Domestic abuse is an endemic but not inevitable problem, inspectors said today (Tuesday 19 September).

A report on the response for children living with domestic abuse finds that social workers, the police, health professionals and other agencies such as youth offending teams and probation services are often doing a good job to protect victims. But too little is being done to prevent domestic abuse in the first place, and to repair the damage it causes afterwards.

Inspectors from Ofsted, the Care Quality Commission, HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services, and HM Inspectorate of Probation carried out joint inspections of 6 areas in England, to evaluate the multi-agency response to cases of domestic abuse. Today’s report highlights that:

• Professionals have made progress in responding to the large volume of cases of domestic abuse. However, domestic abuse is a widespread public health issue that needs a long-term strategy to reduce its prevalence.

• While much good work is being done to protect children and victims, far too little is being done to prevent domestic abuse and repair the damage that it causes.

• Work with families that we saw on inspection was often in reaction to individual crises. Keeping children safe over time takes long-term resolutions.

• The focus on the immediate crisis leads agencies to consider only those people and children at immediate risk. Agencies are not always looking at the right things and, in particular, not focusing enough on the perpetrator.

• There is still a lack of clarity about how to navigate the complexities of information sharing.

• There needs to be greater consistency in the definition of harm, and in the understanding of whose rights to prioritise.

Eleanor Schooling, Ofsted National Director for Social Care, said:

There is a lot of good work being done to protect victims of domestic violence – emergency services are particularly effective. But we’re not so good when it comes to helping victims deal with the aftermath and get on with their lives. The justice system must play a role, but there is work to do to stop it happening in the first place.

That’s why schools have an essential role in educating children about domestic abuse. Teaching children about healthy relationships is already part of the curriculum, but it is often not prioritised by schools.

It is a sad truth that the sheer scale of domestic abuse means that it can be all too easy for police, health professionals and social workers to focus on short term responses to incidents. But the best teams are able to see the bigger picture.

I want to see a new approach to tackling domestic abuse – one which focuses more on prevention and repairing long term damage to child victims. Agencies can address these complex challenges but due to the endemic nature of domestic abuse they cannot do it alone. A widespread public service message is needed to shift behaviour on a wide scale.

Professor Steve Field, Chief Inspector of General Practice at the Care Quality Commission, said:

When children and young people are at risk of, suffering from, or rebuilding their lives after domestic violence, a number of services have the opportunity to intervene or help. Fortunately, we have seen evidence of services understanding the unique position they each have to start important conversations and work together to support individuals and families, such as delicate screening tools for midwives talking to expectant mothers.

This is encouraging but there is still work to be done. We commend the efforts we saw to protect victims after abuse has occurred, but this is an endemic issue that has its roots before individual acts and can spread beyond. Services have to listen to and learn from those who have been at risk. We need to explore every opportunity to safeguard and support those affected, from prevention through to the provision of comprehensive aftercare, including access to CAMHS services.

Wendy Williams, HM Inspector of Constabulary, said:

This inspection found that the police – who are often the first respondents to domestic abuse incidents – act quickly and decisively to protect victims, including children, and to remove them from dangerous situations. We also found that senior leaders within the police have a strong commitment to reducing domestic abuse and protecting those children exposed to it and have worked to build effective partnerships to support victims. However, when the police become involved in this way, in one sense it is often too late: an offence has been committed, and a person or family become a victim or victims of domestic abuse, with all the harm this brings.

HMICFRS has constantly underlined the fact that the police cannot address domestic abuse on their own – and this inspection has found many examples of how close working with other agencies is crucial to supporting and protecting victims. However, today we are also calling for recognition that all of society, not just the agencies we inspect, needs to work together if we are truly to reduce the devastating harm caused by domestic abuse. There needs to be a sea change in the approach, with an equal emphasis on placed on preventing it happening in the first place, or from it reoccurring, as there is on protecting victims when it has happened.

Dame Glenys Stacey, HM Chief Inspector of Probation, said:

To reduce the extent of domestic abuse the probation sector needs to deliver effective work with those adults who have been convicted and also those where we have concerns about possible domestic abuse in the households, but no conviction. There are many skilled practitioners who can change perpetrators’ behaviour but services need to be resourced and well organised to reach the right people.

Probation providers also have to look beyond the adults under their supervision to the families and ensure they are vigilant and swift to respond where they see signs of domestic abuse. They can only achieve this by well-trained staff working closely with local services for children.

Domestic abuse has a profound effect on children, completely changing their lives. To move from a broken home to a refuge and a new school can be upsetting.

One adult survivor said:

We are the ones who have to leave our homes, leave our families. We are the ones that have to change our lives completely and everything we do every day. We have to come and live in a house with other people. Your whole life is completely changed.

These inspections highlight the positive impact of the inspectorates working together.

Hounslow Council stated that:

The joint targeted area inspection has enabled a deeper, shared understanding of our joint service offer and practice. It shone a light on the good and some excellent services the partnership is providing and offered insight into areas where joint working can be enhanced to improve outcomes for children, young people and their families.

Partners fed back recently that they found the process of joint inspection and the development of the joint action plan a constructive and positive experience which has enhanced communication channels, professional understanding and collective commitment to a common improvement in services for children and young people and their families.

Domestic abuse is a massive problem, accounting for about one in 10 of all crimes committed in England in 2015/16. It claims the lives of 2 women each week and there are more than 6.5 million victims.

1. The report is based on inspections of Bradford, Hampshire, Hounslow, Lincolnshire, Salford and Wiltshire. The report and the individual inspection reports are online.
2. Ofsted has also published a blog about the findings of the report.

I am delighted to be here with you today.

We meet at an auspicious time.

A time of change faster than anyone has known. Around the world, we are living through a technological revolution which brings unimaginable opportunity. And with this unimaginable opportunity, so too risks unknown just a few short years ago.

The internet fifty years ago. The world wide web, twenty five years after that. Ten years ago, social media and the smartphone, and now artificial intelligence and machine learning. New generic technologies that have sporned a thousand revolutions, from fintech, to lawtech, to edtech or govtech, indeed in almost every area of our lives. The pace of change is relentless. And if you don’t much like change, I’ve got bad news. For the nature of artificial intelligence means we are likely to be experiencing, right now, the slowest change we will see for the rest of our lifetimes.

So now is a good moment to bring together some of the leading nations in the world of digital technology. And it’s good to be here in Singapore for this discussion. Like us, Singapore is a small island nation with an emphatically global reach, that revels in a culture that’s open and looks for trading partners the world over among freinds and neighbours, near and far.

And amongst friends, let us be open and talk not just of those opportunities, but how we protect those opportunities, for the good of all our citizens, from those who would do harm.

Since its conception, the internet has brought enormous freedom. But the internet is growing up. To protect that freedom as it grows we must also be restless in protecting a safety and security online.

From the pioneering work of Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage to the visionary Tim Berners-Lee, the UK has always been at the forefront of digital innovation.

Yet around the world, none of us can rest on our laurels. For each nation, even areas where our strengths are well-established, such as our world-renowned creative industries, are being transformed, and kept at the cutting edge, by developments in technology.

I feel this keenly, as before I became the Digital Minister, my first job was solving the Y2K bug in cobol. Thankfully, that went ok.

Yet even the most enthusiastic supporter of new technology must acknowledge that it also brings risks. The challenge we now face is how to harness the power of emerging technology so it works always in our favour, always to improve the quality of people’s lives, and that where it poses dangers we mitigate against them.

In 2011 we hosted the London Conference on Cyberspace, a discussion that continues in New Delhi later this year. From ASEAN to the UN, Interpol to ICANN, we are strengthening our partnerships on a bilateral, regional and global level to collectively tackle threats, build confidence and transparency, and strengthen global cyber security.

That includes building capacity in less developed nations so they can combat threats at source. This work involves supporting the development and implementation of national cyber security strategies, and we’ve supported capacity building projects in over 50 countries in the past few years.

As we negotiate our exit from the European Union, and position ourselves as Global Britain, we aim to be even more open to collaboration, with all our international friends and partners. In this age of digital we are all becoming more and more connected. It is estimated that in less than a decade the Internet will connect one trillion things.

Both our countries will take on major responsibilities next year. Singapore will be chair of ASEAN and the United Kingdom will host the Commonwealth Summit in London. I am sure these will both be great opportunities to deepen our friendship and strengthen our working relationships.

Today I’d like to share with you the principles we apply to the cyber challenge:

Principles of openness to new ideas, of adaption to change; and preparing for the future.

How we seek to seize the opportunities of the growing tech industry, how we adapt to the changing environment, and how we are preparing for what lies ahead.

The first principle is to be open and optimistic about the opportunities digital technology is creating, for businesses and for all citizens. We seek an internet that is open and free. And we seek a tech industry that is vibrant and innovative. The UK’s tech industry has huge momentum, is growing strongly, and is ripe for investment.

Since 2001, tech industries have created 3.5 million new jobs in the UK, more than four times the number that have been replaced. London is now recognised as one of the top tech clusters in the world, and we have internationally competitive hubs across the whole UK. Over just the last year a whole series of multi-billion pound investments have been agreed.

This openness and this technology is helping our citizens, to learn, to better manage their finances, to access government services and simply be better connected to their friends, their family and to new acquaintances. In short, technology improves people’s lives.

So our first principle is never to see just the threat, but keep front of mind the fundamental openness of the internet, and its power to do good.

The second principle is to be ready to respond to change and honest about the risks.

The UK categorises cyber crime as a tier one threat to our national security. Since 2011 we have had in place a National Cyber Security Strategy, which sets out how a full spectrum plan.

The Strategy covers the direct tasks we in Government must take to detect threats, deter and disrupt adversaries, and keep Britain secure online. But moreover, it recognises that we can’t do this alone.

Our full spectrum approach ranges from developing the new skills and expertise we need, supporting the cyber ecosystem, collaboration with critical infrastructure, the established cyber industry, start ups, and academia to protect our national security and protect the public’s way of life, while contrinuting to our prosperity and building a more trusted and resilient digital environment. I’ve been struck here in Singapore just how similar the challenges, and the responses are.

Our growing expertise was perhaps best showcased during the 2012 Olympics. The London games were the first ever “digital games” – the first to provide public Wi-Fi access in all Olympic venues, with more content broadcast online than ever before, and much of it accessed via mobile devices – and yet, despite a peak of over 11,000 attacks per second, the network was never once compromised.

We are now six years into that Strategy. In the time since, our cyber security industry has gone from strength to strength. The workforce has grown by 160 per cent and cyber security exports were worth £1.5 billion to the UK last year alone. I’m delighted that many of our leading cyber security businesses are here this week too.

UK universities play a critical role at the forefront of research into cyber security. Because while we address the challenges of today we must work to anticipate those of tomorrow. We have awarded fourteen UK Universities the status of Academic Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Research, reflecting world class research.

Last year, we refreshed the Strategy. The refresh had at its heart one inescapable fact we had learned: that successful cyber defence requires the collaboration of government, academia, and business. A strong cyber ecosystem needs all three.

Based on that insight, we put together and opened our new National Cyber Security Centre as the authoritative voice on cyber in the UK. As we designed it, we looked around the world to see best practice, including at your CSA here.

The NCSC is formally part of GCHQ, but culturally reaches outside the secure fence to draw on academia, and work with and inform businesses, citizens and the public sector about emerging threats, to provide very practical support when attacks happen, talk to the public, work with international partners, and educate our nation on how best to stay safe online. Crucially, it brings together national leadership on cyber security in one place.

Our safety, of course, means our friends’ and partners’ safety, whenever you do business with us. We are committed to making the UK the most secure place in the world for digital and online activity. Respected, and most importantly, trusted.

So this is how we are adapting to the constantly changing risks.

Our third principle, is always to look to the future.

For we much cite cyber security within a bigger attitude we take to how digital technology is transforming society’s norms.

Digital technology is a force for good in the world. To keep it that way, we are proposing a new framework, a new global consensus, for how we interact, do business and participate online.

The aim is to protect and promote freedom online, by ensuring that we promote liberal values that underpin freedom while preventing harm online. Our starting point is that the boundaries and norms that exist off-line also apply in the online world.

This approach lies at the heart of our proposed Digital Charter, recently announced by Her Majesty the Queen. The Charter seeks to balance freedom and responsibility online while establishing a new framework for how we all conduct our digital business.

Every society is facing the same sorts of challenges. And by the nature of the technology many of the solutions are global too. Local nuances will depend on each country’s culture, but ultimately this balance is needed everywhere.

So our hope, if we get all this right, other countries will want to join us.

Humanity, the world over, we share this technology. Together we have developed it, and together people worldwide now collaborate to develop it further.

We are all connected by it, and harmony will lie in – perhaps even depend upon – a shared sense of its norms. The debate is moving quickly, as the pace of technology increases. As more and more of how we interact – our society, in short – moves online we must be sure it abides by the rules of decency, fair play, and mutual respect we have all built in the offline world.

Cyber security sits in this context.

So let us be clear. We are part of something much bigger than ourselves. We have a job to do.

So let us keep talking, let us keep sharing, so we reach a mutual understanding of how we can best harness this amazing new technology, for the benefit of all mankind.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and other Foreign Ministers have met with senior Burmese representatives to urge an end to the violence against the Rohingya people and allow humanitarian access.

In the margins of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York, the Foreign Secretary brought together Burma’s National Security Advisor and Deputy Foreign Minister with ministers from Bangladesh, Indonesia, Turkey, Australia, Canada, Sweden, Denmark and United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley.

Along with securing full and unhindered humanitarian access for international aid agencies, including the UN, and calling for an end to violence, those present at the meeting also urged Burma to implement the Annan Commission recommendations.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said:

“While Burma has undoubtedly made encouraging progress towards democracy in the last few years, the situation in Rakhine, the terrible human rights abuses and violence are a stain on the country’s reputation. For this reason Burma should not be surprised to find itself under international scrutiny and on the Security Council’s agenda.

“As I have repeatedly said no one wants to see a return to military rule, so it is vital that Aung San Suu Kyi and the civilian government make clear these abuses must stop. I was encouraged by our discussion and by the participation of the senior Burmese representatives, but we now need to see action to stop the violence and open up immediate humanitarian access.”

As well as hosting the meeting on Burma, the Foreign Secretary, along with International Development Secretary Priti Patel and Minister for the Caribbean and Overseas Territories Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, also convened a high level discussion on the effects of Hurricane Irma.

The meeting set how out the UK, Netherlands and France are working in close partnership to help those affected by this devastating hurricane. While the focus remains responding to the immediate aftermath, it was also agreed that recovery and reconstruction must include plans to help prevent and mitigate future crises.

Commenting on the meeting on Hurricane Irma the Foreign Secretary said:

“It’s vital that we get better at building automatic recovery systems in the Caribbean, ensuring that we work together with our French, Dutch and US partners, so that when something like this strikes we can all respond even faster.

“The UK is committed to helping those affected recover as quickly as possible and can assure people that once the cameras have left and the world moves on to the next crisis, well will still be there.” The Foreign Secretary is in New York for UNGA where he also represented the UK at President Trump’s event on UN reform.

Notes to editors Last week, the UK confirmed an extra £25 million to help people affected by the violence.

Other attendees at the Hurricane Irma event included: * Minister Bert Koenders, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Kingdom of the Netherlands * Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Republic of France * Commissioner Christos Stylianides, European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management * Sir Rodney Errey Lawrence Williams, Governor General of Antigua and Barbuda * Prime Minister Allen M. Chastanet, Saint Lucia * Mark Lowcock, USG for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Response Coordinator As well as representatives from the affected British Overseas Territories.

Latest information on the UK Government response to Hurricane Irma available here.

We remain concerned that Hurricane Maria, which is strengthening as it approaches the Leeward Islands, could hit the UK’s Overseas Territories in the Caribbean already affected as well as Montserrat.

FCO, DFID and military teams are working closely with the Governors in the Overseas Territories to ensure we are doing all we can to support the Governments of the islands affected.

Ministers discussed the preparations that have been put in place:

• Over 1300 military troops are staying put in the region – either on the islands already affected or in locations from where they will be able to readily deploy once Maria has passed.
• An additional 42 strong military resilience team has been deployed forward to British Virgin Islands prior to Hurricane Maria ready to support additional needs there.
• A military reconnaissance team has been put on standby to go to Montserrat to assess need if it is hit by Hurricane Maria.
• DFID has established logistics hubs in the Dominican Republic, Barbados and Antigua & Barbuda to ensure swift supply of relief items if required and is procuring additional supplies from Miami and Panama.
• HMs Ocean, which is due to arrive in the region at the end of the week, with 60 tonnes of DFID supplies on board will be deployed according to need once Hurricane Maria has passed.
• On the basis of the latest weather forecast, we are advising against all but essential travel to Montserrat and Anguilla and against all travel to the British Virgin Islands.
• All those in the region are urged to follow the advice of the local authorities.

To date, the UK government has allocated £57 million to the immediate response effort and agreed to match up to £3 million of public donations to the Red Cross appeal.

75 tonnes of DFID relief items have either arrived or been procured in the region including much needed food, water, nearly 3,000 shelter kits, 5,000 hygiene kits and 10,000 buckets.

40 tonnes of humanitarian aid has been distributed including over 4 tonnes of food and water on the British Virgin Islands; 720 litres of water to the Turks and Caicos Islands; and over 2 tonnes of building materials to Anguilla.

Merci, Justin, de m’avoir accueillie à Ottawa aujourd’hui.

Thank you, Justin, for welcoming me here to Ottawa today.

Canada and the United Kingdom of course have a long shared history.

And this nation, conceived and created 150 years ago, has flourished. Over that time British and Canadian soldiers, sailors and airmen and women have fought and died alongside each other in the pursuit of freedom.

We have developed the institutions of Westminster-style democracy, personal rights, and the common law.

And we celebrate together our shared monarchy, and close ties of family and friendship.

My visit to Canada today is not only about recognising our past but also looking ahead to our bright future.

We are both countries with ambitions to lead on the world stage and progressive values that underpin those ambitions.

Domestic policy coordination

We are both committed to ensuring our economies work for everyone, not just the privileged few.

And that includes eliminating the gender pay gap once and for all. We have spoken today about the importance of closing that gap and championing the rights of women and girls around the world.

That means ending the tyranny of domestic violence, sexual violence in armed conflict and educational and economic exclusion.

Our cooperation on this agenda is emblematic of the UK and Canada joining forces to share approaches at home and champion our shared values out in the world.

We will also be discussing the ways in which our governments will work together to foster innovation, including measures that will allow business to harness the opportunities of clean growth.

And we have confirmed our joint commitment to supporting the global transition away from a reliance on coal as an energy source. Once again, the UK and Canada will lead the way, and I am pleased to announce that the UK will aim to phase out unabated coal by 2025.

Trade and investment

The UK and Canada have a strong and growing economic relationship, and we are natural partners in promoting the benefits of free trade.

The EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), the bulk of which, as the Prime Minister said, comes into effect this week, has significant potential to boost transatlantic prosperity and the UK economy, eliminating 98% of Canadian import duties and massively increasing the opportunities for British exporters.

And I am pleased that we have agreed today that CETA should be swiftly transitioned to form a new bilateral arrangement between the UK and Canada after Brexit.

As staunch champions of the power of free trade to grow our economies, Canada and the UK will also work together at the World Trade Organisation to promote and spread the benefits of free trade.

The rules-based international system established after the Second World War is under threat as never before.

We must make sure it can adapt and change to cope with new and emerging powers and the economic realities of globalisation in order to deliver growth and opportunities for all.

Defence and security cooperation

As we work to support the global economic rules-based order, so too do we stand firmly together in upholding the international norms that govern our security.

And I’m pleased to announce that we will deepen our defence and security cooperation in eastern Europe as we stand up to Russian aggression there.

We have agreed concrete steps to improve our defence cooperation and our interoperability through new joint training for the Ukrainian Armed Forces from the beginning of next year.

This will be the first joint training the UK has done with any other country inside Ukraine, and will involve joint reconnaissance training, joint counter-sniper training, and joint military police training.

And we will conduct a joint UK-Canada military exercise in Latvia next month, under the umbrella of NATO’s Enhanced Forward Presence in eastern Europe.

To ensure NATO can respond to an ever-changing world, the UK and Canada will also be at the forefront of championing NATO reform and supporting its steps to modernise, including on cyber security.

And today we have discussed how we will continue to work closely together on counter terrorism and counter extremism, sharing intelligence and expertise to build community cohesion.

I want to thank the Canadian people for their support and solidarity in the wake of the terrible Manchester and London attacks, including of course the attack just last week.

You stood with us as we stood with you in the wake of the tragic Quebec attack. We will never be divided. The terrorists will not win; our values will prevail.

Conclusion

When we come together and work as one to project our shared values on the world stage, we form a powerful union.

From our cooperation as G7 members, in the Commonwealth, and in dealing with the awful aftermath of Hurricane Irma, providing life-saving aid to those in need, to the inspirational Invictus Games showcasing the power of sport to inspire recovery, support rehabilitation and generate a wider understanding and respect of all those who serve their country – the UK and Canada stand side-by-side.

And I am very much looking forward to our visit later today to meet British and Canadian Invictus athletes.

The values and principles which make our countries special are needed more than ever in the world today.

So Britain and Canada can confidently face the future together.