by Jo Swinson, MP
Marking 16 days of action to eliminate violence against women has afforded us a chance to discuss the huge injustices taking place against women around the world, from trafficking to child marriage.
However, the issue I would like to focus on is a little closer to home. It is not so shocking in its cruelty or such a well-documented problem. But it is one way I hope to be able to help the cause of abused women in the UK.
Jo Swinson is the Liberal-Democract MP for East Dunbartonshire, UKIt starts with an incident that occurred at a local refuge for women affected by domestic violence in my constituency. One evening after the refuge staff had left, a young, newly arrived resident answered the door to a television licensing enforcement officer, who demanded entry and asked one of the residents for a name and address and an undertaking for payment. Having handed over her details, the young woman was left feeling very threatened and upset by the incident.
The demand came because the refuge was told it would have to pay for full-price licences for the televisions in each of its six rooms separately, coming to a cost of £759. The centre disputed this, citing by comparison the special arrangement that the hotel industry enjoys, under which they must pay for one licence for the first 15 TV units on their premises, with a subsequent licence for every five units after that.
For women fleeing domestic violence, television is not merely a luxury, especially when children are involved. It provides comfort and a means of escape at a very vulnerable time. The last thing a woman arriving at a refuge needs is to be facing demands for money for a TV licence, and it is certainly not something that refuge funds, that would otherwise be helping support abused women, should be diverted to pay for.
I set about raising this case in Parliament, arguing the case on two main fronts.
Firstly, given the generous concessions available to hotels and guesthouses, there is no justification for the exclusion of women's refuges from a similar concession scheme. If one licence was paid for each of the approx. 4,554 refuge beds in the UK (as estimated by Women's Aid), £617,000 per year would be coming out of refuge funds to pay for TV licences. I simply cannot see how this money is better spent on the licence fee than on improving the service refuges provide to abused women.
Secondly, TV licencing enforcement must be re-examined in relation to women's refuges. The safety of women in refuges, who have shown the courage to escape a violent partner, should be paramount. However, it is a known tactic of violent ex-partners to pose as officials in order to gain access to refuges. It is therefore totally unacceptable for women in refuges to be put in a position in which they are answering the door to someone who may be an enforcement officer, but could equally be a violent man seeking his ex-partner.
Having raised this matter with Ministers last year and been disappointed with the response I received, I am now bringing it to their attention again, to spur them into action. By taking a few small steps to address the current situation, the Government could make a significant difference to the lives of thousands of abused women in the UK.
