Thread by @Slipstream60

Hardly a victory @stellacreasy. Amendment 87B NOT in the Domestic Abuse Bill and as the Hansard record of Baroness Williams of Trafford's Speech in the House of Lords today shows... 1/

https://twitter.com/stellacreasy/status/1372254347380330503

"While the amendment is not needed, as the necessary powers are already in place to require forces to provide information of this kind, we agree that data can be helpful and we know that some police forces like Nottingham are already collecting it. I advise the House..2/

..that, on an experimental basis, we will ask police forces to identify and record any crimes of violence against the person, including stalking and harassment, as well as sexual offences where the victim perceives it to have been motivated by a hostility based on their SEX... 3/

...this can then inform longer-term decisions once we have considered recommendations made by the Law Commission. We will begin consultation with the National Police Chiefs’ Council & forces on this with a view to commencing the experimental collection of data from this autumn.4/

So please point out where Minister explicitly said gender would also be included alongside sex so that no woman’s experience could be denied. 🙄 5/

https://twitter.com/stellacreasy/status/1372288165759827968?s=20

The Minister said "In response to question put by the noble Baroness, Lady Kennedy, & noble Lords, Lord Russell & Lord Paddick, the detail of the consultation is still to be worked through. That is not to exclude gender, but just to say that the detail remains to be worked out.6/

Ermm might that reference to "the detail of consultation" be to the Law Commission's Consultation on Hate Crime that will be reporting back later this year. You know, the part earlier in the Minister's speech where she stated that..7/

..the consultation of the Law Commission to support the review closed in December. In that consultation, it focused on the issue of whether sex or gender should be added to hate crime law, noting that adding misogyny by itself might introduce inconsistencies to hate crime laws.8/

The Law Commission has pointed out that this is complex. Its consultation has highlighted a number of issues that need further consideration to ensure that adding sex or gender to the hate crime framework brings greater rather than less effectiveness to the law.9/

This includes ensuring that linking domestic abuse and sex-based hostility does not create a hierarchy of harm in those cases of abuse where a sex-based hostility is more difficult to demonstrate and is seen as being less important. Law Commission also talked about the need...10/

..to ensure that the law itself is coherent, which is why it has been discussing the possibility of carve-outs to ensure that domestic abuse legislation does not conflict with how hate crime laws operate... 11/

These are just two examples of the complexity of this issue that the Law Commission is still working through". A VICTORY for those of us that insist that #SexMatters when talking about violence against women and girls. And misogyny for that matter! #SexNotGender END