Domestic Abuse Act 2021 Committee — hearing of 16 July 2026: transcript & video

00:04 - 02:19

Speaker 2

Good morning, and welcome to this meeting of the Domestic Abuse Act 2021, and this committee is looking at the legislation that was passed then, and this is what is called a post-legislative scrutiny committee, where we're looking at the effectiveness of a very important piece of legislation. And it's to see what its impact has been, to look at the positive developments from it, but also to recognize that there might be gaps and to see how it can be strengthened if that is what is needed. So let us introduce to you our witness today, and that witness is known to many of you as the former minister, Jess Phillips. And it's very nice to see you, member of this Parliament, but you served as the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, you were the Minister for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls, and you did that for two years from the beginning of this government's term in office so far. You entered Parliament over 10 years ago, 11 years ago now, and before that you had worked for Women's Aid in the West Midlands, developing services for victims of domestic abuse, sexual violence, human trafficking, and exploitation, a whole range of crimes mainly experienced by women.

And you were also a member of the Birmingham City Council, which you were on from 2012 until you became a Member of Parliament. And so we have someone with a great deal of experience, and I welcome you, and we're going to benefit from that wealth of experience that you have had. Now, we really wanted to encourage your presence today, and thank you for your time. What you would consider to be one of your substantial achievements during your tenure as the Minister for Safeguarding and for dealing with violence against women and girls? And what other things had you wanted to achieve, and what, if anything, made that difficult?

So, difficult, you can move to the second part. First of all, tell us about how it was going and what you felt was being achieved.

02:19 - 02:52

Speaker 1

So, thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to be here. I've worked with most of you around the table at some point or another, in one form or another. So, what I wanted to achieve, the overarching commitment that the Labour Party made in its manifesto was that we would halve violence against women and girls within a decade. And that was just words on a piece of paper that, frankly, I think Yvette Cooper, Sarah Jones, and I got into the manifesto on a wing and a prayer.

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