, Australia. I have recently been out in Zimbabwe looking at the impact of UK aid in a gender-based violence initiative. That is one of …”

“I would really encourage that in terms of getting value out of UK aid. We may as well be in a position to learn. Hopefully you are in touch with some of your former colleagues at FCDO to make sure we can learn globally from as many examples of good practice as possible.”

“The evidence suggests it could have that impact, but it is not actually working because the rates of problematic relationships, if I can put it in those terms, at a young age are not being reduced. Schools are not yet feeling equipped to address these issues, are they?”

“Do you think your Department is equipped to support schools to undertake effective prevention in this fast-moving arena?”

“On your first part, which was preventing escalation, we heard a lot of evidence. Obviously, the law has changed, and children are now seen to be victims of domestic abuse, but there is clearly a huge lack of support, whether that is children’s social care, in actually being able to safeguard and prevent re-victimisatio…”

“I see that the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill is going through, which will hopefully do things to improve children’s social care as well. If I may, if we have time, I will just take views on prevention from Emma at MHCLG.”